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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6204032" data-attributes="member: 42582">Agreed.Drifting OD&amp;D (or classic D&amp;D more generally) is doing things like dropping XP for gold, dropping earning XP as the goal of play, moving into a style where the aim of play does not involve the players maximising their XP returns by improving their knowledge of the GM's &quot;secret backstory&quot; (eg &quot;We can get that treasure by avoiding the roll in room 1 by taking the secret passage in room 2&quot;).I dont agree with all of @howand why99's views as to what counts as an RPG, but on some of these key points of &quot;skilled&quot; D&amp;D play as articulated by Gygax in his PHB I do agree.My reason for describing social/urban/intrigue play as drift is not to do with setting or the more surface features of the game (guards instead of orcs, bank vaults intead of treasure rooms). It is to do with the role of the GM&quot;s &quot;secret backstory&quot;. An urban setting almost never has the same degree of advance prep as a dungeon. Which means that the players' efforts to uncover &quot;secret backstory&quot; become, in practice, triggers for the GM to make up backstory. This is a major change in the dynamics of play - taken in one direction, it gives us the classic 90s-style storyteller railroad. Taken in another direction - conferring power on the players to stipulate elements of that &quot;secret&quot; backstory via successful skill checks - it gives us the system for Wises and Circles in a game like Burning Wheel, and related &quot;say yes to player-suggested content&quot; that we find in very limited doses of 4e's DMG and in large doses in its DMG2.That is drift and its consequences in gameplay and game design.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6204032, member: 42582"] Agreed. Drifting OD&D (or classic D&D more generally) is doing things like dropping XP for gold, dropping earning XP as the goal of play, moving into a style where the aim of play does not involve the players maximising their XP returns by improving their knowledge of the GM's "secret backstory" (eg "We can get that treasure by avoiding the roll in room 1 by taking the secret passage in room 2"). I dont agree with all of @howand why99's views as to what counts as an RPG, but on some of these key points of "skilled" D&D play as articulated by Gygax in his PHB I do agree. My reason for describing social/urban/intrigue play as drift is not to do with setting or the more surface features of the game (guards instead of orcs, bank vaults intead of treasure rooms). It is to do with the role of the GM"s "secret backstory". An urban setting almost never has the same degree of advance prep as a dungeon. Which means that the players' efforts to uncover "secret backstory" become, in practice, triggers for the GM to [I]make up[/I] backstory. This is a major change in the dynamics of play - taken in one direction, it gives us the classic 90s-style storyteller railroad. Taken in another direction - conferring power on the players to [I]stipulate[/I] elements of that "secret" backstory via successful skill checks - it gives us the system for Wises and Circles in a game like Burning Wheel, and related "say yes to player-suggested content" that we find in very limited doses of 4e's DMG and in large doses in its DMG2. That is drift and its consequences in gameplay and game design. [/QUOTE]

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