The Illusion of Control not Control of the Illusion – part I
See the second part of this article when you finish
I hope you don’t mind if I mangle an olde Shakespearean aphorism…well more of an antimetabole. This is at the heart of the con-game known as gamemastering.
“You must avoid the Control of Illusion to have the Illusion of Control.” — Fang Langford
Now I know what you’re thinking. “That doesn’t make sense; the gamemaster must take dominant control of his game!” That’s one of those pesky myths I’ve set out to bust.
I’m sure you’ve played under a gamemaster who practices control of the illusion (the actual presentation of play) for the honored purpose of having a great game (and in some cases, a great story). And you know what happens next; you find your character being pushed around from time to time ‘for the sake of the game’.
Ever notice how that feels like you’ve been robbed of what makes your character yours. More like being mugged, I think. That does a lot more than take away some of your fun, doesn’t it?
It makes it look like your gamemaster is losing control!
She’s Outta Control
You heard me, whenever the gamemaster has to intercede, hide a roll, fudge the dice or control your character, no matter how noble his purpose, it looks like he’s fighting for control. Fighting for control is the clearest sign that control has already been lost; sad fact that that is.
“So how do you run an ‘out of control’ game but look like you have control?” you might ask. The actual point is that the game is never ‘out of control’. The players are controlling their characters just fine, never once losing control. It’s when the gamemaster chooses to go against what they want to do that it becomes a fight over control. And then the game is lost.
Ever see what eventually happens? That’s right, they gang up on the gamemaster…and quit. Oh some groups can tough it out, but is that fun? Well, yes, it is. But I think there are other, easier, untried methods for gamemastering.
Safety Dance
You might also ask, “If you can’t control the illusion, why try to look like you’re in control?” That’s a very good question. The thing that most people don’t notice about role-playing gaming is that it’s a ‘safe zone’. You can fight, main, kill, pillage and otherwise pilfer your weaselly black guts out, with no need to worry what people will think of you. You can’t do that out in public; you’d get arrested.
So your gaming group is your ‘safe zone’ where you can explore very socially inappropriate ideas without risking your social or public standing. That’s why I always suggest people ‘make a show’ of beginning and ending play. A clear ‘safe zone’ makes for better play. Having a ‘referee’ over this ‘zone’ makes it feel even safer. Ever notice how many games call the gamemaster a referee? Referees aren’t there to enforce the rules; they exist to make play safe (the rules simply codify how to play safely).
Besides, controlling a bunch of player characters is about as easy as herding cats.
So what do you do? How do you ‘control’ without controlling? I know is sounds obvious, but perhaps you might consider ‘managing’ play? “How do you manage play?” you ask. Let me tell you….
Put on Your Thinking Cap
The first, top, number one thing to do is learn how to ‘step back’ from play and put everything into perspective. Take just a moment to ‘put on your gamemaster hat’. Most people, while playing, are doing a lot of their thinking within the strict context of the game. Everyone, including the gamemaster, spends a lot of time thinking about what the characters in the game are doing, based on what those characters can perceive. (That’s thinking in context.)
When you’re doing that, you can’t be managing the game as a game. You’re busy thinking in context. So, every now and then, you need to step back and ask yourself, “Where is this game going and will we like it?” That’s when you’re putting on your ‘gamemaster hat’.
That’s the easy part.
When you’re looking at this game, your game, how do you break it down simply so you can work with it? You might look at the obstacles, those things you put in the player’s way. However, that would lead to you thinking like an antagonist; it’d be you against them. Not good.
Actually, you need to look at things a little bit like the players don’t know that they do. When they make a character, they think about the things ‘they want their character to do’. Or more accurately, they think of the complications which they want their character to face and overcome. With your ‘GM hat’ on, you need to think about providing and managing those complications.
When you look at the complications facing the characters of the game as separate aspects, it becomes easier to put them together into ‘the big picture’. When you relate and contrast these units of game (the complications), it makes it much easier to manage the overall game as a gamemaster. It let’s you ask yourself, “Is this
I’ll delve more deeply into complication management in part two of this article.
See you then!
4 Responses to “The Illusion of Control not Control of the Illusion – part I”
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September 2nd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Would it be strange for me to say that I can’t keep the game master hat and the within-fiction hat separate?
Good post. I am not sure about game master seeming to be in control being a necessity, though it does make sense in a way.
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 am
Not strange at all! Pretty normal in fact. I believe it is so normal that people don’t even know there’s more than one hat. That’s sorta what I was highlighting here.
Thanks for bringing this up! I didn’t cover it in the entry, but I should have.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Well, I certainly know there are more hats, but the game mastering one is severely stuck. It is something of a problem when just trying to play, given the common style of play hereabouts.
(The comments are in reverse order. Is this supposed to be?)
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
You don’t really need to remove the gamemastering cap. I wrote this for people who forget theirs. For you, I’d suggest simply being aware of when you take the ‘player hat’ off of your gamemastering cap; the awareness is all that matters. You will always think how you think.
(Comment order corrected!)