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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8103337" data-attributes="member: 42582">This is an interesting issue when it intersects with pre-gens, which [USER=6785785]@hawkeyefan[/USER] mentioned above.I like the way that Marvel Heroic RP handles this - the pregen PCs have what are called Milestones. A Milestone is a list of events that fall under an overarching thematic label which, when they occur, earn XP for the character. Eg Captain America has the Milestone "Avengers Assemble!":1 XP when you first lead a team. 3 XP when you defeat a foe without any team member becoming stressed out. 10 XP when you either convince a hero to join a new Avengers team or disband your existing team.Wolverine has "Old Friends, Old Enemies":1 XP when you declare someone an old ally or foe. 3 XP when you aid your old ally in a buddy situation or deal trauma to your old foe. 10 XP when you declare your old ally is now an enemy or vice versa.And as per the rulebook (MHRP OM107), "once you hit [the 10 XP] trigger you’ve reached your Milestone. You may now close  out the Milestone and choose a new one. If it makes sense within the story, you can choose the same Milestone again".The practical effect of this mechanical structure, at least as I've experienced it in play, is that the players start by leaning their character into the preconception/stereotype suggested by the Milestone, but as the inplay situation develops can push for it or against it - because the 10 XP trigger always has the twin possibilities which admit of multiple interpretations. And then the new Milestone can be written up or cribbed to reflect the new direction the PC is heading in.In the rulebook, rather than advice on "plot hooks", there is the following (MHRP OM106):As the Watcher [= GM], you don’t have Milestones to keep track of for your Watcher characters. Instead, you can help the players by framing Scenes and establishing situations that encourage them to pursue their Milestones. Keep a list of which Milestones are in play, and use them as a guide . . .Because of the way Milestone are written, the encouragement will be in the form of provocative opportunities rather than preconceived outcomes. [USER=99817]@chaochou[/USER] referred to players, not PCs.Whether or not the (imagined) world revolves around the (imagined) characters is a question of genre and detailed fictional content. It may be somewhat true in (say) a supers game. It's probably also true in a sci-fi game if "the world", for practical purposes, is the PC's ship and the only events we care about are those taking place in that immediate vicinity.But if we talk about the real people in the real world, and their authority over various aspects of fiction-creation in a RPG, then it is not really possible to reconcile the GM has control of the game with the GM plays to find out what happens. When you are deciding things you are not discovering them.Plot hooks, in the sense of entry-points into a series of events whose broad contours (at least) have already been authored, are not consistent with playing to find out what happens in the sense that Vincent Baker uses that phrase in AW. (And as far as I know the phrase has no currency or meaning in RPGing prior to that use of it.)</blockquote>

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