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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9678272" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think it's a mistake to look at interesting fiction, and then - when thinking about how a RPG might replicate it - to bring in ideas that assume a basically D&amp;D-esque structure of player and GM moves.Because if that assumption is made, then - as Hickman worked out over 40 years ago - the answer will always be the way to get interesting fiction is for the GM to use their authority, even if that means overriding the normal heuristics, procedures and mechanics.Instead, we can look at how to take the most basic feature of RPGing - the GM presents a situation in which certain characters are present, and the players, by &quot;controlling&quot; those characters, act out responses to the presented situation - and arrange it and guide it so that interesting things are apt to happen.This is where principles like Make the PCs lives not boring and related moves like Provide an opportunity, with or without a cost become salient.It's not about storytelling. It's about how to frame situations. And it's not undercutting verisimilitude. Who's to say that what happened in the tower of Cirith Ungol, when Frodo was taken prisoner there, is lacking in verisimilitude? Maybe it's just a particularly stark demonstration of a truth about Orcs in particular, and evil in general.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9678272, member: 42582"] I think it's a mistake to look at interesting fiction, and then - when thinking about how a RPG might replicate it - to bring in ideas that assume a basically D&D-esque structure of player and GM moves. Because if that assumption is made, then - as Hickman worked out over 40 years ago - the answer will always be [I]the way to get interesting fiction is for the GM to use their authority, even if that means overriding the normal heuristics, procedures and mechanics[/I]. Instead, we can look at how to take the most basic feature of RPGing - the GM presents a situation in which certain characters are present, and the players, by "controlling" those characters, act out responses to the presented situation - and arrange it and guide it so that interesting things are apt to happen. This is where principles like [I]Make the PCs lives not boring[/I] and related moves like [I]Provide an opportunity, with or without a cost[/I] become salient. It's not about [I]storytelling[/I]. It's about [I]how to frame situations[/I]. And it's not undercutting verisimilitude. Who's to say that what happened in the tower of Cirith Ungol, when Frodo was taken prisoner there, is lacking in verisimilitude? Maybe it's just a particularly stark demonstration of a truth about Orcs in particular, and evil in general. [/QUOTE]

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