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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8523557" data-attributes="member: 82106">Hmmmm. I think we suffer from a terminological and/or conceptual mismatch here. I see nothing in this section of the 5e DMG which equates to anything I would understand as an AGENDA. I see some description of recommendations regarding process (and also an admonition that there IS NO defined process except what the GM intends there to be!). I would think of an agenda as something similar to the kinds of things proposed under that heading in DW. That is, the agenda would describe WHAT the goals of the GM are in running the game, or maybe more broadly what the overall goals of playing a game of 5e D&D ARE (I mean, at a more concrete level than just "play a game and have fun"). So, for example, in Dungeon World we are told that the GM's agenda is "Portray a Fantastic World", "Fill the character's lives with adventure", and "Play to find out what happens." Thus whenever the GM makes a move, these 3 considerations are the fundamental bedrock upon which the narration of that move is based. The move will be 'fantastic' or at least push things in the direction of the fantastic; the move will produce 'adventure', which I would interpret as action, exploration, self-actualization, etc.; and it will be open-ended, so that it helps tell us both what happens NOW and provides opportunity for more things to be 'found out' later on. You can see how a game based on these three things very much defines something like "should we use the dice now to resolve something" or conversely "under what conditions should we roll the dice?" That will be answered by asking if the results will be fantastic, adventurous for the party, and telling us 'what happens' without making that some canned pre-ordained thing (because it has to be 'played for', which I interpret to mean that issues are in doubt and can fall in different ways based on player skill and possibly luck). Note how DW introduces these elements on p161. "Your agenda makes up the things you aim to do at all times while GMing a game of Dungeon World:"Next the things are examined in detail, and more is exposed. We find out, significantly, that "A Dungeon World adventure portrays a world in motion..." and then that "play to find out what happens" is pretty specifically meant to tie into that. We are to find out what happens TO THE WORLD because the PCs adventure in it. Their part is to be pivotal to the outcome of events in that world, BY DESIGN. Its very clear, crystal clear in fact.The Principles, outlined starting on p162, build on the Agenda. They give you a more concrete list of techniques, prescriptive and sometimes restrictive rules to follow as a GM, presumably intended to build on the Agenda. Anyway, this is what I would consider an 'agenda'.Obviously every game has a different agenda, to a degree, and they are not always so explicitly stated. 5e certainly doesn't present one on p237 of the DMG! It might be said to touch on a couple of principles, though oddly it also seems to almost disavow the existence of such things in any hard sense (in the first paragraphs of on that page). I find myself deeply ambivalent about what I'm being told as a GM by 5e. It certainly isn't all that clear! I'm not at all convinced that an admonition to 'narrate meaningfully' is clarifying the agenda AT ALL. It might be clarifying part of the Principles of play (AKA techniques), that I would gladly concede.</blockquote>

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