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Can we please speak only in terms of specific games or a specific arrangement of play? This is not the play loop of Apocalypse World. This is not the play loop of Blades in the Dark. This is not the play loop of Legend of the Five Rings Fifth Edition. This is not the play loop of Vampire - The...

Here's how I see it: Not wanting new ideas in your gaming ... not a problem. Not wanting new ideas in gaming ... problem.

Let's avoid agency because it is a contentious term. Is the following objectionable: Burning Wheel offers slightly less autonomy (in comparison to a Living World Sandbox) because it expects players to engage with scenes framed by the GM (which are related to the premise they defined for their...

Not sure how much this would help someone running D&D, but for a lot of my games with more conventional systems what I do to find what the characters care about and how they see themselves is we just follow them around for the day. Ask questions about where they go and frame scenes by asking...

I think it says something about our perspectives that my own interest and engagement with the hobby comes in the reverse direction. Going to a different place and time (with my character mostly being a vehicle for that) especially with exploration in mind has never been the primary appeal for...

I think it kind of depends on how many players you have and their ability to be invested in each other's characters. I wouldn't run Sorcerer for more than 3 players, but 3-4 is basically my sweet spot as a GM and a player. I also tend to not to run games with complex combat systems or where...

Sorcerer does not even assume the characters know each other at the start of play! So fundamental to understanding a lot of these games is that there's no adventure to go on. People are simply living their fairly exciting lives but still living their lives. Their paths will cross as they strive...

I think adjacent in terms of technique, but likely not in terms of creative goals. Ambition and greed can be fine passions after all when they are not just justification for adventures. The primary question for me is if our conception of who these characters are is a question, an answer or if we...

So, most Narrativist designs, are more concerned with characters as individuals. The concept of all the players part of a group is not even part of the default setup for Sorcerer, Burning Wheel, Apocalypse World or Monsterhearts. Even games like The Between, Dogs in the Vineyard or Apocalypse...

So, here's the formulation: There is nothing here about plot points, character arcs, dramatic momentum, interpersonal drama or the like. I really do not see the point in bringing them up in association with it. The point of Narrativism isn't its narrative byproduct, but the experience of...

I'm not speaking to your description of living world stuff here. My entire post was directed entirely towards your description of Narrativist play. I'm saying where I think your description of Narrativist play is off. I get that accurately describing Narrativism is not your priority, but you are...

Here the bits that feel wrong to me. The point of the conflict is not to create a dramatic story with satisfying narrative beats. The point is to put the characters through a crucible by which we find if what presumed about them is true. Also, we are not adjusting the world to support a story...

On contrivance: at some point setting and scenario design needs to happen. Within the constraints of what is possible there will be a range of plausible stuff that could happen, all of it relatively equally contrived. We then have to look at, given a set of plausible stuff what are our aesthetic...

Almost no one in any situation has zero agency, but someone who is not lost in the desert likely has more than someone who is. Having compass or maps on hand would mean more agency. Knowing where the road is would provide more. We're all going to have our own thresholds for levels of agency...

When I run Apocalypse World my GM moves are not in service to a particular theme or narrative arc. What happens is emergent of player characters interacting with coherent and consistent world. We're just creating that world with certain aesthetic goals in mind and keeping it somewhat unfixed to...

All I'm talking about here is basic interaction design. Is there a reliable to get information about the environment before you need to act upon it? Are the consequences of success and failure knowable? Are they a bunch of secret backstory or unknowable setting elements that create chain...

From Meriam Webster: These definitions stem from agency theory wherein a person is given authority to exert towards some particular purpose on behalf of the person they are an agent of. It also is consistent with how we talk about agency in political science and most game design texts. The...

Not selling anyone on anything. Just trying to be part of the conversation. That's a big part of my frustrations. I should not have to sell any particular sort of play for it to get the same amount of assumed respect as any other mode of play. I should not have justify my right to exist or have...

The language is already captured. It was captured before we got here. It's an artifact of a culture of play that normalizes GM storytelling and has modified what agency means contextually away from its dictionary definition so that when people like younger versions of myself express their...

I think with less options, the options that are defined, tend to be better designed and often say something that more directly addresses the premise of the design. Dune 2d20 is my favorite iteration of the game because a character gets maybe 3 or 4 talents over the course of their development...