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I don't think the two must be mutually exclusive, but they will have to share. As the race happens at the pyramid, if the map dictates a narrative, then to the extent it does that, it will push motives out of the spotlight. If Praya can't ambush El-Mash because he's behind the pyramid, then...

This is a good question. So this assumes that the GM baked a path into the SC, like the graphs mentioned elsewhere. This is certainly possible, and the problem you mention is then relevant. The GM could either force things back on track, or rewrite the SC on the fly, including additional...

I like your description. What I found is that it leads to a lot of distribution of authority over the salience, and shape, of the fiction. So, there could be a lot of things which might be salient to, say, sneaking into the Princess's Quarters in the Palace. Which things the players describe as...

I would not characterize, say, FitD clocks, 4e SCs, and TB2e contests as always being equivalent to a graph. In fact, my experience with SCs in particular tells me that this sort of presentation is often overly rigid. The GM is overthinking the thing when building it that way. The PCs will start...

Yeah, I believe they are pretty much identical modulus a detail or two perhaps, though I am much more familiar with AW2e, which uses threat maps instead. Anyway, I agree, fronts have a different character from timelines in general at least partly due to context. Since they are built in...

Taking a break here to ask how you feel this differs from, say, Dungeon World. Here the GM frames scenes, and will develop a set of fronts, which resemble a timeline, as well as loose maps.

I think there's a distinction between "how you like your game" and what a good objective description of that game are. I don't have any problem with what people want to do, it's largely none of my business. I just point out that highly subjective 'viewpoint' descriptions of them often fall short...

And this would be my contention. I think there's a degree of what I would call 'emulation' that necessarily happens in all play. That is, the fiction conforms to certain ideas we have about how things work. Falling hurts, climbing is dangerous, sword blows are potentially lethal, etc. Beyond...

I wasn't happy with this answer, so I called customer service to complain, and Yog Sothoth answered. In the form of an infinite congeries of turtles filling all of time and space!

No turtles? Bummer, I'll have to change my avatar.

Mmmmm, that was a butter knife!

You won't hear me argue otherwise. As for the diegetic argument, you may notice my distinct absence.

Now you've done gone and said it, the unasprechlichen! That raspy sound you hear is the knives being sharpened. Something is going to need blood!

Well, there are a billion-and-one adventures for DW. They should pretty much all go into a dumpster with some gasoline. The people writing DW2e likewise have utterly no clue what Narrativist play is, and their 'improvements' to DW are a complete betrayal of everything the game is about. Very...

I'd find it interesting to examine some examples.

The very first 2 pages of Dungeon World tell everyone exactly what the game is about. The first couple of sections make it pretty clear what the players are expected to be doing. Then the next couple of sections describe exactly what players' role is in the game, along with the GM's.

Yeah I never got that. It's just a way of structuring a sequence of events that form a coherent unit of play into one 'game'. The purpose being to establish more objective success criteria. Instead of relying on some kind of GM 'feeling' about when a situation is ripe to be wrapped up, there's a...

Yeah, an SC is an encounter worth of play, complexity 5 might need 14 rolls to resolve. Even at 5 minutes each it's an hour of play. So, sure, if you want to spend a whole evening playing through a scenario then it should be 3-5 SCs of varying complexity. You can do things like framework SCs...

Oh yes we are! (Granting I'm not sure who you are referring to). Soft pedalling failure and coddling players is just crappy play! You knew the stakes, you declared your intention to take that risk. A GM, at that point, must follow through.

I have no problem with @EzekielRaiden example either. Such examples could be great play or not based on other aspects, but in general I agree it's FF and would probably be fine in general in a Narrativist context. I'm not sure what your objections to SCs amount to. There's nothing 'bare bones'...