82. Orientation v. Instruction

Two of the recent RPG Design PanelCast podcast episodes have featured Vincent Baker talking about Apocalypse World and GMing, and in both episodes he makes a distinction in the rules between orientation and instruction. I think it’s a fascinating distinction not because it gets at the heart of why the MC rules in Apocalypse World have spurred so much discussion, I think.

Here’s what Vincent says in episode 120, “Game Master Techniques,” at about 46:30:

Q. ”Is it more useful for you to say ‘the GM must do this’ or is it more useful for you to say ‘the GM can’t do this’?”

A. I have feelings about that. I think it’s not useful to say either. I think you have to make it inevitable that the GM do that. You do that by arranging the GM’s interests so that that is what the GM chooses to do every single time. And that’s challenging stuff, but I don’t think a game text can ever actually give you permission or actually put expectations on you just by saying, “here’s what you’re allowed to do” and “here’s what you’re expected to do.”

. . . In Apocalypse World it says “Always Say,” but that is a piece of orientation to how the system works; it’s not an instruction. You know what I mean? . . . Nobody can possibly know what I mean when I say nonsense like that. Let me try again. . . .

When you say, “This is what we’re playing to find out,” at that moment the GM buys into that or is playing a different game, and so at that moment it’s either a done deal or it’s out of your hands, right? And so once the GM has bought into what you’re playing to find out, then you can say, “And here’s what this system requires of you.” And it’s appropriate to say the system now expects you to always speak the truth or make your move without speaking its name, or whatever. . . .

But that isn’t instructions to the GM that you have to follow; that is what the game expects you to do as you’re pursuing your agenda. And so once the GM has bought into that agenda, all the rest of your design falls into place behind that. And if the GM doesn’t buy into that agenda, there is no amount of . . . “Always say what your prep demands” that can make the GM do that. . . .

And In episode 119, at about the 47:20 mark:

”So, in the GM chapter, the MC chapter in Apocalypse World, some of that is orientation and some of it is support, and some of it is structure. And so, I want you to be sure to understand that. Like . . . when it says, ‘Look at NPCs through crosshairs,’ part of that is an instruction to you, but much of it is just this sort of warning that says, ‘These rules will kill your NPCs. They really, really will. If a player character decides to kill an NPC, there is really nothing you can do about it by the rules.’ And so, there’s this element of just orientation that says this is what you should expect the rest of the rules, the player-facing rules, to do to your ideas. And then the other half of it is structuring your ideas so that you’re making fun, interesting, useful decisions. But the whole point is to allow you—to put you in this mindset where you’re curious to know what will happen, and you don’t want to sway it one way or the other. So you can just say whatever you think is interesting; you can ask any question you want to know the answer to, and you can play very freely within these wide bounds of playing to find out what will happen. So that’s why the MC in Apocalypse World works that way.”

This distinction—and the natural muddiness of the distinction that makes the distinction pretty indistinct—is at the heart of what makes the MC section in Apocalypse World so fascinating. We are used to thinking of rules as purely instructional: “When a character gets hurt, the player marks segments in her harm countdown clock”; “When a player marks her fifth experience bubble, she improves her character”; “The rule for moves is if you do it, you do it, so make with the dice.” The MC section, on the other hand is presented as instruction—and it is—but it is simultaneously orientational. You must do it this way and you must be prepared for things to happen this way. You must engage in these behaviors because doing so will align your perceptions and expectations to make the game run the way it needs to run and wants to run. And as you align your perceptions and expectations, your behavior will naturally follow what is outlined. The rules attempt to shape both what you do and what you think simultaneously by giving guidance in the form or commands and commands that act as guidance.