I don’t know if it is because I’ve read so much of his comic, or if it is because I’ve grown more accustomed to Scott Kurtz’s PVP, or maybe because of his left-leaning political views, but John Kovalik’s Dork Tower just hasn’t done it for me in a while. That’s not to say I haven’t had the occasional chuckle; but nothing as of late has left me in the same stitches that I was when I picked up my first issue of Dork Tower.
This particular DORK TOWER from a few weeks back, however, left me in stitches. The idea of “Lake Geneva Conventions,” apart from its multi-layered pun, is just brilliantly funny.
It got me thinking, though: has there ever been a time when its really been the “us” on this side of the screen vs. “them” on the other side? Hasn’t it always been all of us, together, working to make a fun game? I’ve always seen it that way. When I fudge a die roll, for example, it is almost always in favor of the party.
Still, the DM’s role is, by definition, arbitrary. When I make a plotline decision, for example, that a player doesn’t like, am I being unfair? After all, I’m not forcing characters into certain actions. I’m not telling players what they have to do. I don’t even mess with their background stories without permission. But I wonder sometimes if, because the DM’s role is arbitrary, if there’s not sometimes undue resentment from players…
Anyways, just a few random thoughts. At the end of the day, I think my players are probably better off without the Lake Geneva Conventions.
