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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8166311" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, essentially there might be a similar discussion. Dungeon World is the ready example, technically everything can be done during 'session 0', but more likely this discussion has already happened, some people want to start a game, an agreement is reached as to the basic parameters. Now, where the temple discussion would probably differ slightly is only in that, generally speaking, DW assumes a 'zero myth' kind of arrangement. So the GM might start asking questions, or be asked questions and turn them back on the players. Player: "What kind of god is this a temple of?"GM: "I don't know, what do you think?"Player2: "Maybe the god of justice." GM: "And what is the name of this god?"Player: "Oh, lets name him Atur!"...This can go on for a while, but we don't want to flesh out too much all at once. Just enough so the players can describe a bit of backstory, a few bonds, describe their characters in setting terms, and then the GM will be able to frame the first scene (which is suggested, but not mandatorily, in the midst of some action). Players will obviously, maybe somewhat before session 0, maybe during it, generate their characters and figure out what roles they play in the temple. The players will need to pick classes that fit into the theme, or at least explain how their choice relates to the theme, and in the process this will greatly help to define the direction that the game will go in (IE maybe one player makes The Barbarian, not an obvious temple dweller, but he asserts he came to seek justice for his father. Very well, we have one plot hook!). Perhaps the GM now frames a scene in which the PCs struck out into the North Woods to find the bandits who supposedly killed the barbarian's father. They have found more than they bargained for! The game can be left on this cliff hanger.Now the GM has to develop a 'front', which is some sort of ongoing danger/situation/circumstance which can threaten the PCs interests (the obvious one being the temple itself). This is an adventure front, it should be threatening, but something that can be concluded fairly soon. Perhaps in a couple of sessions it will be history. Maybe it is a bandit group lairing in the North Woods, that would be logical! The PCs manage to escape from them, now they may threaten the temple. That will start to engage us in the question of exactly what sort of place is this temple, is it located in a steading (civilized resting place)? That may have already been decided earlier, but if not then it will clearly loom as a question, since the town wall would obviously be a source of protection, if there is one. The GM will also develop some degree of 'map with holes in it' that presumably indicates where the woods are, the temple, the steading (there should be one), maybe where the barbarians live, and it may have a couple other interesting locations. The GM might also start to work up another adventure front, and begin to outline the Campaign Front, based on more questions, feedback, and fiction established in the course of play in session 2. These don't need to be fleshed out entirely yet, perhaps they get names, maybe an omen and a danger? DW is a 10 level game, experience is gained for a few things, mostly resolving bonds. It should run somewhere between 20 and 30 sessions, typically. It isn't generally meant to be a perpetual sort of campaign, but I guess that might happen. So you can make endpoints pretty concrete, the campaign front could be a demon or something like that, you kill it, you 'win', basically.Right. I think, theoretically, that 'agency' is kind of a slippery concept, and the real key is not so much "who gets more choices", but what do the different play processes produce. What is different about one sausage vs the other.I agree with you that 'AP' or at least 'module' play is pretty much the universal form of game nowadays. Only a very hard core group will play a long-running sandbox, and only a fraction of players really get enough of an interest to dig into things like narrative form game mechanics. I think Morris once stated in a thread I was in that only 2% of the people who read the news on EnWorld ever post. Most RPG players are pretty casual.</blockquote>

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