GMing isn't responsibility; it's hanging out and playing a game with friends, don't overthink it! But yeah I've had this exact series of thoughts many times when I'm reading things. The "rules" are what binds all our mental fictions together! They're not an enemy; they're *literally the game.*

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Yeah, if nothing else, the GM is ultimately the one reconciling the different Fictions each player has. Though they are the arbiter of such reconciliation, it still involves some degree of negotiation. It only seems invisible when everyone involved are friends and cooperating in the mutual Fiction.

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(3/3) That's why I find a lot of "trust the Fiction, always begin and end with the Fiction, never invoke the rules if it can be resolved in the Fiction" stuff misguided – it's discarding that metafictional anchoring and replacing it with vacuous maundering about how being GM is a Big Responsibility.

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(2/3) There is no "the Fiction"; in a game with four players and one GM, there are five imagined worlds which may not resemble one another at all. One of the functions of dice, rules, maps, etc. is to furnish a set of metafictional anchors to PRODUCE whatever degree of resemblance play requires.

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I guess my problem with the way a lot of indie TTRPGs talk about the interface between rules and narrative is that they like to invoke "the Fiction" as though it's something that has objective existence independently of what a particular player happens to be imagining at a particular moment. (1/3)

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