Methods & Madness: Escape the Truman Show, escape the Matrix; the god-DM and free-willed NPCs

Another anti-railroading, anti-fudging rant. I have so many of these that I might write a compilation someday...

Anyway.

If you're unfamiliar with the movie:

Truman Burbank is the unsuspecting star of The Truman Show, a reality television program filmed 24/7 through thousands of hidden cameras and broadcast to a worldwide audience. Christof, the show's creator and executive producer, seeks to capture Truman's authentic emotions and give audiences a relatable everyman.

As Truman was selected from birth following an unwanted pregnancy, Christof claims that Truman came to be adopted not just by the show, but by the whole "world". Truman's hometown of Seahaven Island is a complete set built within an enormous dome, populated by crew members and actors who highlight the product placements that generate revenue for the show. The elaborate set allows Christof to control almost every aspect of Truman's life, including the weather.

To prevent Truman from discovering his false reality, Christof manufactures scenarios that dissuade Truman's desire for exploration, such as the "death" of his father in a sea storm to instill aquaphobia, and by constantly broadcasting and printing messages of the dangers of traveling and the virtues of staying home. However, Christof cannot predict all of Truman's actions.

It is one of those films from the late-nineties, like Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, Dark City, eXistenZ, that questioned the nature of reality. How can we know if we are living in reality or some kind of simulation? We probably can't.

[Why was this theme so popular in the late nineties? I think we went through some kind of societal shift at that time. Maybe the transition form analogue to digital? And now, the simulation is too obvious to even question. The world of internet and social media is bigger than the "real world". Money is kept in bytes, not gold. Narrative is more important than truth. Like cyberpunk, the late-nineties dystopia makes no more sense because it is now partially real. Makes me wonder if that is why the younger 5e players have a harder time understanding the perils of railroading than old-school enthusiasts and grognards].

But that is beside the point.

The point is: nobody wants to live in a simulation. In all those stories, the "game masters" of the simulation think they know what their "subjects" want. Maybe controlled love and happiness; maybe (as in the Matrix) you need to add some misery to make things feel more real.

Doesn't matter. In every case, the hero wants to escape the simulation - even if reality is far worse.

But wait - games are the opposite, right?

You are conscious and willing to go into a simulated world.

Well, not really. The best simulations are the ones that make you feel that it is real for a moment, even when you know it's not.

That's why the idea of campaigns with hundreds of players sound more enticing to me than writing hundreds of NPCs.

But even when you do write NPCs, you should give them free will. That what makes NPCs resemble actual people: they out their own interests over the "story". That is why I enjoy books and games where the "supporting cast" is interesting and active; Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Game of Thrones.

Even if you think the role of GM is akin to a god of the fictional world, you still give people free will. You can control the weather, earthquakes, you can send plagues, drought and famine, you can even make new people or kill existing ones, but you cannot rob characters of their free will.

Not even NPCs - you must at least guess what they would do.

By the way, if you fudge, it ceases to be a role-playing game - at least for a moment. There is no game if you fix the results. It can be fun, it can great, but not a game.

This is about RPGs, but it is also a deep philosophical idea. It is in religion, philosophy, ideology, politics. Immeasurable evil has been done in the name of "I know what's best for you" (or, worse, "I know what's best for all"). This doesn't mean you're evil for fudging, of course (I don't think I'm evil myself, even tough I fudged more than once in the past, and I made mistakes that were far worse than that) - this is just something to think about.

When I hear people saying "but you have to fudge - otherwise, a bunch of goblins can cause a TPK by sheer luck, or the big bad can go down in a couple of rounds!", I think of the Truman Show.

Calm down, Christof. You think you know what is best for Truman, but you don't.

Let Truman choose.