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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7919186" data-attributes="member: 42582">I guess my first question is how is this secret backstory? If the PC discovers it (by whatever mechanism) it's not secret!It could be a consequence (eg following a failed check, the GM - to borrow AW/DW terminology - reveals an unwelcome truth ie that the master is really a werewolf). Or it could be an element of scene-framing. From you description either possibility seems open.This seems like it could happen in any system with some sort of PC-affecting social/emotional mechanics. Assuming the GM is not just cheating, the resolution will depend on the outcome of the mechanical process (which in your version depends on whether or not the player spends a resource).Given the bolded part, I still don't understand how this is meant to be an example of character-driven play occurring when the GM knows what is going to happen in virtue of having pre-authored "the adventure" or "the plot".Whether or not it's character-driven in my view can't be known from what you've set out due to the stuff I mentioned in my first paragraph of response in this post - without knowing where the revelation came from (what sort of consequence?; what sort of framing?; how did it relate to already-established fiction?; how was that prior fiction established?) we don't know how this moment of crisis is related to the character who has the master.Probably the best-known variant of what you describe in popular culture is Darth Vader being revealed as Luke's father. In the fiction, the ground has been prepared in all sorts of ways - we know Luke is an orphan, who knows little about his father except that he was  great pilot; Luke has a mentor who knew his father, and who taught Darth before the latter turned to evil; Darth himself is a mysterious figure with his face hidden behind a mask, but is said to have killed Luke's father.Whether or not the RPG version of this counted as character-driven would turn on how all that unfolding stuff was actually done. If the GM just narrates it all through to the moment of revelation than it is certainly not what the OP is talking about, because the mechanical process of play hasn't had any hand in it.But suppose the backstory is gradually set-up as some sort of interplay between player and GM in the course of play (eg Luke's player fails a check, and the GM reveals an unwelcome truth via narration from the NPC Obi-Wan - My former star pupil killed your father - sorry about that!). And suppose further that the final revelation is the ultimate unwelcome truth narrated in response to some failed check by Luke during the confrontation with Vader. That looks like it could be an instance of what [USER=85870]@innerdude[/USER] was referring to.</blockquote>

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