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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8397150" data-attributes="member: 71699">Freeform is a useful word. And now that you draw attention to it I agree with the distinction you make between play-to-find-out games and freeform. It's very evident in DW that the mechanics pull the narrative forward (a quibble, but I prefer "pull" over drive, because in principle you do it because you do it, so it is the outcome of the mechanic that pulls the narrative forward). While freeform doesn't uniformly invest mechanics in driving the narrative.As to mechanics, while resolving uncertainty is definitely one thing they deal with, every freeform game I can think of has something else going on mechanically. CD's insanity die. I had elemental compass directions (luck, death, time, chaos). A friend's had differing perceptions of time. There's usually a hook - something special that the creator felt it was worth investing mechanics in.One counterpoint. Think about the moment insanity is reached in a CoC-genre freeform. That's likely going to happen as a mechanic driving that piece of narrative. As I touched on elsewhere, freeform games will resist definition: they're a patchwork.</blockquote>