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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Realistic Consequences vs Gameplay
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8022817" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>There are various alternatives here.</p><p></p><p>One is to get the players to present the GM with a story idea. This can be done in various ways using various devices that may be better or worse fits for various systems.</p><p></p><p>In this thread I already mentioned a BW session where the player had chosen for his PC the belief <em>I'm not leaving Hardby without gaining some magical item to use against my brother</em>. So I started the session with the PC at a bazaar in Hardby where a peddler was offering to sell various curios and trinkets, including an angel feather from the bright desert.</p><p></p><p>A more player-driven technique to presenting the GM with a story idea is to use "kickers". Here's my take on that technique and some examples, from the first session of 4e Dark Sun:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>As well as player-generated story ideas, it is also possible to have this be determined via random rolls. This is how our Classic Traveller game started, as per my post not far upthread: random generation of PCs, starting world, a few other worlds and a patron all suggest a starting situation, and that can then be built on during play. To reiterate a bit, in our CT game relevant aspects of the starting situation included a PC with a navy background and working as a medic, a marine officer patron, a high-tech world, a dilettante PC who had just won a starship in a bet, a PC spy, and a likely destination world with a disease-riddled atmosphere. It was this combination of elements - random generation and then riffing on that - that propelled the PCs into a collision with bioweapons conspirators.</p><p></p><p>In all these cases, of course, nothing will happen if the players aren't intereseted in playing their PCs. But there's no requirement for them to buy into a story idea <em>that is presented to them by the GM</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8022817, member: 42582"] There are various alternatives here. One is to get the players to present the GM with a story idea. This can be done in various ways using various devices that may be better or worse fits for various systems. In this thread I already mentioned a BW session where the player had chosen for his PC the belief [I]I'm not leaving Hardby without gaining some magical item to use against my brother[/I]. So I started the session with the PC at a bazaar in Hardby where a peddler was offering to sell various curios and trinkets, including an angel feather from the bright desert. A more player-driven technique to presenting the GM with a story idea is to use "kickers". Here's my take on that technique and some examples, from the first session of 4e Dark Sun: [indent][/indent] As well as player-generated story ideas, it is also possible to have this be determined via random rolls. This is how our Classic Traveller game started, as per my post not far upthread: random generation of PCs, starting world, a few other worlds and a patron all suggest a starting situation, and that can then be built on during play. To reiterate a bit, in our CT game relevant aspects of the starting situation included a PC with a navy background and working as a medic, a marine officer patron, a high-tech world, a dilettante PC who had just won a starship in a bet, a PC spy, and a likely destination world with a disease-riddled atmosphere. It was this combination of elements - random generation and then riffing on that - that propelled the PCs into a collision with bioweapons conspirators. In all these cases, of course, nothing will happen if the players aren't intereseted in playing their PCs. But there's no requirement for them to buy into a story idea [I]that is presented to them by the GM[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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