NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7825339" data-attributes="member: 16586">I think you are right in that players have a tendency to always look to the options on their character sheet or in the rules first before going off script. I think there are two tendencies that really exasperate this. First there is a design level tendency to make character options, particularly spells, but also martial abilities too reliable. Second is the tendency by GMs to make off script actions less reliable and having their repercussions be unknown until after the action is attempted. This is why when it comes time to solve problems almost everyone looks to the wizard first.The design issue is fairly easy to solve I think. You build in a meaningful level of risk and uncertainty to player character abilities, spells, and skills. This way when the risks associated with those mechanics are not something a player wants to deal with it can be compelling to look to other options. I see this all the time in Powered By The Apocalypse games. Often the defined moves in those games can lead to outcomes the player does not necessarily want so they choose to engage with the fiction in other ways.The tendency for too conservative rulings can be resolved by providing GMs with better tools for how to improvise and making a more resilient game that is less prone to breaking at the seams. You can also help players go off script by instructing GM to be more transparent in their rulings. If a player knows how going off script will be resolved before fully committing to an action they are far less likely to only stick to what is defined.I also think there is a tendency to view not using existing tools as more creative when there can be a fair bit of creativity involved in using existing tools in creative ways, particularly when we build in things like fictional positioning requirements and trade offs between different tools. Also if the same activities in the fiction are defined in one game but not in another is it really more creative to do it?</blockquote>

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