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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8165559" data-attributes="member: 16814">Which other?  This is a strange response to my point that the ripples example is vague to the point of being nearly universal.I'm not sure what you're lecturing me on.  I mean, this last paragraph is pretty much exactly how Powered by the Apocalypse games, or Burning Wheel, or Forged in the Dark games work, and these don't feature the prep that you've explained is part of your approach.  Which gets back to my statement that your explanations should sound like many games, because they're so vague as to not be particularly descriptive on any one.The interest would be a play procedure -- what's your game loop?  In my homebrew 5e game set in Sigil, for instance, I tend towards preps locations -- NPCs, monsters, layout, traps, etc., -- and then let the players deploy skill to navigate this.  In between such set pieces, I run more freeform, using modified skill challenges that let players set their own agendas and follow along, so lots of ripples.  In my Blades in the Dark game, it's all ripples, all the way down.  I don't prep anything and entirely follow the players' leads.  There's a loose setting, some strong themes, and some thumbnails of factions and that's about it for pre-game fictional setup.  After that, it's entirely on the players, and yet that play looks nothing at all like a prepped sandbox.  Alternatively, I'm getting ready to run a 5e AP -- Descent into Avernus -- and this is a pretty strong railroad that I'm doing extensive deconstruction of to remove the more railroady bits, but there's still lots of room for ripples in the adventure as it opens in the middle to a semi-sandbox in Avernus.  So...Let's look at an example, a toy one used in this thread -- if a player wanted to search for their long lost brother, how would you engage this move by the player?  For me, in 5e, I would ask questions of the player about the brother -- how did you leave it, what was he like, what problem caused him to lose touch?  And then I would follow up on those answers, likely starting one of my modified skill challenges to start the PCs on the path to locating the brother, and those largely follow PC direction and play a lot like a narrative game.  In Blades, I would ask the same questions, and likely set up some clocks to describe the kinds of things that need to be done to find the brother, then play would address those clocks either in downtime or as scores (preferably both).  Either way, there's zero doubt that the player could establish this dramatic need in the game.  Heck, in the Avernus game, I have one PC that's looking to find a way to remove a family curse and revolves around a devil in Hell, and a second that accidentally damned someone to Hell with their magic and is seeking to make that right.  Both of these are not at all part of that printed adventure, but they're going to be a part of the game, and not as a sidequest -- these are going to be wrapped into the mainline somehow.How would you do it?  Could the players establish these kinds of things as dramatic needs without blocking, and what kind of play would entail from that if allowed?</blockquote>

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