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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8614946" data-attributes="member: 6696971">The GM isn't deciding (meaning without constraint nor direction; fiat) what is consequential.  What tells the GM what is consequential is (a) the system's say and (b) the player's say.  I'm running two games of Stonetop right now.  It is a Hearth Fantasy game where you play notable figures in the life of a small village in an Iron Age setting that is a wondrous, filled with mystery and myth, and extremely PoL-ey meaning with few, far-flung neighbors and hostility and hardship everywhere (from within and without).  Here is how conflict is sited (what is consequential to play).  It is the intersection of:SYSTEM* Map (and map feature) relationships to other locales which have huge say in Journey procedures and where your Home is within Stonetop.* Stonetop Connections (Division of Labor Roles/Personnel and Assets, Followers, Defense, Prosperity, Fortune, Population, Surplus)* NPC Connections (with each other and with various PCs)* PC to PC Connections* Seasons Changing - (a procedure based on present Fortunes, having implications on future Fortunes, and then 1 of 4 moves that will trigger Threats or Gains or both)* End of Session When a session ends, <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">point out how you demonstrated or struggled with your instinct. If you can, mark XP.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Say how your relationship with or opinion of a PC, NPC, or group has changed. If you can, mark XP.</li> </ul>Answer these questions as a group. For each "yes," everyone marks XP.-Did we learn more about the world or its history?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Did we defeat a threat to Stonetop or the region?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Did we improve our standing with our neighbors?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Did we make a lasting improvement to Stonetop, or tangible progress towards doing so?</li> </ul>* Fill their lives with adventure/threaten Stonetop > provoke them by making a soft move > ignored or 6- move result? > announce badness/introduce a Threat/escalate an existing Threat (reveal a Grim Portent and tick a box).* Follow the rules/procedures (everything I've mentioned above, and more, has encoded rules...follow them ruthlessly...say what the rules DEMAND).PLAYERS* Playbook - Background/Instinct/Connections/Moves.  As GM, this encodes my soft move index such that I'm making moves which (a) put your Background in the crosshairs in a way that challenges you or Stonetop, (b) provoke your Instinct, (c) challenge your Connections (eg if your Instinct is Hope and another PC's is Harmony, I'm looking for ways to make the PCs and Stonetop prioritize one over the other when they are beset by a Danger/Threat from within or without), (d) and create a call to action in which you to leverage your archetype (make moves).* Moves that let you create myth/backstory/connections on the spot whereby you are creating leverage for you or your fellow players or Stonetop at large to follow up with subsequent moves...or you're defining features of "badness announced" or "new Threats" because of the who/what/why/how of the Move you're making informing those things (because of "follow from the fiction" which should go under SYSTEM above).* A Loadout system that lets you create useful Inventory on the spot (very kindred with Blades in the Dark in terms of procedure and constraints).* All of your myriad of decision-points within the Journey system (there are many and they are all chunky and consequential) and then the moves you make to resolve your role.* All of the moves made in the game are thematically chunky.  They aren't just simulating process.  They are boldly branding archetype onto play, onto your PC, onto the nature of your Connections, onto your place in Stonetop, onto the emerging world.* The decision-space and operatalionizing (just like Rituals or Quests in Dungeon World or like Threats/Fronts but the inverse) of Stonetop Upgrades (there is a large list of them w/ prerequisites and boxes with fiction attached - just like Threats/Fronts but the inverse - which, when ticked full, you get the boon related to the Upgrade) similar to Blades' Scores.* "<GM asks questions of the players>...and uses the answers."  This is a key feature.  This creates a further dynamic of winnowing (or outright dictating) a GM's decision-space as play unfurls in any given session.  This footprint (on both situation framing and consequences) has a huge impact on any given session and massive impact on the entire course of a campaign.* Bottom part of End of Session where players give input about play (basically a formalized, meta Ask Questions and Use the Answers).[HR][/HR]So this is a huge list of stuff that should (hopefully) put this to bed every time it comes up.  The GM's cognitive workspace is a matrix of DO (inputs and procedures) and DON'T DO (constraints and rules) w/ very clearly encoded parameters.  Its not squishy and fraught with corner cases where a GM can make actionable some lurking metaplot and just ignore each of the chunky and constraints and inputs above and their intersections.  And again (as I say every time this comes up)...why the hell would you try to create a metaplot to Railroad or a high resolution setting to inject play with Setting Tourism?  The game works swimmingly and delivers on the goods if you don't do those things and will fight you if you do try to do those things!Now yes...if you have a collection of passive players who are looking for the GM to drive play, who want a Railroad and Setting Tourism, who want to just cosplay a character conception and vaguely roll some dice that doesn't do a lot of work...then yeah...the GM can do whatever they want.  In that very specific circumstance with extremely casual players...yes...system (and all of the stuff mentioned above)_doesn't_matter.  But if you're playing (for instance) Stonetop, you're not one of those players and you're not one of those GMs.  And if you are...WHY IN THE WORLD ARE YOU PLAYING STONETOP!  Play something that fascilitates that play!</blockquote>

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