Page 1342 - The Not-Waiting Game
22nd Feb 2020, 6:00 AM

Author: GreatDinn

Guest Author’s Note: “Fluttershy is expressing two conflicting ideas in this page that I have with playing in versus running an RPG. As a DM, you want to be able to run with player ideas, but there’s only so much wrangling you can do with any given idea. You want to be able to direct players when they get lost, which becomes much harder when they’ve pushed your ideas to the side to play around with their own. And as a player, you want to try out all of the new fancy things you can do as your character. In a generally consequence free zone, you want to be able to experiment with new ideas and see what happens when you press on the world’s buttons. But you don’t want to do that at the expense of the other players trying to do the same.

When this goes bad, you end up with gridlock. The DM always has the escape valve of just…telling you what to do. But that’s generally unsatisfying for everyone. There’s unfortunately not an exact solution to this one. It really just boils down to…communicating.

Just try not to communicate with your mouth full, like Fluttershy here. That’s rude.”

Twilight Sparkle: You’re back already?
FS: I never left?
Twilight Sparkle: Why not?
FS: Because this is my house, and I already had food? Are you okay? Did you get anything to eat?
Twilight Sparkle: I’m fine, I came prepared. So, where do you think we go from here?
FS: We just need to wait.
Twilight Sparkle: Wait? What?
FS: We don’t know what to do. When that happens, we wait. It cuts out the hassle of flailing around till we get the answer anyway.
Twilight Sparkle: So there’s nothing you want to try?
FS: Of course there are things I’d like to try. But I don’t want to waste anyone else’s time.
Twilight Sparkle: I mean…if you aren’t trying out what you want to, aren’t you just wasting your own time? You’re part of the game too. If you’re going to get the answer anyways, you’ll get more enjoyment doing something in the meanwhile… right?
FS: …huh.