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I only have a very general sense of Daggerheart, know Honey Heist by name and that's it, and have heard of Crash Pandas for the first time in your post. I am familiar with one type of prepared set-up for play that avoids railroading but is likely to produce a good story-type experience in an...

The multiple layers of resilience reminds me a bit of Agon 2e. Though the Ironsworn systems is more intricate, I think. I haven't tried to calculate the probabilities of the resolution system. But just yesterday I was reading this from Vincent Baker, about different ways of setting up a PbtA...

Again, I don't know what you mean by "story focused mechanic". The games that @Neonchameleon and I were talking about were Burning Wheel and Apocalypse World. What are examples from those games of story focused mechanics?

No. I'm talking about playing with my friends. (Which the person I replied to, @Scott Christian, also was as best I can tell.) The convention games I've played in tend to be railroads, for obvious reasons. The most enjoyable ones tend to railroad for most of the game, but open up into a real...

I agree with Neonchameleon. Although I'm not sure what @Reynard has in mind by "purely trad games". I also don't know what "organic" is supposed to mean here. But anyway, I've played a lot of Rolemaster (thousands of hours). I've also played a bit of Burning Wheel (not that many hours...

I've also taught, for over 30 years, although in a higher education rather than school context. I don't find the comparison between a lesson and a RPG session very apt. When I take a lesson, there is a certain amount of material that I have to get through, in order to deliver the prescribed...

Yes, absolutely, I've been making this point in multiple posts throughout this thread. The idea that (say) Moldvay Basic and Apocalypse World, both prepped and played following the procedures and advice set out in their respective rulebooks, are equally apt to produce a story in the moment of...

Yeah, I do find the argument that we can't have player-driven play, because it excludes player B when the focus is on player A's concerns; therefore, all of play has to be focused on the GM's concerns; or on stuff that all the players are equally indifferent to, a strange one! As you go on to...

Yes, I also write a lot of those sorts of actual play reports. If you look at my Torchbearer 2e reports, you'll see that they have the least detail when it comes to extended conflict resolution. I don't think that's any sort of coincidence - those are the part of TB2e play where the...

A little while ago @thefutilist posted this: I agree that the term "fail forward" isn't really the best here, because not all fail forward involves generative resolution. Suppose, for instance, that it's already established that a particular NPC is part of the situation: then a "fail forward"...

Part of the reason for doing things in accordance with instructions or structured processes is to produce results that aren't directly intended. An example that is a bit different from RPG play, but that (I think) vividly illustrates the point, is a production line in a factory. The engineer who...

Sure. They're probably not (as) constitutive of the activity. But I don't think being constituted by rules is necessary for an activity to be a game. Field sports, for instance, aren't constituted by their rules in the same manner as a "logical" game such as chess is. I think you may have...

Upthread, @Pedantic mentioned Suits's account of what is a game: To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by rules, where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means, and where the rules are accepted just...

This prompted me to look at the SRD on Devil's Bargains: PCs in Blades are reckless scoundrels addicted to destructive vices—they don’t always act in their own best interests. To reflect this, the GM or any other player can offer you a bonus die if you accept a Devil’s Bargain. Common Devil’s...

I feel that this description of play is foregrounding an approach to play that is "no myth" or "shared myth", but also somewhat GM-driven. When it comes to the initial state of affairs, how is that established? Does the GM read (or paraphrase) from their notes? Or do they extrapolate a...

I agree with this. I enjoy GMing, or playing, a RPG session - generally I enjoy it a lot! And a significant part of my enjoyment is seeing what interesting stuff happens to these people and also seeing what interesting stuff these people do. But I don't think I would get much pleasure from...

I was struck by this post. There can't be a RPG without "fiction": shared imagination is core to RPGing. Funny hats, voices and other sorts of performance, on the other hand, are optional in RPGing but also not integral to stories. (Not all stories are performances.)

A further complication: a lot of RPG rulebooks don't really spell all of this out in detail. They leave it as an exercise for the reader, and/or to be inferred from actual play examples, etc.

Yeah, it sounds like players and GM were not each doing their respective jobs. (As per what the rules say, which I'm taking from the BitD SRD.)

I'm looking at this and this from the SRD: The Players Each player creates a character and works with the other players to create the crew to which their characters belong. Each player strives to bring their character to life as an interesting, daring character who reaches boldly beyond their...