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You too, huh? We should, um .... compare notes sometime.

Apologies, was not intended to be dismissive. Was merely trying to analyze @deleuzian_kernel 's point. Sorry, I just figured bragging rights was a lot fewer syllables than "enjoyment of the mental and social rewards of being seen as competent in a sphere of skill." Pretty well understood I...

Sure, no problem. I do think there was an exceptionally salient point made earlier by @deleuzian_kernel that the only thing creating an "objective mystery" does from a long-term gameplay state is create some "meta" externality status that the players can use as a "badge of honor" for their...

So .... it's exactly like every episode of Castle or House M.D. or CSI or Law and Order, or ....... Not exactly seeing the conflict here. If detectives are following Theory A because that's the evidence they have, then suddenly they're faced with evidence that changes everything to point to...

If we're talking about D&D the RPG? 14 years and counting. (Honor Among Thieves earned some of my cash. And I suppose at some point BG3 will as well.)

I know you aren't purposefully meaning to offend with this comment, but I have to say, your description here feels dismissive of the PbtA/FitD approach. Why is there an an assumption that in PbtA / FitD / Ironsworn the majority of "facts" or "truths" are yet to be made up? Like, somehow...

If the players don't know what I, the GM, have chosen as the conclusion, it doesn't matter what the conclusion is until it's revealed in play. Given the evidence board shown, which of the 3 conclusions are possible for the GM to author? The answer is all three. Sure, Solution Y is the most...

I think the disconnect here is the phrase, there isn't a solution yet. As a GM in Ironsworn, I will nearly always have potential solutions to a "mystery" already outlined in my head (*edit, or yes, even written down in my notes [the horror!!]). Possibly two or three avenues that solve the...

Ironsworn / Ironsworn: Starforged would handle this elegantly, simply, and dynamically as 1-3 "clocks", with success/failure running them up or down respectively. The Heavy would have a myriad of things to do via the maneuver "Gain an advantage" or aiding fellow player rolls for moves, or any...

See, this is the fundamental category error. There is no "new information" or "old information". There is only the construct of the in-fiction condition state. If the condition state of "the mystery" made up by the GM six months ago---the literal definition of fiat, something that happens in...

So .... why then in the 20+ years of playing "trad" games with "trad" GMs has it never once occurred to any of my GMs to actually do it? Because it's not an inculcated / enculturated value with regards to the "trad" play loop. It's talked about in "world building" and "session zero" and "ask...

... snip ... I think this plays right along with my description of character intent. It's not simply that characters have the "agency" to go around declaring they're looking for clues and hoping to find "the answer" to "the mystery." It's that the character actions have some additional...

So going back to the Monte Cook separation of "player agency" vs. "narrative control". I think there is a missing component that lives between the two, which is "player intent". I think this is the primary locus where GM fiat lives. It's entirely possible to have near-limitless player agency...

If you want a more elegant 3.X chassis with the kind of monster templating and stats being described, then ditch Pathfinder and go straight to FantasyCraft. If you're comfortable doing basic enemy conversion work, it gives you the best 3.X rules paired with the infinite published adventures of...

When this happens, my experience tends to indicate that it's a function of me as GM wanting to unnecessarily drag out "the mystery." As a GM, I get too attached to the idea that the more "intrigue" and "secrets" and "conspiracy" I can layer on to a scene/situation, the better it will play out...

- Put my recently purchased Ironsworn: Sundered Isles material to use. - Enjoy playing in a Pathfinder 2 campaign being run by another GM (I haven't spent much time out of the GM chair the past 3 years).

Can totally relate --- I literally hurled my 1100-page hardbound copy of Wise Man's Fear across the room against the wall after finishing the first sex goddess chapter. My wife had to reprimand me for the audible four-letter profanity that accompanied said hurling.

Also appreciate this thought, because it's applicable to Guy Gavriel Kay. If a reader comes to Guy Gavriel Kay from a background of reading lots of Lit-RPG and new-age "romanti-fantasy", they're going to be in for a shock. Kay's books are prosaic and significantly more literarily challenging...

(I appreciate you saying this. If you dig far enough back in the ratings of Wise Man's Fear on Amazon, like, ALL the way back to March 2011, I was one of the first and earliest 2-out-of-5 star ratings of WMF basically saying exactly what you're saying. I loved Name of the Wind and utterly...