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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 4506548" data-attributes="member: 3887">How... I'm not sure I see the point in trying to draw a distinction between these two things (a distinction that you admit is lost on a lot of people). Both are role-playing, in the context of an RPG. Performing an act in a fictional space is the same as telling a story about the performance of that act. (Ouch, now my head hurts) If the DM and player agree that the event happens, then it de facto relates to the gameworld. "Relation to the gameworld" established through participant consent. Which doesn't change the fact that the events occurring inside the shared imaginative space of a role-playing game are best understood as being story-like ie, the actions of fictional, person-like characters in an imaginary, life-life place. Seeing as the 'external reality' in question is a fictional construct being sustained by mutual consent and is often, in practical situations, rather fluid, I'd say this isn't a particularly helpful assertion. Unless, of course, the DM says otherwise. Are you really saying that anytime a DM gives (limited, localized) narrative rights to a player, it ceases to be a role-playing game? OK, that's exactly what you're saying. Where's the threshold? If the DM allows a player to shop for items without actually playing out the purchases, essentially letting the player narrate the event, does the game stop being an RPG?  If you actually go for the walk, you're existing. If, instead, you create a representation of the dog-walk, say in conversation or text, then your storytelling. Extending this, seeing as gamers are never actually doing the things they're characters are doing, they are never existing as their characters, and can be said, in the interest of brevity, to be telling stories about them.   If the existence(s) in question are fictional, then yes, I equate trafficking in them w/storytelling. And how is that not storytelling, using the plainest, most theory-free definition of the word? Monopoly isn't a storytelling game because the action in Monopoly isn't sufficiently story-like. RPG's are story-like because they deal with person-like characters acting in life-like imaginary spaces. Now if these blind players were playing D&D, it most certainly would be a storytelling game. And that kind of role-playing isn't what's going on in most D&D campaigns (well, at least in any of the ones I've seen, read or heard of).</blockquote>

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