D&D 4E Reconciling 4e's rough edges with Story Now play

[niklinna]

As Vincent Baker started transitioning away from GNS, he played with this idea which I think relates nicely to your observation anyway: post a comment.

I like how he heads off any silliness right at the start. Haven't time to digest this right now but it's queued up to read later today!

What I wouldn't give for a well-organized archive of all this guy's writing....

Edit: FIxed a typo.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

What I am getting from your examples and description is that, while skill usage description screams task resolution, its onto us as players to follow through logically and take their results as binding and consequential in resolving the actual conflicts at stake.

That sounds about right I like the idea of players focusing on intent and the system providing resolution in those terms. Individual checks in an SC can be more limited to 'action resolution' but I like SC because it keeps the overall focus on goals.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I liked 4e
I really like PbtA games
I am unfamiliar with the idea of Story Now
Is there an ur-text on Story Now that I can read to get caught up on one of the premises of this thread?

 

[soviet]

I liked 4e
I really like PbtA games
I am unfamiliar with the idea of Story Now
Is there an ur-text on Story Now that I can read to get caught up on one of the premises of this thread?

The Forge :: Narrativism: Story Now

www.indie-rpgs.com

 

[niklinna]

The Forge :: Narrativism: Story Now

www.indie-rpgs.com

Also, I highly recommend reading the game Sorcerer, especially the annotated edition, by the same author. It could use some editing but it's a classic example of Story Now.

 

[deleuzian_kernel]

I liked 4e
I really like PbtA games
I am unfamiliar with the idea of Story Now
Is there an ur-text on Story Now that I can read to get caught up on one of the premises of this thread?

If you know PbtA you know Story Now in practice .

 

[Eyes of Nine]

If you know PbtA you know Story Now in practice .

Ah, thank you, that allows me to skip the tl;dr of that article

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I liked 4e
I really like PbtA games
I am unfamiliar with the idea of Story Now
Is there an ur-text on Story Now that I can read to get caught up on one of the premises of this thread?

As @andreszarta says, the way Dungeon World works, where there is no established setting except what is created during play and by the GM asking questions of the players in or preceding play is 'low myth', and Story Now is often paired with it, but literally means "the story happens now" as opposed to the GM wrote it yesterday "story before" or the players wrote it after they rolled some dice "story after". Not that you can't play Story Now with 'more myth', but it has to be a fairly neutral kind of myth that isn't pushing its own story. So, supers set in Gotham City is fine, its just a backdrop, or PCs in Middle Earth doing their own thing, etc.

 

[pemerton]

I liked 4e
I really like PbtA games
I am unfamiliar with the idea of Story Now
Is there an ur-text on Story Now that I can read to get caught up on one of the premises of this thread?

Here's a more provocative way of responding:

You know all those thread where I, @Manbearcat, @AbdulAlhazred and some other posters seem to be in disagreement with more "traditional" D&Ders who assume the centrality of GM-authored setting and backstory, GM adjudication by reference to a "hidden" set of notes, GM decision-making about what happens next, etc?

The views that we're articulating are (generally) "story now".

 

[pemerton]

Right! It’s onto the GM to hook into the PC as a protagonist and continue to provide them with hard decisions even at the face of incredible powers such as SoA.

<snip>

Seems like Eye of Alarm could very much be used as a consequence mitigator. If this were Blades in the Dark:
Spend 25 gp -> Position is now “controlled”.

Any ideas for how to use rituals like Detect Secret Doors? If we are playing 4e as a scene framing game without a naturalistic approach to running a dungeon environment, where do you see this ritual being useful? Going back to your description, it seems to me that either the PC's should already have an idea that there might be a secret door somewhere in their vicinity and this is an uncertain, yet quite reliable currency someone can spend to bring it all home. In other words, that the presence of a secret door is already part of the fictional circumstances of the ongoing conflict. Do you see Detect Secret Doors as also something that lets the PC pronounce the existence of a secret door where there wasn't one before? @pemerton thoughts on this?

What you way about Eye of Alarm sounds right.

I don't think I've seen Detect Secret Doors in play. I like your idea of using it to convert, say, a successful Dungeoneering check ("this seems like a place where secret doors might be") into an auto-success on Perception ("yep, and here it is"). The rulebooks have some examples of one skill check opening up another in a skill challenge, but this is a bit distinct because of its "director stance" nature.