Alternatives to map-and-key

[soviet]

No, not really. I'd much rather let the whole play out in mostly free roleplay, with skills and special abilities punctuating the process when the GM thinks the outcome is in doubt or the player has a brainwave, and allowing the evolving fiction to lead to a natural tipping point one way or the other.

Maybe don't use a lot of skill challenges then.

 

[soviet]

Actually, the players are making a lot of those decisions, when they have their PCs take certain actions and pay attention to certain parts of the setting.

Obviously. The 'you' includes the players.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

No I have shown that I decided, not 'the fiction' or 'the simulated world'.

A man kicks a ball.
It's a goal!

A man kicks a ball.
It isn't a goal.

Yes, there can be several causally possible outcomes. This doesn't mean there is no causality. And now you have found out what we have rules for: to decide between these several causally possible outcomes, the odds being preferably weighted by the contributing factors (the skill of the ball kicker, the distance and the size of the goal, etc.)

 

[Micah Sweet]

No one is obliging you to participate in this thread!

If you say something others disagree with, I think they have the right to call that out. I know you've exercised that right in other threads.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Not really. It doesn't say anything about how latent scenes/situations are established, nor how the progression of scenes/situations is actually generated and handled in play.

Not every playstyle places primary emphasis on scene-framing.

 

[soviet]

Not every playstyle places primary emphasis on scene-framing.

It's going to get pretty tiresome if you just keep posting 'I don't like this playstyle' again and again.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A man kicks a ball.
The ball doesn't move.
A hat appears and turns into a pigeon.

I have broken the laws of causality!

Not sure what your point is here.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Maybe don't use a lot of skill challenges then.

Like I said, gave up on them after a few attempts during my 4e period.

 

[TwoSix]

Not every playstyle places primary emphasis on scene-framing.

Yes, but for the purposes of the discussion, that's what was being discussed.

These posts are like if the discussion was labeled "Alternatives to Italian food" and people kept posting "Yea, but Italian food is great, actually!"

 

[chaochou]

There is no causality in fiction. There is only the fiction of causality, which - of course - can be anything the author chooses which seems to make some sort of sense to them.

Which is, of course, the bit the railroaders and illusionists can't abide hearing said out loud. It's also what they mean by 'simulation' - it means appears to make sense to the GM, but can be passed off as inherent to the fiction itself so as to pretend it wasn't their authorship at work all along.

All part of the goal of pretending the GM isn't in control of all outcomes, when in fact they are.

Simulation = illusionism = fiction has causality. The unholy triad of rpg dishonesty.