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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 7729219" data-attributes="member: 85870">Well, it's funny, because unless I was completely mis-interpreting what was happening, this is how my players felt playing Dungeon World. Here I was, trying to go completely out of my way to give them more creative freedom with their characters, more creative control, more opportunities to create and interact with the fiction, play a "Say yes or roll the dice" kind of game . . . and it ended up being the opposite. They could never decide what to do, because the rules simply didn't give them enough concrete/discrete information about the material effects mechanically. So in the end, it did start to feel like it was me, the GM, playing fiat all the time. Me, to Player 1: "Ummm, okay, you partially succeeded at your volley, so you do damage, but now [insert hard choice or tough circumstance]. Player: "Wait, what? It wasn't like that a second ago, what the heck's going on?"Me, to Player 2: "Okay, while Player 1 was shooting, your failed Discern Realities move from earlier comes back to haunt you. Some orcs are coming through the trees and they're now attacking, tossing spears in your direction. What do you do?"Player 2: "Wait, no! My character totally would have been aware of that! You're telling me all of that happened based off one failed Discern Realities? Come on, of course my character would have noticed! I fundamentally disagree with the premise of what's happening here."Me: "I'm just trying to represent the real state of the fiction, as interpreted by your successes/partial successes/failures on your triggered moves."I'm freely willing to admit I may simply not have been GM-ing correctly, but despite Dungeon World's proclamations to the contrary, my players felt that the locus of control had radically shifted into the GM's hands, and they were simply playing along.The one who struggled with it the most was the player with the extensive World of Warcraft background. Like, this guy has at least ten or eleven different level 80 characters, he's logged 5k+ plus hours on it. He has always struggled to some degree with pen-and-paper RPGs because he gets the idea in his head that there's always some button to push, some ability, some counter-move he can make that will help him avoid damage, negate an imminent threat, etc. For that reason, Dungeon World did not sit particularly well with him.</blockquote>

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