So, I'll keep the preamble short- I'm watching a video about how Dark Souls' presentation works (from a design perspective), and it occurs to me that in order to really replicate the feel of that kind of game, in a PBP, I'd have to go against my GMing instincts.

Like, typically, I'd try to make it almost a hospitality experience (You good? Everything good?), but to really get the feel down, it'd have to be more like "No. Wrong. Do it again."

Or if I were doing Paranoia, I'd have to be much less forthcoming with information than normal.
Or if I were doing something based on Disco Elysium, the whole "conversation" with the player takes on epically-weird angles. (If you haven't seen it, short version, your skills and stats start having conversations with you.)

I'm just wondering if any GMs out there think in those terms?

I've found taking a 'managerial' posture is the best way to keep a game going for a long time. I'm an advocate for my players, but all toward the goal of keeping a healthy posting rate. Though it can also be a bit draining, and if you're having a bad day, it just adds to the stress even more than normal.

Ah, so not "persona", but presentation.  Yes, I've done this in the past.  I'm far, far less likely to do something this drastic now, or rather there'd be a marked change from IC Mode and OOC Mode, where in the past when I've ran a game where I aimed for a particular feel I was 100% On the whole time.

Because just like with Souls/Bourne/Ring games, different Players need different amounts of breaks between the "intense pathos" or they will burn out and walk away never to return to your game.

I view the game more as a collaborative story-telling experience.  I frequently add comments to the end of a post such as "I wasn't intending to make a side quest around this particular NPC; she was just added for color.  However, if you want to pursue it, we could build a little story around her problem.  It's up to you."

As a long running freeform GM I cone up with the baseline story and an just one of the players.  OOC as the PGM I can have fun but also curtail any activity that breaks my game rules or tries to take the game out of my worlds settings.  Each player’s characters are as important as the next and as mine   Characters have their own stories that link into the mainstream of the game.  I strive to be just a part if the whole and I truly care about my players in real life.  So I steer them into the right direction if I need to.  I can be tough when I have too but that is not often.  Some if my players have been with me for over 15 yrs  so I hope I am doing something right still?

 I've never run a game here on my own, but I've helped other people run games here.

One of those games was Pathfinder based, and involved several learning experiences for the characters. The players often would ask me questions ahead of what their characters would do, and I, in keeping with what I was supposed to be doing, couldn't tell the players if something would work, even if they asked.    Now, this isn't normally me,  normally, if you asked me something, and I knew the answer, I would usually tell you, but that was against the point of this subplot of the game.        It got easier as everyone began to realize, they were told, but it hadn't really sunk in at first, that learning things was important at this stage, since for various reasons some things  were not just known.     This game wasn't using the default Pathfinder world, and magic was kind of different.  Also rituals were in play, and learning how rituals worked was also supposed to be mysterious.

So, what I had to think about was how to encourage players to learn, without spoon feeding them information, and also without giving away  any information they were supposed to learn on their own.       It required a fair bit of thought on my part, and a lot of post action reinforcement.

 the games i run have been around  at least a decade. I started out , hoping each one could make it a year...or set a goal of  1000 posts, something like that.

 I have  had  very good, and very dear players come  and Go...I also had to be hard lined enough to bounce those who ruined   the game for others.

 GMs, and the PCs  they run..are the frame work of the game...any persona, comes from OOC, has you game become a community? Or is it  just   a game, that people   stop by once in a while?

 people pick up my system, they get to know the  Gane world..those who aren't happy witht hose worlds, don't stay very long...those who like it , stay until RP moves them along

 Lady  and a bunch of others have heard me say this... " Run the Game , as you would  want it run for you'....

Yeah, I guess you're right. :)



Fair point. I suppose the only thing I'd (personally) have to be wary of is really demarcating where those go. (Like, if I were doing a really low-information setting where the idea is to first-person your way to knowing what was going on, you could easily hit me up OOC.)



Also fair. Thanks!