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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 9808781" data-attributes="member: 9053">This is something that a lot of experienced GMs out there may say "duh" about, but I steal how PbtA does scene play and the Conversation. I think it was a game of Dungeon World with an excellent GM that sold me on this way of playing.First, I break the game into scenes where there's something the group wants to do. When they have done it, we move to what happens next, based on how it was resolved. That means I start with a narration of the situation, and then when things are resolved, I just move to what's next instead of spending a lot of time on things that are less important.And in the scene, I run the game as a Conversation. That is with a capital C, so it has to be important. What I mean by that is I start by setting the scene and then I just ask "what do you do now?" And I have the players just tell me what they want to do, using natural language. Not telling me about powers or spells, just what they're doing.Now if I need to know about how they're doing something I'll ask them, and then they can tell me about the special powers they have (that is if I don't remember it, which I can pick up on pretty fast). If there's a doubt, I frame it as a Task, and then make a Check on it. And when we're done, we just go back to me saying what the situation is now, and asking them what they do next.I also have a lot of room for them to ask questions and what their character knows about a situation. I run a lot of APs, and they typically have tons of background info that is just worthless if you don't get it out to the players, so if a character is skilled at something, I tell them about the situation. Otherwise all that info is just stuck as something I read.I know that may not sound like much, but following this simple process has made whatever game system I'm running so much better. It just becomes second nature. To me, this gives the players maximum agency, while keeping the game's pacing. Where is the game going? We're going to find out by playing.It does make the game more challenging, especially with an AP, where there are certain expectations for what happens next. Improvising and making sure my players bought in on the game's premise is how I do that. I run on Foundry and there is a module to quickly grab maps or item tokens, so I can quickly setup a scene when they decide to do something I hadn't planned. That's Moulinette  for those of you who also use Foundry.So that' what I do. Again, if you're experienced as a GM you have your own way of doing this, but playing and reading PbtA games made that all just click with me.</blockquote>

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