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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9797878" data-attributes="member: 7035894">I think the basic shift that happened, starting with the final arc of Campaign 2, was the shift from themes being driven by the players to themes being driven by the DM. Until that point, Mercer’s stories had focused on fairly simple plot points, and his attention was given to his amazingly immersive world-building. Themes - what the stories meant - was coming from how the players interacted and played their characters. In a basic narrative sense, Mercer focused on supplying “wants” - objectives for the party. The players used those to explore “needs,” by developing each character’s internal conflict. So the story feels cooperative - the DM is the world, but the players give it meaning. For me, this is the ideal. Although we saw the shift to a different approach happening in C2, C3 really embodies the new approach, in which story AND theme are being driven by the DM, who is becoming more like a playwright. I think that’s why there is so much more discussion between players of what it all means: they are trying to figure out where the story is SUPPOSED to go. Think of how many times C3 spiralled back to the same conversations. The plot became about the DM’s epic story, rather than the character’s journeys in it. And I think, being actual professional actors, the players have adapted automatically to that new dynamic, where they are trying to, essentially, interpret a script.</blockquote>

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