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

[Neonchameleon]

sure, but what is the likelihood of that?

Non-zero. Once it was what was signed up for with a good GM having made an amnesia pitch to start with. Another time it was the same Storyteller who saddled the party with one DMPC per player character. A third time it was a new DM who thought it was a really cool idea but got the point and knocked it off when asked.

 

[Neonchameleon]

What if an XP/reward system existed which the DM offered during play to mechanically hamper you (like disadvantage) for a situation related to your TBIF. So you get the reward if you accept the disadvantage as the action relates to your TBIF. Is that something worth exploring for your character?

Welcome to Cortex Plus?

 

[AnotherGuy]

Welcome to Cortex Plus?

That is a version of Fate right? I've only been fortunate to play Fate a handful of times.

What we did with our TBIFs is to have the players increase them as they levelled up.
And I as DM or even they as players can ask to gain a disadvantage on a check as it relates to their character's TBIFs for an XP reward. The only limitations are
(i) they cannot be hedging the same TBIF all the time; and
(ii) the check needs to be somewhat meaningful, as in there are consequences attached.

I have a printout of the character's TBIFs in front of me and try as best to inject that into the game as the narrative allows. It is not a fool proof system but we have found it to be an improvement than what has been offered in the PHB.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I find that many of the things which follow from classic GM authored setting and location -focused play creates, for me, a milieu so contrived that immersion is not really on the table. OTOH the more Narrativist approach let's me describe how I fit in and what I know in a more natural way.

This is very true. My group started the Kingmaker AP, which we ended up dropping because so many elements on the DM-side were contrived that it was impossible to maintain immersion. It was also difficult to make considered decisions since you never knew whether any element would follow actual logic or game logic.

 

[mamba]

What if an XP/reward system existed which the DM offered during play to mechanically hamper you (like disadvantage) for a situation related to your TBIF. So you get the reward if you accept the disadvantage as the action relates to your TBIF. Is that something worth exploring for your character?

So put some mechanics around the TBIF, I guess I would not mind it if they came up every once in a while.

Not sure how much I consider that exploring my char though / tells me something new about the char rather than me telling everyone else something I already implicitly knew about the char.

Basically to me this is a reward for ‘properly’ roleplaying my char instead of just doing whatever is mechanically the most opportune at any moment. I see this more as fleshing my char out than exploring it however. Exploring to me implies discovering something new, not applying what I already know

 

[Oofta]

What if an XP/reward system existed which the DM offered during play to mechanically hamper you (like disadvantage) for a situation related to your TBIF. So you get the reward if you accept the disadvantage as the action relates to your TBIF. Is that something worth exploring for your character?

Or maybe something like, you are inspired so much by how strongly you play your character that you get advantage on the next d20 roll of your choice?

From the PHB Chapter 4 "Inspiration is a rule the game master can use to reward you for playing your character in a way that’s true to his or her personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw."

 

[Manbearcat]

By my reckoning, the prerequisite for the lead post (player generated fiction) is some incarnation of the following:

The players have some mechanism to deeply inform the premise of play as it pertains to their characters, therefore deeply informing both the immediate and evolving situation-state, and therefore deeply informing the overarching trajectory of play.

In the TTRPG space, various games have diverse ways of doing this, but it all comes back to indexing the above.

In D&D, the ways this has gotten done in the past is:

* Beefy (in terms of clear theme and premise) PC builds with clear flags that inform the GM "this stuff is interesting to me...generate situations that engage with this and let's see where that goes."

* Extra-PC build ways to inform and constrain GM situation-framing like (a) transparent goals for conflicts and (b) perpetual player-authorship of short-term and long-term goals.

* Transparent game engine machinery (resolution mechanics, incentive structures around reward cycles/progression) that lets players make robustly informed decisions and declare actions to move the game from one well-understood state to the next well-understood state.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Or maybe something like, you are inspired so much by how strongly you play your character that you get advantage on the next d20 roll of your choice?

From the PHB Chapter 4 "Inspiration is a rule the game master can use to reward you for playing your character in a way that’s true to his or her personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw."

All true, but 5e is already easy mode IMO, and they do not need the additional advantages (particularly at higher levels where they get +9 and over on many of their checks.
Furthermore, I've limited their means to level-up so these XPs are very lucrative.

 

[Oofta]

All true, but 5e is already easy mode IMO, and they do not need the additional advantages (particularly at higher levels where they get +9 and over on many of their checks.
Furthermore, I've limited their means to level-up so these XPs are very lucrative.

Fair enough. It's just that they did make a nod towards it. On the other hand I don't think D&D is really the right game for that kind of game or reward system. Groups that I've played played D&D with aren't going for War and Peace, we're more targeting War and Peas.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Fair enough. It's just that they did make a nod towards it. On the other hand I don't think D&D is really the right game for that kind of game or reward system. Groups that I've played played D&D with aren't going for War and Peace, we're more targeting War and Peas.

This is all true so you're not getting any argument from me here.

I will only add that we have a mixed bag of players at our table and many of us enjoy attempting to match those story-beats which we read about in novels and are brought to life on screen.
Hope springs eternal, Baldrick.