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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 5815631" data-attributes="member: 58416">Again, I'd have to say both.  I suppose the best way to describe my view is that the story of the game is a collaboration between the Gm and the Players.  The GM might very well be the person who builds the world and places things where they are, but that doesn't mean that the GM as an out-of-game entity decides what the pieces of the world do once the game is set in motion.  Those pieces have their own motivations; those motivations might interact with the players or they might not.  The game world (and I suppose by extention the GM) might determine that certain paths of action are more correct than others in a situation.  Say the PCs want to get an audience with the king.  Hacking through the king's guards and taking him hostage is an option, but -under typical circumstances- that's probably a poor way to handle it.  As GM, I would never tell players that is the wrong way to handle it; I'd simply present the world in such a way that seems real and consistent enough that players -when looking through the eyes of their players- they will (ideally) be capable of making a decision which seems best suited to them and the outlook of their character.  I'm having difficulty expressing what I'm trying to say..."There is no per se tension between a rich backstory and narrativist play  - provided that the players are allowed to do stuff with that  backstory. If the GM is controlling all the revelations and  developments, that suggests a lack of player protagonism, and therefore  sim rather than narrativism."In response to that, I'd have to say it's a little of both.  The game world does have things going on independent of the players.  Simultaneously, the players are also allowed to explore things on their own and choose what they do or don't interact with.  Choose is a poor word though; since the world (and the pieces/characters in it) has its own motivations, those motivations may at times cross paths with a PC simply due to how things play out and organically grow from the seeds planted in the game.  The players are free to make their own story, but that story may (or may not) cross paths with or come into conflict with a separate but simultaneously existing story generated by a game world event and/or NPC.I'm not sure if this analogy helps, but I suppose I view it like trying to sew a garment.  As the GM, I choose some of the styles and colors of material to include by placing those elements in the game world.  The players also have styles and colors they each choose by virtue of making a character (and possibly a background.)  How those threads end up weaving together is something I prefer to leave up to natural progression of story, stories, and the game world.  I might end up with a pair of pants; I might end up with a hat; I might end up with a blanket, but I don't know which it will be ahead of time.</blockquote>

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