thread: 2009-07-26 : Very Briefly about Authority
On 2009-08-04, Josh W wrote:
Vincent here's something that may sound random but may be relevant: For economists, everything is economics, and for those who understand roleplaying based on authority, a lot of what you suggest as an alternative to authority may be considered as an example of it! In other words you could imagine it as their definition of authority expanding to swallow up almost all the tools in the box. For myself, what you call "grant permissions" and "impose constraints" are at first glance to me authority issues. Now either I have an impoverished view of game design, or "authority issues" is just a bigger category in my mind. Authority in my mind is what is considered flexible/up for debate/alterable and who can be a part of that decision. It's who has the vetoes and who gets to decide what details, whether you have free reign to make things up or whether you have to ask people what their reactions are, or stick by something already said, that kind of thing. It can be dry and mechanical but hopefully it is mixed into something interesting instead, justified by the concept and "voice" of the game etc.
So what gems have I missed out from those concepts? Is there something important I've lost?
And if I dare wade into your disagreement/misunderstanding with cc, if "subtle authority assignment" doesn't exist for you, then perhaps you and him are actually defending similar solutions under different names!
Having said that, cc I feel that "making demands" and "offering opportunities" fit into a different category: In a sense restrictions and inspiration should always be distinguished, although one can become the other; if you suggest a course of action, or demand it is followed, then you set a centre-line for the course people can follow. Although setting out walls should do the same thing (define a path) people somehow cannot always interpolate between the two, and work out what they are supposed to be doing. Instead they but around at one wall or another, behaving in a borderline disfunctional way. "It's not this but maybe it's something near it" Giving only authority limits and not advice to make that position work is like giving a new politician nothing but a list of corrupt activities he cannot be part of. It's too easy to just use the list as inspiration instead of warning! So as you say, they do relate to authority, but done well they functionalise authority rather than making it a chore, so specifically it's not "authorised to make demands" but "under a command to use authority like this", or "offered the opportunities to use authority like this or this". I'd call designing that stuff creating player roles that are fun in themselves and interface coherently, or (in more ordinary language!) just work together.
