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Experiencing the fiction in RPG play
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7822765" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>This is an over-generalisation.</p><p></p><p>It's not true of all systems. (Though maybe some tables drift them.) It's not true of all tables. (Whether because of the systems they choose or the way they approach them.)</p><p></p><p>In our Classic Traveller game, it was one of the players who established, in the first session, that the starting world was a gas giant moon. In our 4e Dark Sun game, it was the same player who established that the starting moment of the campaign was the moment of the assassination of the Sorcerer King of Tyr.</p><p></p><p>Again, so much presecription!</p><p></p><p>Here's <a href="https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/story" target="_blank">a definition of "story"</a> that came up when I Googled "OED story": <em>A plot or storyline</em>.</p><p></p><p>That definition immediately makes us think of other properties that good stories tend to exmplify: strong theme; effective pacing, including rising action, climax and denouement; revealing the characters to us; etc.</p><p></p><p>And a RPG can be designed and/or played to produce story in this sense (for systems oriented towards such play, see eg Apocalypse World, Burning Wheel, Prince Valiant). Or it may not be - it might be oriented towards something quite different, like puzzle solving or similar forms of skilled play (for systems oriented towards such play, see eg B/X D&D, Gygax's AD&D, and apparently PF 2).</p><p></p><p>Of systems with the first sort of orientation, they might lean heavily on the GM to produce such story by directing/constraining the players. Or they might be designed to produce story as a result of the interaction between a constrained set of GM choices and then the resulting player actiondeclarations for their PCs. The three systems I mentioned take this second approach.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7822765, member: 42582"] This is an over-generalisation. It's not true of all systems. (Though maybe some tables drift them.) It's not true of all tables. (Whether because of the systems they choose or the way they approach them.) In our Classic Traveller game, it was one of the players who established, in the first session, that the starting world was a gas giant moon. In our 4e Dark Sun game, it was the same player who established that the starting moment of the campaign was the moment of the assassination of the Sorcerer King of Tyr. Again, so much presecription! Here's [url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/story]a definition of "story"[/url] that came up when I Googled "OED story": [I]A plot or storyline[/I]. That definition immediately makes us think of other properties that good stories tend to exmplify: strong theme; effective pacing, including rising action, climax and denouement; revealing the characters to us; etc. And a RPG can be designed and/or played to produce story in this sense (for systems oriented towards such play, see eg Apocalypse World, Burning Wheel, Prince Valiant). Or it may not be - it might be oriented towards something quite different, like puzzle solving or similar forms of skilled play (for systems oriented towards such play, see eg B/X D&D, Gygax's AD&D, and apparently PF 2). Of systems with the first sort of orientation, they might lean heavily on the GM to produce such story by directing/constraining the players. Or they might be designed to produce story as a result of the interaction between a constrained set of GM choices and then the resulting player actiondeclarations for their PCs. The three systems I mentioned take this second approach. [/QUOTE]
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