Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8134373" data-attributes="member: 42582">My feeling about this is that something more important would be going on: If I present a situation to the players, and they don't engage it with their PCs, I feel that something has gone wrong at that point ie my idea was meant to be interesting, but it turns out that it wasn't!I wouldn't worry about what happens to the fictional stuff I thought up that no one else at the table seemed interest in. I would try and come up with something that sparked more interest! If, down the track, in narrating some consequence or presenting some new situation it seemed worthwhile to pick up some aspect of my earlier idea that fell flat, well I might do that. At that point I might think about possible in-fiction pathways from then to now, if they seemed relevant.I'm not questioning your belief. But a game played in accordance with that belief will be one with relatively low player agency, because the players have no way to "lock in" outcomes.Here's a contrast, taken from Dungeon World (p 68):Discern Realities When you closely study a situation or person, roll+Wis. ✴On a 10+, ask the GM 3 questions from the list below. ✴On a 7–9, ask 1. Either way, take +1 forward when acting on the answers. • What happened here recently? • What is about to happen? • What should I be on the lookout for? • What here is useful or valuable to me? • Who’s really in control here? • What here is not what it appears to be?The GM is not free, if the player succeeds at this move, to make subsequent unfettered decisions about how the world reacts. Eg if the player ask who is really in control here? or what here is useful or valuable to me?, then the GM has to stick to the answer given. If the GM decides that Pup is in control, and then the player(s) (via their PCs) bring Pup around to their side, the GM isn't at liberty just to decide that now Pup's followers change their minds about their allegiance to Pup!This is just one illustration of how robust action declaration can be a mechanism for players exercising agency over the shared fiction.</blockquote>

Verification