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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Deadguy" data-source="post: 925157" data-attributes="member: 2480">Thank you fusangite, for taking the time to say this. I really appreciate it too. I was a little worried as I was writing my comments that they might've sounded a little confrontational, when I know perfectly well that it's meaningless to talk of right and wrong in matters of style. My pleasure to be able to contribute.I wanted to pick out one point you made for comment:I do understand what you mean here. In playing D&D3e I have found that some of the mecahnical aspects of the game could well do with porting into other games I play. I particularly miss, when I am playing a game like Mage or Earthdawn, the concepts of AoOs and cyclical initiative. It's not that a GM giving the matter careful consideration couldn't allow for such things in any game system. It's just that with them not being built into the rules, and with combat being a pretty hectic and intensive time for everyone, it's often hard to spot and seek specific rulings on such mechanical points.So, to an extent, I have taken a similar path to your own in running D&D. I still have a more narrativist style in overall gaming, but my combats have become much more tactical. This doesn't suit all players (and there are a couple of friends I would never run D&D3e combats for, since they'd hate the tactical aspect), but for most of my friends it provides an interesting mix of style in a single game. I guess it's just a matter, as always, of where we draw the line..One further thing it occurs to me to comment on. You are right that a narrativist approach certainly runs the risk of just running the DM's story, with the players simply as actors working to a script. I have been stung by that mistake before now, and I managed to destroy at least two games because I wanted the campaign to go in a direction which didn't interest the players. But it needn't be so automatically. These days I find I plan specifics much less and put more effort into background development. The upshot is that I have fewer things that I want the PCs to do ('want' in the sense of this takes the story in the direction I am thinking of). Instead I am much more responsive to player ideas - I incororpate their ideas of the adventure events into the storyline, since this seems to produce a tale with more subtlety, imagination and satisfaction for all parties.Anyway I am glad that you and your group have things sorted out now. No group playing an earnest game ever gets away with some disagreements. What matters is that we can deal with them and move on.</blockquote>

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