D&D General Player-generated fiction in D&D

[Aldarc]

Often I read some of these posts and I can't help but wonder if i'm using D&D wrong?

More often then not, I see posters here telling people like @pemerton that they are the ones using D&D wrong.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Often I read some of these posts and I can't help but wonder if i'm using D&D wrong?

Right? Wrong? There are different styles of play, would you be using a bass wrong if you play R&B instead of Pop Rock? Same thing, but in the same way different instruments suite different musical genres, different games and techniques fit different styles of play. Anyway, I think 'player generated fiction' can cut across all of them and also is a pretty expansive category of thing.

 

[GMMichael]

Sure, PCs can have more ownership over the game's fiction. And as @Oofta points out, it's not an either/or situation. But what about the why?

Are the players going to a session to play their game? Or are they going to play the GM's game? Do the players feel any ownership (for lack of a better word) over the game or the setting? Or is it disposable?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Sure, PCs can have more ownership over the game's fiction. And as @Oofta points out, it's not an either/or situation. But what about the why?

Are the players going to a session to play their game? Or are they going to play the GM's game? Do the players feel any ownership (for lack of a better word) over the game or the setting? Or is it disposable?

I see it as a question about what the game is exploring, the characters or the setting. A module/AP/etc. type pre-written fiction approach is fundamentally, at some core level, putting the milieu and setting at the center. That's not a bad or good thing, and that kind of play can put a lot of attention onto characters, but it will be in reference to the greater environment. Or things characters do might effectively be 'on the side', etc. There are a wide variety of possibilities.

Likewise if you start with the characters at the center and build action around them, flowing from them, with them as true protagonists, that could feature no established setting/fiction at all, or it could be placed within the context of a pretty elaborate setting. In the later case, however; this setting will be less about pushing any specific plot or list of options on the players and probably more about constraining the action within a certain premise.

I think there's plenty of room to discuss fiction and where it comes from in all of these sorts of games.

 

[KYRON45]

More often then not, I see posters here telling people like @pemerton that they are the ones using D&D wrong.

So what your saying is....you can't use D&D wrong!!!

 

[Aldarc]

So what your saying is....you can't use D&D wrong!!!

I'm saying that people often tell people like pemerton that they are the ones using D&D wrong. That's all.

 

[Reynard]

Given the frequency with which people indicate that immersion is important to them, I am not sure that player authored fiction is particularly desirable in D&D. All meta-mechanics break immersion to some degree, and letting players declare truths about the world rather than discover them is the ultimate meta-mechanic.

 

[Oofta]

I'm saying that people often tell people like pemerton that they are the ones using D&D wrong. That's all.

I don't know that I've seen that, although some people have me blocked.

What I have seen is disagreement on terminology. Perhaps there has been push back on implications that others are playing wrong or that other approaches are better, although whether any of that is intentional or just typical issues of online conversations.

 

[Theory of Games]

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DMG pp 73-5: "When a player’s turn comes up in a skill challenge, let that player’s character use any skill the player wants. As long as the player or you can come up with a way to let this secondary skill play a part in the challenge, go for it. . . . players can and will come up with ways to use skills you do not expect. . . . Characters might have access to utility powers or rituals that can help them. These might allow special uses of skills, perhaps with a bonus. Rituals in particular might grant an automatic success or remove failures from the running total. . . . Thinking players are engaged players. In skill challenges, players will come up with uses for skills that you didn’t expect to play a role. Try not to say no."​

So. Lemme git this straight: when playing D&D 4e, say I have a Fighter who wants to climb a wall. I can use Diplomacy to climb a wall? Arcana?

Thank you. I had no idea this rule, the STUPIDEST rule I've ever seen for a D&D edition, existed. Probably because I didn't waste time or money on the WotC dumpster-fire that was 4e. "Try not to say no?"

 

[Oofta]

So. Lemme git this straight: when playing D&D 4e, say I have a Fighter who wants to climb a wall. I can use Diplomacy to climb a wall? Arcana?

Thank you. I had no idea this rule, the STUPIDEST rule I've ever seen for a D&D edition, existed. Probably because I didn't waste time or money on the WotC dumpster-fire that was 4e. "Try not to say no?"

To be fair, the player can ask to use some other skill, doesn't mean the DM has to allow it.