Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Drat, because I honestly (still) don't really understand what Story Now means, despite having tried to read up on it.
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What is a "Narrative Mechanic"?
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
Drat, because I honestly (still) don't really understand what Story Now means, despite having tried to read up on it.
payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
Lets use Powered by the Apocalypse vs. D&D. They use narrative mechanics differently and in frequency in my experience. I can certainly be wrong this is my understanding as the OP asked for it.
Tony Vargas
Legend
I'm tempted to say a "Narrative Mechanic" must be a mechanic that players (or/and the GM) can use to contribute to the story being told as the game plays out.
But, that'd be all of 'em.
But, that'd be all of 'em.
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innerdude
Legend
@Bill Zebub , think of it this way --- "Story Now" means that the system supports ENUM mechanics in such a way as to allow players to focus and purposefully inject character-centric concerns into the flow of play, in some cases while specifically limiting GM veto to do so.
Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Could that be re-phrased as "giving the player limited power to step over the traditional divide between player authority and GM authority, if in the service of their character's personality/motivations/etc."?
innerdude
Legend
That's a pretty good summary, actually.
I asked because lots of people use it in different ways. For example, i don't really think of metacurrency as a "narrative mechanic" but obviously some folks do (and adamantly!). So I am truly interested in how you personally define the term.
I'm not sure that it having something to do specifically with their own character's personality or motivations in inherently necessary. I mean, conceivably a mechanic could be designed in such a way that participants are expected to use it in relation to other characters or even world building situations.
Tony Vargas
Legend
As far as the distinction between helping to build the narrative by invoking mechanics that resolve your own character's specific actions and invoking mechanics that build the narrative in ways outside the character's knowledge or power to affect... I'm not sure how useful a distinction it is. It seems like both are going to be needed in any RPG.
For instance, casting a Wish spell to alter a character's race, sex/gender, age, social class, or innate talents, vs you determining those same traits for your own character at chargen by making choices and using a point buy system to get your stats.... In both cases you may be dictating not only things about the character, but, like, who they're parents were.
For instance, casting a Wish spell to alter a character's race, sex/gender, age, social class, or innate talents, vs you determining those same traits for your own character at chargen by making choices and using a point buy system to get your stats.... In both cases you may be dictating not only things about the character, but, like, who they're parents were.
Aldarc
Legend
I think that one problem is that mechanics are often labeled "narrative mechanics" not by fans of such mechanics but, rather, by detractors of story or narrative games as a quick and easy way to identify mechanics they don't like. So the metric of what can make something a "narrative mechanic" sometimes reads as criteria with a low bar:
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