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No, not exactly. I said it’s a risk and something that should be considered. And I said the more it’s prevalent in play, the greater the “risk”. But it’s by no means certain. I don’t tend to approach these things as if there are absolutes.

Just asking what the purpose of constraints are, Micah. It doesn’t really have anything to do with trad vs. narrativism. If you can understand the purpose of constraint on the players, it seems odd to me that you can’t apply that reasoning to the GM, too. It’s what helps make a game more...

I’m not talking about creative control of the setting either. More creative input into the direction of play. Into the game.I’ll caveat that with the idea of “independent of the GM’s ideas”. I think your view that it’s player driven comes from the illusion of geography more than the source of...

Not exactly, though it may relate a bit. I’m just asking what is the purpose of constraining the players. I think answering that may provide context for why we may also constrain the GM.

But only in how they interact with the setting. Which is GM crafted. It may not be in any way unique to that player or their character.

Yes, that is how they are constrained. They are constrained to act as their character could. Why? What purpose do those constraints serve?

I suppose I don’t see character autonomy to be the equivalent of driving the direction of the campaign. Yes, the players are choosing where to go and what to do… but it’s primarily all material crafted by the GM, and often without any consideration for the characters. That doesn’t mean...

Yes… but why are the players constrained?

Why do the players have constraints? Well like I said, Harper designed Doskvol with a mind for the fiction but also with a mind for gameplay. I mentioned earlier in the thread that GMs, when creating settings and scenarios, should do so with both the fiction and the gameplay in mind. So a...

Well, it has enough detail to get things going. I mean, to me, it certainly feels much more coherent than most of the Forgotten Realms and similar settings. But it's designed to be rife with potential conflict to support play. I think Harper was very aware of both the fiction and the gameplay...

I have seen both their blogs, but I would not claim to have done more than peruse them a bit. I think it's relevant because I expect it played in a way that would not work for either @Bedrockgames or @robertsconley , or many of the other posters who have been commenting here. Two things on...

Why would you expect our experiences to be so different? I imagine many of them, at least, are similar. You mention Feast of Goblyns a good amount, and although I don’t recall ever playing or running that, I played and/or ran plenty of Ravenloft adventures. I played a ton of D&D in the 2e era...

I don’t think it makes sense to just take a rule from one game and add it to another. But I think we can look at different types of rules or processes and discuss what may or may not be best for people learning how to GM. But again, I think the more important thing to do is to look at...

I’m not basing it solely on that. I’m basing it on his posts in this thread as well as his views on @robertsconley ’s games, and the overall views about sandbox play. I’ve not read Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades, so I won’t comment on that. I expect it’s more different than you’re...

I would expect that, given how different rules can be from one game to the next, it's more about the way to handle rules than specific rules that would be the major factor. The advice that is offered by the rules text or the principles offered on how to GM and/or play well. It may not make sense...

No, of course not... that was obviously a bit of an exaggeration on my part. But you've very clearly binned me with narrativists in the sense that you do not believe or accept that my assessment of trad play is based on my own experiences with it, and my willingness to examine my own play and...

"If"? You've stated my preferences more often than I have in this thread. You've also dodged a lot of what I've had to say. One response I recall that stands out was "Well there's a lot there to unpack and I don't have the time now, so I'm just going to address this one thing..." and then...

That same loose hand is what can often make play less certain for the players. 5e was designed loosely so that GMs could plug the gaps. And while some folks see this as a strength because it gives them freedom to GM how they like, it also leads to uncertainty in play process and hides a lot of...

I mean… the fact that I actively run and play more trad oriented games as well as narrativist ones tends to be ignored because how could I possibly have the opinions I do if I still enjoy trad games. A lot of it comes down to peoples’ ideas about their identity and so a criticism of a game or...

It doesn’t really shed any light on it for me, no. I mean, I get that you want players to essentially always interact with the setting as the character… but I don’t know if that will always be the case, or that it particularly enhanced the session of play. In the transcript you shared, I...