Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e* - D&D-now
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8524588" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Well, one must be cautious there. I mean, first of all, some games aren't too much concerned with the overall fiction, like a supers game where it is pretty much assumed how the 'universe' works (IE its Marvel or DC, etc.). So there any pre-authored fiction deals with specific challenges to the PCs, do they face Dr Doom or Magneto? Now, there's a level to that which is perfectly amenable to, and benefits from, GM development. At the same time, one assumes there are themes and concerns that are more in the domain of the players, and here the GM's plans need to be flexible, etc. In a D&D-esque kind of game that might even extend to a more open-world kind of setup where very little is defined ahead of time, and the GM's 'plotting' is more aimed at just allowing them to generate some cool opposition and not have to make it all up on the fly every episode.</p><p></p><p>The issues arise when pre-authorship extends to the level where it locks the game into specific themes and interactions and thus where it becomes very hard to EXPLORE different possibilities. If the GM simply runs the players through "Zombie Apocalypse" then maybe they don't get to figure out how their orc paladin character relates to his violent and at least supposedly 'evil' kinfolk, right? I mean, I'd expect in that case the GM's plan would become more of a backdrop or sideline to some sort of plot that involved interacting with orcs. The zombie part might still factor in fairly significantly in a 'this is what is driving external events' but the real focus would be on the paladin and his relatives, at least for a presumably pretty good chunk of story arc.</p><p></p><p>We're just discussing 'boxes to boxes'. I mean, 'ending with the fiction' really assumes the fiction is central, right? I mean, if it isn't then its a rather weak and hollow agenda, IMHO. Its obviously nuanced though. DW LIVES on the fiction side, and mechanics are there to create some structure and insert a place for stochastic mechanisms to live. 4e OTOH is pretty complete in its mechanical structure at the 'tactical' level at least, and thus relies heavily on a rich set of 'fiction referents' within those mechanics that kind of inform you how to map back and forth easily so that there's 'low impedence' in doing so. (DW simply has very basic and straightforward mechanics that are easily extracted from the fiction and structured in a way where the details of how you handle any one specific situation isn't that important).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8524588, member: 82106"] Well, one must be cautious there. I mean, first of all, some games aren't too much concerned with the overall fiction, like a supers game where it is pretty much assumed how the 'universe' works (IE its Marvel or DC, etc.). So there any pre-authored fiction deals with specific challenges to the PCs, do they face Dr Doom or Magneto? Now, there's a level to that which is perfectly amenable to, and benefits from, GM development. At the same time, one assumes there are themes and concerns that are more in the domain of the players, and here the GM's plans need to be flexible, etc. In a D&D-esque kind of game that might even extend to a more open-world kind of setup where very little is defined ahead of time, and the GM's 'plotting' is more aimed at just allowing them to generate some cool opposition and not have to make it all up on the fly every episode. The issues arise when pre-authorship extends to the level where it locks the game into specific themes and interactions and thus where it becomes very hard to EXPLORE different possibilities. If the GM simply runs the players through "Zombie Apocalypse" then maybe they don't get to figure out how their orc paladin character relates to his violent and at least supposedly 'evil' kinfolk, right? I mean, I'd expect in that case the GM's plan would become more of a backdrop or sideline to some sort of plot that involved interacting with orcs. The zombie part might still factor in fairly significantly in a 'this is what is driving external events' but the real focus would be on the paladin and his relatives, at least for a presumably pretty good chunk of story arc. We're just discussing 'boxes to boxes'. I mean, 'ending with the fiction' really assumes the fiction is central, right? I mean, if it isn't then its a rather weak and hollow agenda, IMHO. Its obviously nuanced though. DW LIVES on the fiction side, and mechanics are there to create some structure and insert a place for stochastic mechanisms to live. 4e OTOH is pretty complete in its mechanical structure at the 'tactical' level at least, and thus relies heavily on a rich set of 'fiction referents' within those mechanics that kind of inform you how to map back and forth easily so that there's 'low impedence' in doing so. (DW simply has very basic and straightforward mechanics that are easily extracted from the fiction and structured in a way where the details of how you handle any one specific situation isn't that important). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e* - D&D-now
Top