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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MostlyDm" data-source="post: 6739382" data-attributes="member: 6788973">Iserith, after reconsidering some of your posts here, reading through your Twitter, and considering the first 2-and-bit transcripts that I have reviewed so far, I have come to a tentative conclusion. I sort of suspected it/alluded to it up thread quite a while ago. We have massively different goals from games. Your desired result is much more akin to a novel (your only real protest was that I was using a written transcript to form my opinion, so... Call it a live radio broadcast if done in person, if you like). You're interested in minimizing randomness and rolling, keeping people in character at all times if possible, and telling the story you want to tell. The characters aren't necessarily even  co-writers, they're supposed to *live* the story. It's closer to performance art, in a sense. That's a noble goal and it's clear your players respond well to it. I think it's fallen out of favor but I still like the Gamist/Narrativist/Simulationist distinction for some purposes. And... In the classic G/N/S breakdown I don't think there's any question where you fall, right? You're a narrativist through and through. I used to think I was a simulationist. But I'm not really. I'm a narrativist at heart, I just find I like it most when my focus is on pretending to be a similationist, and using the narrative and the game on a meta level to serve this purpose. As much as I respect your style, I don't totally agree. For one thing... When I want to write fiction, or engage in pure free form role playing, I do those things. I don't see D&D as the appropriate vessel, but it's cool that it works for your group. I relish the role of dice and random chance in changing the outcomes of events in ways I could never have foreseen. Minimizing rolls is not of any interest to me. If it was, I'd play a different game. D&D in particular has way worse roll randomness and narrative disruption than, say, FATE. These days I actually kind of avoid creating a true story/plot in the traditional sense.  Instead I create dozens and then hundreds and then thousands of characters with their own goals and skills and then unleash them.  I see the characters and the players as two distinct entities, with the PCs just another collection of characters in the world. I encourage my players to run multiple characters, and let them run my NPCs at times if it seems like they have a good handle on the personality involved. I let my players continually add to and change the game world when it makes sense. I don't worry overmuch about "spoiling" stuff; the concept starts to lose meaning when they have six characters apiece, in different locations and often working at cross purposes. Meta knowledge isn't necessarily seen as a bad thing. I've taken this to extremes lately, with various custom/home brew abilities that outright function at a meta level (such as retroactively declaring a previous action was done, almost a sort of flashback event.)The players exist outside the fiction, and know more than their characters. But when they assume the role of their characters, I expect them to play true. Most of the questions would occur in the space between the points where we delve into the scene in character. Man. I'm getting very philosophical here. I hope that made sense. I have more thoughts, but I have to get back to work.</blockquote>

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