in the Shadow of Greatness

Interesting.

I think I lost enthusiasm for one game I was in when it became clear that the world building was for the GM only. I did a *blink, blink, blink - oh, okay, sorry* but it blew the wind from the sail, and my subsequent blundering finished the voyage pretty painfully. I thought I was embroidering the image, but it wasn't taken as such. Live and learn, I guess.

Ruminating on it, the message I came home with was 'Look, but don't touch.'

But turn that around and look at it, and I'm a problem player who throws tantrums. *sly wink*

Truth maybe somewhere in the middle, I dunno. I'm pretty stuck, still, seeing what I see.

It's tough to gain shared consensus when not all of the information is in one place. This was a killer in GA. I'm pretty sure one of the things that killed Rev 1.1 (Five Mods for Every Story) was that there wasn't someone who had their hands around the whole thing, who could say 'and the backstory of B, C, and D is why your plan for Z won't work, but let's modify it thusly...'

One of the problems I had as an actor in the Improv troupe at the Texas Renaissance Festival was that we were supposed to support the work and characters of other performers. Some were hard to support, some we had to be creative to support. I supported the 'fairies' by Not Seeing the Fairies. "I don't know what you're talking about, there are certainly no fairies here..."

The most difficult part of GMing is rejecting suggested additions to the Shared Imaginative Space without stomping on people.

"...suggested additions to the Shared Imaginative Space without stomping on people..."

Yes.

There were some player-to-player interactions that required a little more flexibility in this aspect. I have a few ideas on how I would do things differently in such a situation if/when - but my actions would need to be met halfway, and that only happens if the players are both in the right mindset to let their vision be modified.

My solution to the situation I found myself?

Sure, your story happened, but the Thelbane is like an onion, ways upon ways deep. You have known an outer layer. My character has known a more private layer, but neither of us have seen the 'true' Thelbane - and neither of us would want to, as then we would have to die.

And I'm keeping this Thelbane as both unknowable and variable to each individual's experience and skillset as a part of my version of the 'Amberverse.'

The conflict created deeper thinking on my part, and gave me a nice juicy bit of information to use in future, if I ever need it.