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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7572540" data-attributes="member: 16814">It's a common misconception that narrative play allows the PC full latitude over introduction of fiction.  It doesn't.  The PC may have a larger goal, like yours does, but the GM still controls the framing of scenes and the narration of failures.  In your case, the player really owes the GM a "first step" goal.  Look to  [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]'s example above of a PC's whose goal is to save their brother from possession by a Balrog.  That's the big goal, but that player also provided "and I will not leave this town until I find something to help."  That's the goal that pemerton framed and put at risk to start.  Play then goes on to see if that item actually is what's looked for or not, and what happens next is up to that determination, which will involve the addition of new elements of fiction that will be pursued or stymied as play determines.  Eventually, the game will resolve or moot the big goal.  IIRC, the player of the PC with that goal failed, firstly by discovering that his brother wasn't possessed, but a willing partner, and then by not preventing his brother's death before he could save them.  None of those elements were at all conceived of when the angel feather was first put into play.In my own example, a Blades in the Dark game, the Crew took a mission from an ally to place an artifact of power inside a rival gang's hangout for reasons they were not privy to (honestly, they're allied with but terrified of the Dimmer Sisters).  This started with them choosing how to approach the warehouse that was the rival's hangout.  They chose going in via the roof, so, of course, the warehouse has a skylight or two (this was me acknowledging their opening move by allowing for their intent to be realized, I had no schematic of the warehouse).  But they're roll to determine how the score started was normal, so immediately there's a complication.  The skylight was rusted shut.  Here, play started.  Recall the big goal was to place a macguffin in a specific place, but play actually started being confronted by a rusted-shut skylight.  From there, they had to navigate across the beams of the warehouse without being noticed, approach the second story office of the warehouse. Deal with the gang members hanging out there (a nifty flashback involving a gift of a crate of laced wined did the trick, at a few coin cost), and place the object where it wouldn't be discovered.  Getting out we elided, because that wasn't the focus of the drama for the score.So, yes, the GM should acknowledge the player's goal and frame scenes that involve it, but at no time should the goal not be challenged, vigorously. This is what the guidance for these games tell you to do -- up the drama all the time in a scene, put player agendas at risk, and play to find out what happens.</blockquote>

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