Comments on: Yin & Yang of GMing

By: Andy Short

Andy Short — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:34:00 +0000

Regarding the Yung thing, it doesn’t refer to Jung. It’s considered to be the neutral between the Yin & Yang, neither dark nor light, masculine nor feminine. Where Yin is the emotion and Yang is physicality, Yung represents intellect.

Never heard of it before, but Google is a wonderful thing:

http://www.kalarhythms.com/theory/th.dynamics.htm

By: Olhares & Observações: A função da narrativa | Ambrosia.com.br

Olhares & Observações: A função da narrativa | Ambrosia.com.br — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:56:22 +0000

[...] vez eu li que um bom narrador (mais sobre o termo adiante) é aquele que sabe lidar com duas forças opostas: [...]

By: ben robbins

ben robbins — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:35:54 +0000

@ Scholz

“Would forcing players to do something like in the West Marches work in a game that was more standard? I mean, the same group shows up once a week for four or five hours. Is the proper response to sit there quietly until they come up with a plan, or should the elements of stories exist already?”

I think you can do either one, so long as the players know what to expect. That’s why West Marches ultimately worked: I told the players over and over again that nothing would happen unless they went out and did something. On the other hand if you want to run a game with a sharp planned plot it’s frustrating to the players to make them think they have freedom to change the direction of the game.

By: ben robbins

ben robbins — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:33:26 +0000

@ Beleth
“there actually is a third, aside from Yin and Yang, I’ve also heard of Yung.
Though I must say, I don’t know much about it, and can’t with certainty say what it entails.”

Are you thinking of Jung? It’s pronounced the same way.

Every GM should have Jung on his side.

By: Scholz

Scholz — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:27:32 +0000

Would forcing players to do something like in the West Marches work in a game that was more standard? I mean, the same group shows up once a week for four or five hours. Is the proper response to sit there quietly until they come up with a plan, or should the elements of stories exist already?

By: Beleth

Beleth — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:41:37 +0000

there actually is a third, aside from Yin and Yang, I’ve also heard of Yung.
Though I must say, I don’t know much about it, and can’t with certainty say what it entails.

By: Max

Max — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:27:14 +0000

It seems to me like there a middle thing that gets overlooked a lot. On the one hand, you can just put a bunch of things to do out there (a la West Marches) and see what grabs the players. On the other hand, you can poke them and say “hey, what do you do?”

Somewhere in the middle, there’s this place where the GM pokes the *characters* and says “hey, here’s something you need to do something about, but no one’s sure what yet.” Perhaps the reason this isn’t more common is that in order to make it work, you’ll need to poke either a positive or negative motivation. This is often hard because characters’ motivations and values are rarely well fleshed out. But it is an option, and it balances storytelling (you get to tell the part where something happens) and having them do stuff (they get to decide what to do and do it.)