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Well there is no MC prep before session one, so the prep can't prevent anything. The PC could say they go to Kumptown to meet sludge and I could say 'yeah it's a burning ember and sludge is dead. Looks like the work of the Pyrocult'

Yes.

You'd establish that as part of their clock. So let's say after session 1 you create a clock for the Pyro cult and the first tick is, burn down Krumptown and kill Sludge. And the first scene is as follows: MC: What are you doing Midnight? Midnight: I'm riding to Krumptown to see Sludge...

Well the advice/best practices/philosophy of what constitutes Narrativist play change radically depending on who you ask and are often mutually exclusive or directly opposed. This is true of 'trad' games though, so they're all really in the same basket.

A Flag is a mechanic that tells the GM what the player wants to see in play. So for instance: I'm the greatest swordsman, no can beat me I put my family first In play the GM will look at the flags and introduce content that plays to or challenges the flag. For instance having loads of sword...

This is the no-myth interpretation but AW isn't a no-myth game. Dungeon World is really shaky, I don't think Adam and Sage knew what AW was trying to do in the slightest. A lot of the subsequent PbtA advice and designers do basically advocate no-myth. Truncated history of no-myth. Gareth...

This is a conversation that breaks my brain. I am actually going to explore it in play but it's lower on my list of priorities than other stuff. So if I'm playing say (Apocalypse World, Cyberpunk 202, Sorcerer, The pool). Then I do create backstory and that backstory acts as a constraint on...

This is actually a really interesting conundrum for me. In theory actually I don't disagree with what @deleuzian_kernel says. In practice I think it would be hard to port procedural generation into a lot of games because backstory is so entwined with npc priorities. In those games, no npc...

Then the GM isn't committed to playing situationally? If the backstory is part of the situation (whether the players know it or not), then it is kind of real in the sense that there is a fact of the matter. Or put another way. Can the GM change the backstory mid way through? Like decide it...

What I've found is that if you're both playing to find out what happens. Then fiat is fine as long as it's seen as living world + choice the person is making in response to you. You need to be on the same page that this is something that can actually go either way. If the GM or Player for that...

I don't know if it's all trad. Even 30 years ago when I was doing full on trad, I'd have taken your characters backstory and made it part of the plot. You get to ideologically dismantle the slavers and have sword fights with them and so on. And taking backstory and making it plot seems far more...

How do you know if it is a challenge? Do you frame the scene with the challenge in mind, like 'this is a skill challenge scene about x'. Or do you talk about the character goal on a meta level, like the player may say 'my characters wants to achieve x' and so then you frame a scene?

I use really bog standard conflict resolution. Two characters are talking and one of them says something. We need to know if it triggers a conflict. So we have to ask if there is a conflict. Which means a conflict between what and what? we need to identify the two opposing forces. Your lover...

What's the issue with fiat? Do you just want to add a dice roll or are you not sure what you'd be rolling for?

Yeah I agree. This is like rubber meets road stuff because we're dealing with how effective the results of an action should be and when it causes a new conflict. I'm playing the pool at the moment and my basic rule is something like 'as effective as you want/think up until the point you want to...

Like with Sorcerer dice. You can just fiat, well not by the rules but you catch my drift. The dice aren't doing any mediation between player authority in terms of the outcomes the players want. They provide bounce or 'the unwelcome' if you buy into Vincent's whole thing (I'm on the fence about...

Yeah I agree with all you said so I don't have much to add. Yeah I really should mention this more. 99% of rpg play is mediocre imo. Most of the texts are terrible and a great deal of play is a confused mish-mash that would be greatly improved if it was more considered. A lot of my arguments...

Well it depends on whether you mean it in a tautological sense. Could there be a situation where the player is interested in seeing what's going on to the west but playing to the fidelity of their character means they 'have' to accede to the Duke's request?

My default preference is for 'off screen' stuff to be known about by everyone at the table, simply so we're on the same page. Yet there are some back story parts that are commonly hidden that necessitate other back story parts to be hidden. The most common hidden backstory part is the status of...

What do you think the benefits of having a GM are then? Because to me, having hidden information seems one the features. although given it's the feature i'm least keen on the other reason I've found is strong scene framing authority. gmless games have to deal with that somehow and it does have...