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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9540580" data-attributes="member: 42582">Fun fact: The Apocalypse World rulebook doesn't use the word "story" at all. In a few places it enjoins the GM to "NOT pre-plan a storyline" (the quote is from p 108), and in the acknowledgements it mentions that "The entire game design follows from “Narrativism: Story Now” by Ron Edwards. (I'm referencing the original edition here; I don't know about the second ed.)The Burning Wheel Gold Hubs and Spokes (which anyone can download for free if they wish to read it: <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/98542/burning-wheel-gold-hub-and-spokes" target="_blank">DriveThruRPG</a>) does use the word story. I don't think the use is ambiguous. Here are some examples (from pp 10-11,13-14, 24, 32, 59, 72):One of you takes on the role of the game master. The GM is responsible for challenging the players. He also plays the roles of all of those characters not taken on by other players; he guides the pacing of the events of the story; and he arbitrates rules calls and interpretations so that play progresses smoothly. Everyone else plays a protagonist in the story. Even if the players decide to take on the roles of destitute wastrels, no matter how unsavory their exploits, they are the focus of the story. The GM presents the players with problems based on the players’ priorities. The players use their characters’ abilities to overcome these obstacles. To do this, dice are rolled and the results are interpreted using the rules presented in this book. . . . Burning Wheel is very much a game. While players undertake the roles of their characters and embellish their actions with performance and description, rolling the dice determines success or failure and, hence, where the story goes. . . . Testing abilities is a good thing! Not only do tests drive the story by providing tangible results for our actions, they allow the character a chance to improve his abilities and attain greater heights. . . . Dice rolls called for by the GM and players are the heart of play. These are tests. They determine the results of conflicts and help drive the story. . . . When a player sets out a task for his character and states his intent, it is the GM’s job to inform him of the consequences of failure before the dice are rolled. . . . Failure is not the end of the line, but it is complication that pushes the story in another direction. . . . Character traits . . . help capture our imaginations and immerse us in the story. . . . Unless there is something at stake in the story you have created, don’t bother with the dice. Keep moving, keep describing, keep roleplaying. But as soon as a character wants something that he doesn’t have, needs to know something he doesn’t know, covets something that someone else has, roll the dice. Flip that around and it reveals a fundamental rule in Burning Wheel game play: When there is conflict, roll the dice. There is no social agreement for the resolution of conflict in this game. Roll the dice and let the obstacle system guide the outcome. Success or failure doesn’t really matter. So long as the intent of the task is clearly stated, the story is going somewhere.The use of "story" here to mean (something like) sequence of fictional events that manifests premise/theme, rising action, crisis, etc doesn't cause any problems, in my view. It helps make clear how the game is intended by its designer to work.</blockquote>

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