D&D General Player-generated fiction in D&D

[Aldarc]

Sure, that is an issue with APs, or other games with similar forced central "metaplot." But you can easily have a game without such and without players having extensive (non character action based) fiction generation authority. It just requires that the players have the freedom to set their characters' goals and act upon them.

Sure, but I can also more easily have a game without such and with players having fiction-generation authority.

I understand that you prefer play without such authority but this is a thread for people who prefer such authority. It's not like anyone here is threatening to bring those preferences to your table, take your preferences away from you, or tell you that your preferences are invalid.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Sure, but I can also more easily have a game without such and with players having fiction-generation authority.

I understand that you prefer play without such authority but this is a thread for people who prefer such authority. It's not like anyone here is threatening to bring those preferences to your table, take your preferences away from you, or tell you that your preferences are invalid.

It just is that in these discussions unrelated things are often conflated.

 

[pemerton]

Beautifully, as they provided detailed write-ups of each NPC and allowed me to incorporate them as and when suitable for the game. I have listed some of the examples below and provided one of the player's attachments so you can see what I was given to work

Can you regale us with a tale or two of what happened between some of these NPCs and the PCs?

For what it's worth, I was especially taken by the graveyard keeper and the crow - both seemed very colourful. Did stuff happen with them?

 

[pemerton]

If you only want positive feedback on alternative approaches you should have made it a (+) thread.

I guess I don't understand why you would bother posting in a thread that is about a topic that is not relevant to your RPGing.

 

[pemerton]

Giving the players control of the external reality means that optimal gameplay becomes trying to invent BS that lets you use your best skills.

You were doing so well at expressing your opinion and game preferences without insulting other game preferrences until you got to the part in bold.

There's an obvious parallel between @Crimson Longinus's comment and @bloodtide's comment, upthread, about the players just staying home and writing their novels.

Both comments take it as a premise that the GM's "BS" or "novel" - that is, the GM's fiction - is in some sense genuine or robust or worthy of sharing, whereas the players' contributions are not.

If you rephrase the comment something like this - in RPG play that encourages player-generated fiction, good gameplay means coming up with imaginative ideas that express the PC as a character and that support fun and engaging conflicts and situations - then it is true and unremarkable.

There's also an aspect that goes to GM skill, which I commented on already upthread:

A player who chooses to play a character who is proficient in Athletics will tend to declare physical actions for their PCs, when they can. A player who choose to play a character who is proficient in Diplomacy will tend to declare social actions. What's interesting, as a GM, is to try and frame situations that prompt players to declare actions that are not areas of prowess for their PCs.

I've not found it hard to prompt players of PCs who are not very skilled socially to declare social actions - namely, by having NPCs talk to them about things they care about.

I've also not found it that hard to prompt players of PCs who are not very skilled physically to declare physical actions - namely, by having things happen like the roof cave in on them.

 

[Aldarc]

It just is that in these discussions unrelated things are often conflated.

I shared my past experience that I often had with APs like Curse of Strahd or Rise of the Runelord without any mention of player-generated fiction.

 

[Oofta]

 

[pemerton]

In the same way your players demand integrity and fairness from you as the DM they trust, you should too demand the same from the player IF you are to incorporate instances of player-generated content.
I have had a poor experience where a player wanted to see how much he could push the envelope (5e plot points), but I feel it is the responsibility of the table (not just the DM) to inform the player that he is falling foul and ruining the game. In my instance, the table decided against that player's generated content (his use of the plot point).

A thought prompted by this:

I think that, for some (perhaps even many) players who have been used to heavily GM-curated fiction, and who are first introduced to the idea of generating significant fiction themselves, there is a tendency to "act out" or go over the top. It's not too different from players whose idea of how to "break the railroad" is to pickpocket the quest-giver.

I don't think it normally takes long for these players to realise that there efforts are better spent on ideas that are fun and engaging for themselves and their fellow game-participants.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I shared my past experience that I often had with APs like Curse of Strahd or Rise of the Runelord without any mention of player-generated fiction.

Seems pretty off topic then?

 

[Oofta]

I guess I don't understand why you would bother posting in a thread that is about a topic that is not relevant to your RPGing.

Because I'm trying to have a conversation and explain why people don't want players doing world building and that is has nothing to do with power. Because games I run and play aren't lacking in role playing, creativity, autonomy of character, that I'm not playing a glorified board game just because I'm not playing a narrative based game.

Because I'm hopelessly optimistic and stupid enough to think that people might understand all of the above as just preferences and they will stop implying that people that don't follow the one true way are doing it wrong.