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Message: <blockquote data-quote="niklinna" data-source="post: 9050986" data-attributes="member: 71235">So much this. I see a tendency for story now advocates to promote rapid escalation of consequences to life-or-death as ideal, and yeah they're great on occasion, but I find a continual series of them to be emotionally exhausting. The sim/realism folks do have a point there, but I often feel like I'm being pressed to adopt one extreme or the other, instead of being able to navigate the space between them. So no, I don't want to deal with the guards at the town gate, or haggling at the market Just Because, but also I don't need every climb to be Mount Everest. Maybe haggling at the market is necessary to get a nice gift for the barkeep I'm sweet on. Maybe fetching those special herbs at the top of the local hill is enough of a hike, and maybe we can enjoy the view once we get there, with little at risk except being a bit winded or twisting an ankle. Sure, that can presage or feed into a later, bigger escalation, but I'd like a variety of smaller peaks & troughs instead of a continuous incline or a regular sine wave.Stonetop, as one example, kind of supports this with its expedition & steading phases. The former tend to be (much) higher stakes, the latter vary a lot more but can include lower-stakes things. My ranger had lost two hounds on our first expedition, for example, so I went to the town dog breeder and through some light back-and-forth got a cranky, mangy mastiff I had to cure and retrain. I also just got handed a free horse, but it's lamed, and will need some tender loving care as well. On the other hand, I did go out to fetch some herbs (to help with a high-stakes ritual) and got accosted by poachers on our land (through my own choice not to avoid danger due to a 7–9 dice roll), and, largely and ironically because I actually wasn't in the mood for high drama to result from that right away, I feigned retreat and then attacked with my pets as soon as they dismounted and killed or took them prisoner, and got their horses to boot! This also resulted in my character's instinct changing from "harmony" (so bland) to "ruthlessness", as I realized my character was Not In The Mood For That Crap.I'm still figuring out how to tune into my own wants with regard to intensity, and with how to convey my desires ("let's floor it!") and limits ("I do not want to see that character come to that kind of harm") during moment-by-moment play—which is often when I realize what my (ever-changing) desires and limits are, and part of why I play story now (session zero talk does not help you discover your limits). I think this is a skill that needs quite deliberate fostering, and short of saying, "I want to go this far tonight", or "I do not want to push this any further right now", I'm not sure how. And to be clear, I think it's totally legit to speak that bluntly about what I want in a gaming experience as it unfolds, but there's a heck of a lot of inertia and momentum making that difficult for me. The main tool I've used in moment-by-moment play is to not pick the option that leaves an opening for danger, but that is a switch rather than a dial, and I know I'm not here for uniformly anodyne play—I want to be challenged, but maybe only so much, right now, I've had a day, thanks.Bit of a ramble, but maybe some folks can relate to this.</blockquote>

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