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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gunderval" data-source="post: 3804210" data-attributes="member: 55919">many types of powerAn RPG is a system for creating events around characters that are interesting and hopefully tell a story as they face and deal with issues.  It is a way of defining who has the authority to do what in that process of creation - how possible events/desired events become accepted as what happened or are not so accepted or how they instead are randomly modified.  There are all sorts of ways to divide up this authority other than "some people define a character and act on world through what that character could do in it, one person defines everything else in world and provides adversity to the characters".Get a copy of Push (new thinking about roleplaying) from lulu.com and you will see, among many other goodies in it, a good breakdown of the range of elements in an RPG from setting that an RPG has to give someone "authority" over and how games in past decade have increasingly experimented with distributing this authority in different ways.Donjon or True 20's arabian setting for example, where (loosely translating into general example) a PC can with a Listen check can instead of hearing what the GM says, define what it is they hear.  This is a way of redistributing authority within the game.Burning Wheel, where you make a Circles check (a check against your familiarity with a certain type of person) to locate an NPC that you are defining and creating ~ who will exist pass or fail but fail will be a problem for you not a benefit.Mortal Coil where players define the magic system as play goes on using an in-game economy of resources.Universalis which does away with GM completely and instead creates and economy among players to reward providing GM like adversity and creating the content and actions of a story.Speaking as a GM, I prefer proactive, empowered players because that makes a more exciting game that is not just "my story unfolding".</blockquote>

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