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X Marks the Spot: Piratical Resources for your 5E game
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Players choose what their PCs do . . .
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7628617" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I don't think it sounds bad! Not quite my cup of tea, but that's a different less interesting matter.</p><p></p><p>A little while ago now I started a thread which tooks as its premise that there is a key puzzle-solving/learning-what-the-GM-is-thinking aspect in the sort of approach to fiction-creation you are (if I've understood you) describing here. I think this sort of play, which seems very prevalent, is under-analysed.</p><p></p><p>I think another avenue of exploration is around <em>what sorts of descriptions are up for grabs when checks are made</em> - who gets to decide what they are, and how do we choose between them? Many traditional combat systems offer fairly precise and sometimes fairly rigid answers to these questions, which I think may be what you're getting at here.</p><p></p><p>I think the issue of "invalidation", or as I sometimes put it in the affirmative <em>honouring player successes in checks</em> is a very interesting phenomenon. In my experience in quite few systems it is this principle which helps establish wider/richer descriptions, extrapolating from players' thinner descriptions plus (sometimes quite amorphous) hopes/expectations.</p><p></p><p>When that principle isn't applied (and I think there are some well-established approaches to some systems - at least D&D and CoC that I'm familiar with - where it often isn't applied) then players can't establish much beyond those thin descriptions.</p><p></p><p>When that principle is applied I think it's interesting to consider how we should think about who is driving the wider descriptions - eg even if the GM is doing it in a formal sense where are they getting their material from, what constraints do they apply to themselves, etc.</p><p></p><p>EDIT to add a reply to this:</p><p>I was leaving it open, though in the second of the middle paras (the safe example) I was imagining that we are using a check to establish the success of an action.</p><p></p><p>For instance, here is one way to set up a resolution system: player posits a description; GM counter-posits a description; a check is made; on a success player's posit is true in the fiction, on a fail the GM's is. (I'm taking it for granted that posited descriptions are genre and context appropriate; if that's up for grabs at the table then it will need to be sorted out before resolution can proceed.)</p><p></p><p>Burning Wheel played canonically works like this. Much of AD&D, played canonically, differs from this (some combat-ish elements might be partial exceptions if looked at in the right way).</p><p></p><p>So I think the relationship between <em>resolution </em>and <em>establishing true descriptions of PC actions</em> can be quite variable across actual and conceivable systems. And there are other things besides <em>resolution</em> that this is true of: eg what is the relationship between <em>stuff the GM writes down in advance of play</em> and <em>establishing true descriptions of PC actions</em>. In Cortex+ Heroic, not a lot; in classic AD&D, the relationship can be very tight (again with some combat-ish elements perhaps being exceptions); in PbtA the relationship is different again; etc.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7628617, member: 42582"] I don't think it sounds bad! Not quite my cup of tea, but that's a different less interesting matter. A little while ago now I started a thread which tooks as its premise that there is a key puzzle-solving/learning-what-the-GM-is-thinking aspect in the sort of approach to fiction-creation you are (if I've understood you) describing here. I think this sort of play, which seems very prevalent, is under-analysed. I think another avenue of exploration is around [I]what sorts of descriptions are up for grabs when checks are made[/I] - who gets to decide what they are, and how do we choose between them? Many traditional combat systems offer fairly precise and sometimes fairly rigid answers to these questions, which I think may be what you're getting at here. I think the issue of "invalidation", or as I sometimes put it in the affirmative [I]honouring player successes in checks[/I] is a very interesting phenomenon. In my experience in quite few systems it is this principle which helps establish wider/richer descriptions, extrapolating from players' thinner descriptions plus (sometimes quite amorphous) hopes/expectations. When that principle isn't applied (and I think there are some well-established approaches to some systems - at least D&D and CoC that I'm familiar with - where it often isn't applied) then players can't establish much beyond those thin descriptions. When that principle is applied I think it's interesting to consider how we should think about who is driving the wider descriptions - eg even if the GM is doing it in a formal sense where are they getting their material from, what constraints do they apply to themselves, etc. EDIT to add a reply to this: I was leaving it open, though in the second of the middle paras (the safe example) I was imagining that we are using a check to establish the success of an action. For instance, here is one way to set up a resolution system: player posits a description; GM counter-posits a description; a check is made; on a success player's posit is true in the fiction, on a fail the GM's is. (I'm taking it for granted that posited descriptions are genre and context appropriate; if that's up for grabs at the table then it will need to be sorted out before resolution can proceed.) Burning Wheel played canonically works like this. Much of AD&D, played canonically, differs from this (some combat-ish elements might be partial exceptions if looked at in the right way). So I think the relationship between [I]resolution [/I]and [I]establishing true descriptions of PC actions[/I] can be quite variable across actual and conceivable systems. And there are other things besides [I]resolution[/I] that this is true of: eg what is the relationship between [I]stuff the GM writes down in advance of play[/I] and [I]establishing true descriptions of PC actions[/I]. In Cortex+ Heroic, not a lot; in classic AD&D, the relationship can be very tight (again with some combat-ish elements perhaps being exceptions); in PbtA the relationship is different again; etc. [/QUOTE]
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