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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8135161" data-attributes="member: 42582">No it's not!I'm going into my PDF files to find a D&D module with a plot-hook <looks in folder> - here's one, H3 Pyramid of Shadows.Page 4 has, on the left hand side, an Adventure Synopsis:Karavakos desperately wants to escape from the Pyramid of Shadows. . . .  Karavakos has been sending visions of the pyramid, its location in the natural world, and promises of power associated with the pyramid. The adventure begins when the player characters encounter the pyramid and are drawn into its timeless depths. From that point on, Karavakos encourages the adventurers to destroy the splinters of his life force so that the power each possesses returns to him. With his power fully restored, Karavakos plans to perform arcane rituals that will set him free. . . . Presenting herself as an ally, Vyrellis guides the adventurers toward the Sanctuary of Light and urges them to destroy Karavakos—all of the splintered versions of him as well as the true wizard—and win their freedom in the process. Over the course of the adventure, the player characters explore the bizarre halls and chambers of the Pyramid of Shadows, fight its hostile inhabitants (including the splinters of Karavakos’s life force), collect the three keys needed to open the Sanctuary of Light, and finally face the true Karavakos in a pitched battle—with death or eternal imprisonment the price of failure. Along the way, Vyrellis also guides them to collect the splinters of her life force from the gemstones that hold them in hopes of restoring herself once she is freed from the pyramid.That's a plot, with NPC with pre-authored motivations and plans.And the right hand side of p 4 has some Adventure Hooks:If the adventurers experienced the events of H2: Thunderspire Labyrinth, then they discovered a map among Paldemar’s possessions. The map shows a glowing pyramid within a lush forest . . . OR Wherever the adventurers happen to be prior to the start of this adventure, a local wizard, scholar, or sage has been troubled by strange and compelling visions every night when he or she sleeps and dreams. In these dream visions, the tiefling wizard Karavakos appears to the dreaming mage and whispers about the power and secrets waiting within the Pyramid of Shadows. . . . The local wizard or sage is intrigued by the visions and anxious to claim the promised power. He or she is also suspicious of these dreams, and as frightened by the implications as he or she is desirous to fulfill the impulse to follow the dream. Hearing of the exploits of the adventurers, or perhaps knowing them as friends or colleagues or acquaintances, the wizard/scholar/sage asks them to look into this matter.There are some more like this on p 5.The episode I described from my Burning Wheel session has nothing in common with this. There is no hook into the GM's pre-authored adventure. There is a series of action declarations by me, the player, for my PC and his sidekick, and the GM responds to those as the rules and principles of the game call for. Going in, neither of us knows anything about Rufus beyond what was in my PC backstory:Thurgon’s father is deceased, but his mother Xanthippe (now 61 years old) still lives on the estate. So does his older brother Rufus (40 years old)., the 9th Count of Adir (although for the past 66 years that title has counted for little, having been usurped by others). . . . Although Auxol is now owned by servants of evil, the family continues to manage it. Xanthippe ensures that the estate serves as a bolthole for refugees. Rufus is sympathetic to their plight, but sees them ultimately as someone else’s problem. His interests are more mundane (it is fairly common knowledge that he has a 3 year old illegitimate son with a middle class townswoman).Coming out, we now know that Rufus is serving 'the master', who needs wine and that Rufus is ashamed and that Thurgon and Aramina could not snap him out of his shame, nor cow him into giving them some coin.There is nothing like the structure of plot and plot-hook. This goes all the way back to [USER=99817]@chaochou[/USER]'s post upthread:******************************************************But all those things - like who the master is, why he wants wine, where Thurgon's younger brother has gone, whether or not his wife has gone with him - can be determined in just the same way as the encounter with Rufus was resolved: that is to say, as part of the back-and-forth of action declaration, action resolution, narration of consequences, and principled addition of further framing elements.The GM, as part of the process of action resolution.The discovery of Evard's Tower was (in the fiction) a result of Aramina's memory of tales of its presence in the area, and (at the table) a result of a successful check on Aramina's Great Masters-wise ability. The salience of Thurgon's mother is due to her being a Relationship purchased as part of the process of PC building.Upthread you used the phrases "narrator perspective" and "narrator stance". I made the point that, in fact, I never did anything but declare what my PC is doing - ie looking out for Rufus. Now you are talking about "narrative level power", by which you seem to mean action resolution that can produce outcomes that, in the fiction, are not solely under the causal influence of the player character.As the example I posted shows, that sort of power does not require any distinctive "perspective" or "stance". And if players never have such power in RPGing, they will have very little or no agency. For instance, whether or not the Orc blocks my sword with a shield is not solely under the control of my PC. So if I can never influence that via action resolution, the GM is always free to narrate the Orc's shield block as a response to my action declaration I attack the Orc with my sword.Now you are back to "stance".There are any number of ways these things can be done. As I've already noted, Classic Traveller (1977) - that game well-known for its radical indie features! - settles the question of whether or not there is someone willing to sell illegal firearms at a good price via a Streetwise check. This doesn't require the player entering "narrator stance". It just requires the player to say "I put feelers out - who here sells illegal guns at a good price?" On a successful check, the referee provides the answer. (Classic Traveller is a bit weak when it comes to advice on the narration of failures, but this one seems easy enough: it could be anything from a visit by the local constabulary, to some toughs come to rough the PC up.)That is how Circles work in Burning Wheel. That is how Streetwise works in Classic Traveller. That is how a paladin calling for his/her warhorse works in AD&D. It's not a very radical mechanic.I don't know. What system are you playing? What mechanics does it involve? What principles apply?In my Burning Wheel game, a successful Great Masters-wise check established that Evard's tower existed nearby. The GM decided that, when we arrived there, a demon attacked - that's the GM's prerogative in framing, and given that (i) the successful check established that Evard is an evil sorcerer and (ii) Thurgon is a faithful knight of a holy order, it accorded with the principles of go to the players' evinced interests and concerns for their PCs.In the Prince Valiant game that I GM, the players decided to travel to the Holy Land to go on a crusade. I decided - using my prerogative in framing - that their ships had to land on the Dalmatian coast, so that the last leg was to be undertaken overland. I decided - again using my prerogative in framing - that <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/prince-valiant-actual-play-our-most-recent-sessions.668770/" target="_blank">they encountered the Bone Laird</a>. The players decided to spend a fiat resource (Storyteller's Certificate) to find the locus of the Bone Laird's curse. When one of the players succeeded on a check to interpret the magical signs of that place, I narrated what they learned (not unlike Discern Realities in DW or Read a Situation in AW, which trigger GM narration). You can read the rest by following the link, if you like.In some approaches, of course, the system and techniques are more like that evinced in H3 Pyramid of Shadows - the GM decides everything in advance and the main thing the players do is declare actions to trigger the appropriate GM narration. This is RPGing with low player agency.</blockquote>

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