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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...

So, I like Narrativist games, and for a fairly long time they were the only games I run and played. But I have learned to enjoy and play other games for what they offer. My favorite games are actually the sort of character reinforcing trad games like Dune 2d20, Chronicles of Darkness, Legend of...

@Bedrockgames The reason I usually object to you bringing up Hillfolk all the time is because it is usually in the context of us discussing Narrativist designs and Hillfolk is a game that is even further away from games like Apocalypse World than conventional play is. It's a game that is very...

So, here's my overall read when it comes to agency. In any game two things matter: Autonomy - The ability to act freely, to choose one's path. Teeth - the ability to impact how things proceed moving forward. My personal belief that these are somewhat opposing forces that need to be held in...

And I think you start from a place where your play sets the norm and we have earn our right to be part of the conversation (and pretty much the overall hobby). I think you do not realize how condescending you sound yourself. You certainly seem content stepping back while our right to our play...

@Bedrockgames The way you are boxing us in is by addressing all RPG play via reference to conventional D&D play and treating any breaks from that as something unusual that bears special inspection rather than as thoroughly normal play that deserves as much respect. You are placing the burden on...

These things are part of game design though because they are dependent on what the GM role entails. When you say things like this you are centering conventional game designs and the conventional arrangement of player and GM roles (as a given). You are just assuming the GM is a world builder and...

My personal concern is that if a GM is hoping for a particular course of action that they would be manipulating or nudging players in that direction. It's a sign of their head not really being in the right place for sandbox play and it would really be a bad sign for more Narrativist play.

The orientation we are looking for when playing games like Burning Wheel and Apocalypse Keys is everyone is invested in all the player characters. We all want to see where their journeys take them as our primary concerns. The point is not to force a GM who is interested some world building going...

So, I think a certain level of mutual trust is necessary for most tabletop roleplaying, but the issue is what you are being asked to trust your fellow players and the GM to do. Trusting them to do specific things like be a fair referee in games where that applies or frame compelling conflicts...

30-60 minutes is insanely long for me (unless the game has insanely engaging combat which most do not). Would be interminably long for a lot of people I play with. In my in-person group, I'm pretty much the person with the most patience for like dealing with system stuff and hour-long fights...

I'd also say that adjudicate implies judgement and evaluation. That's not what we are doing in Narrativist play. I'm not saying what should happen when I make a GM Move in Apocalypse Keys. I'm making a provocative move constrained by plausibility as well as the game's principles and agenda but...

The engagement roll is absolutely eliding, but not all mechanics are. Most action rolls actually encourage you to dig in pretty deeply to the details. Often too deep for my tastes.

I mean we do not need mechanics to elide things. We just elide them, like Blades elides planning by just going to the score.

We do not have to wonder what the purpose of going to the dice is in Blades in the Dark because John Harper tells us (and it is certainly not to elide): It might be the focus of some games to rely on mechanics for things they do not want to dig into the details of, but that is not how any...

I will also add that if social encounters are not likely to be hotly contested, we are likely having very different sorts of social encounters. Looking back at my last 5 years or so of play, even including a good deal of OSR play, likely around 60-70% of the high leverage moments were social...

I think which sorts of fictional situations you choose to have rules for is an aesthetic choice, not built out of necessity. We can handle any situation solely through fictional positioning. In fact, we had a whole session last night in our Blades game where to dig into some character history in...

Why are we evaluating the Burning Wheel Steel mechanic in terms of the sorts of fiction D&D is utilized to play. No one has suggested importing it. Burning Wheel is not a game designed for the sort of action-adventure heroics being discussed. It's rather brutal combat and healing mechanics would...