AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Woah! Story Now literally means that the 'story', that is the content of the scenes being imagined during play, is being authored NOW and not at some other time. This contrasts with 'Story Before' where someone pre-authors a series of scenes and elements which are then brought into play, either in sequence and/or in response to certain 'triggers' (IE actions by the PCs). Narrativism/Narrativist play MAY, and often does, employ the Story Now technique for obvious reasons, but frequently also uses pre-authored elements, a loosely mapped out milieu, etc. that are not strictly Story Now. So I think SN is relevant to a discussion of what sort of game Daggerheart is, but we should not confuse it with the question asked by the OP.Not exactly. Story Now requires that each scene be framed as an act in a previously existing conflict that tests the stakes of that conflict, where initial conflicts are introduced by the players and then tested, and that the resolution of the conflict is always a matter of player choice. Introducing new elements to the fiction is a tangential concept.
In other words, Story Now requires whomever is responsible for framing scenes to tailor that scene to the conflict that has been signaled by the player. Cut to the chase. Let's have the story the player wants now. See also "play to find out what happens".
To contrast: Narrativist play PRIMARILY revolves around PC protagonism. That is, the PCs conform to the definition of protagonists in a fairly complete way. "A protagonist is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles." If we then look at Edward's writing on the subject is that he looks at this through the lens of Exploration. Edwards means "what is imagined by the participants as a whole during play" by this. Edwards also specifies that SN requires some 'problematic feature of human existence be addressed'. I think this is a concomitant of 'PCs are protagonists' and 'Story is developed during play'. But anyway, the primary point that arises, IMHO is that the PCs are genuine protagonists. This is not the case where the situations to be encountered are pre-authored, definitionally.