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<blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6088052" data-attributes="member: 85870">Wow, some great responses here---I'm going through the last two pages. I'm definitely in the camp that character backstory makes a difference. A character with a sense of &quot;place&quot; in the game world has a lot more opportunities for &quot;narrative&quot;-inspired play. Ratskinner, I've never heard of Capes before; those are both interesting mechanics, but I don't know how easy they'd be to put into a D&amp;D game. Inspirations might be easier to implement--I sort of see it as maybe a background element, an NPC from his or her backstory, or even an abstract ideal. The idea being that when the character plays up the inspiration as part of a scene, they get a mechanical bonus. In Savage Worlds (which I'm GM-ing right now), this could be a bennie as a reward, or a temporary static bonus to a particular type of trait check, as &quot;tuning in&quot; to the source of inspiration makes the character more focused, more determined, etc. I don't know if driving narrative necessarily involves &quot;soliloquizing,&quot; though that's certainly a valid way to pursue it. I think Umbran's also right, where the setting / plot / campaign hooks play a big role in this, because in a lot of cases, the stakes for the characters in the game world have to match up to a motivation beyond simply &quot;becoming more uber and gaining phat lewtz.&quot; I saw this in a Pathfinder campaign I ran over a year ago; the group became very attached to a set of NPCs, to the point that their motivations in-game changed. Suddenly things they would have done without a second thought became more complicated as they wrestled with the implications. I'm interested in hearing more, though, about how to manage the GM / player interface in setting up situations where you're trying to drive narrative. I think you have to have players that WANT to drive that narrative, especially because in many cases to sort of reach that narrative space, a GM has to let go of some of the in-game control. In this regard FATE probably provides some opportunities, because it's already assumed that the player does have some narrative control.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="innerdude, post: 6088052, member: 85870"] Wow, some great responses here---I'm going through the last two pages. I'm definitely in the camp that character backstory makes a difference. A character with a sense of "place" in the game world has a lot more opportunities for "narrative"-inspired play. Ratskinner, I've never heard of [B]Capes[/B] before; those are both interesting mechanics, but I don't know how easy they'd be to put into a D&D game. Inspirations might be easier to implement--I sort of see it as maybe a background element, an NPC from his or her backstory, or even an abstract ideal. The idea being that when the character plays up the inspiration as part of a scene, they get a mechanical bonus. In Savage Worlds (which I'm GM-ing right now), this could be a bennie as a reward, or a temporary static bonus to a particular type of trait check, as "tuning in" to the source of inspiration makes the character more focused, more determined, etc. I don't know if driving narrative necessarily involves "soliloquizing," though that's certainly a valid way to pursue it. I think Umbran's also right, where the setting / plot / campaign hooks play a big role in this, because in a lot of cases, the stakes for the characters in the game world have to match up to a motivation beyond simply "becoming more uber and gaining phat lewtz." I saw this in a Pathfinder campaign I ran over a year ago; the group became very attached to a set of NPCs, to the point that their motivations in-game changed. Suddenly things they would have done without a second thought became more complicated as they wrestled with the implications. I'm interested in hearing more, though, about how to manage the GM / player interface in setting up situations where you're trying to drive narrative. I think you have to have players that WANT to drive that narrative, especially because in many cases to sort of reach that narrative space, a GM has to let go of some of the in-game control. In this regard FATE probably provides some opportunities, because it's already assumed that the player does have some narrative control. [/QUOTE]

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