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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2722013" data-attributes="member: 26473">First, please pardon us for hijacking your thread, DonTadow! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Okay, Thia Halmades, I confess: I'm deliberately oversimplifying things here, for purposes of contrast (and maybe a bit of humor... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ). Let me describe an adventure, and I'll see if I can elucidate why I think the Gygax quote fits my gaming style so well...The first adventure in our Modern military game began with the characters making a parachute training jump and encountering a pair of insurgents on the DZ. After a short firefight, the insurgents were killed and some valuable intelligence gained. The adventurers then set off to carry this information back to their rendezvous point. Along the way one of the characters was nearly stung by a deadly scorpion during a rest break. The adventurers then encountered a large group of bad guys, set up an ambush, then defended themselves from the baddies. Afterwards they were extracted and gave their report. End of mission.Sounds like a pretty straightforward story. However, everything that happened after stepping out of the plane was determined more-or-less randomly. Finding the insurgents was entirely dependent on the characters making successful Spot checks (in pre-dawn darkness). The scorpion was a random encounter. And discovering the baddies and setting up the ambush was the result of a lucky die roll that put them in the right place at the right time, followed by successful Hide and Spot checks.The most probable outcome, based on how the flowchart was weighted, wasn't even close to the way the adventure actually played out. The "story," which sounds like it has a traditional beginning, transition, conflict, transition, conflict, and resolution, didn't exist until after the adventure was over - I created a setting, started the parts in motion, and let chance and the characters dictate everything that happened thereafter.I didn't author a story - the events of the game did. There was no need for me to create drama - the drama arose from the characters' experiences.In fantasy games, I create settings - a dungeon, a wilderness, a town - for the players to explore. They come up with the reasons to  be there - fame, fortune, revenge, ale and happy endings, or whatever. I have things happening in the background, but these generally don't occupy the players unless the players choose to involve their characters. Again, I create a setting and set it in motion, and what the players do determines the outcomes.I'm not the director or the screenwriter - I'm the git who pushes the scenery around and herds the extras. The players tell the story.</blockquote>

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