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<blockquote data-quote="Merova" data-source="post: 1189182" data-attributes="member: 2505">Storytelling vs. ImmersionHi all!It's my preference as well. I'm totally into explorationist sim, with actor immersive stance. That's my favorite style of gaming. However, it isn't &quot;storytelling.&quot; Yes, stories may arise from the games, but that isn't the focus. The focus is in the exploration experience.In attaining this quality, I prefer games that include a decent degree of simulationist modeling, which is why I like Hero, GURPS, FUDGE, Tri-stat, and d20. These systems are capable of modeling many complex situations and challenges, while offering a simple resolution method.Because I am willing to invest time in become &quot;familiar&quot; with the ruleset, in actual play, the rules become transparent. They allow me to &quot;immerse&quot; myself in the situation. There's no &quot;bump&quot; time of calculating Storyteller or Shadowrun style dice pools, or doing the Earthdawn or Alternity resolution shifts, or complex Margin of Success adjudication like Unisystem or Deadlands, etc.This isn't a knock on any of these games. I like all of them, and have played campaigns using each system, but I found that their task resolution systems occasionally suffered in actual play due to their lack of systematic &quot;streamline.&quot;Nevertheless, none of these rulesets offer control over the narrative, only actions within the game experience. So, if you're interested in a game of &quot;storytelling&quot; then the rules cannot be transparent, because they are the tools by which the narrative experience is crafted.For instance, in the game octaNe, the basic resolution system is in controlling the narrative. When control is obtained, the player may narrate a scene right out of a Gamma World scenario. However, the scene is narrated not played. Obviously, this is a different experience from what you'd get in an actual Gamma World game. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />So, matters of preference aside, when discussing games that actively promote storytelling, you need to make a distinction between active narrative control and passive immersive experience. Hence, Trollbabe promotes &quot;storytelling&quot; and Storyteller promotes &quot;immersion.&quot;Thanks for reading.---Merova</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Merova, post: 1189182, member: 2505"] [b]Storytelling vs. Immersion[/b] Hi all! It's my preference as well. I'm totally into explorationist sim, with actor immersive stance. That's my favorite style of gaming. However, it isn't "storytelling." Yes, stories may arise from the games, but that isn't the focus. The focus is in the exploration experience. In attaining this quality, I prefer games that include a decent degree of simulationist modeling, which is why I like Hero, GURPS, FUDGE, Tri-stat, and d20. These systems are capable of modeling many complex situations and challenges, while offering a simple resolution method. Because I am willing to invest time in become "familiar" with the ruleset, in actual play, the rules become transparent. They allow me to "immerse" myself in the situation. There's no "bump" time of calculating Storyteller or Shadowrun style dice pools, or doing the Earthdawn or Alternity resolution shifts, or complex Margin of Success adjudication like Unisystem or Deadlands, etc. This isn't a knock on any of these games. I like all of them, and have played campaigns using each system, but I found that their task resolution systems occasionally suffered in actual play due to their lack of systematic "streamline." Nevertheless, none of these rulesets offer control over the narrative, only actions within the game experience. So, if you're interested in a game of "storytelling" then the rules cannot be transparent, because they are the tools by which the narrative experience is crafted. For instance, in the game octaNe, the basic resolution system is in controlling the narrative. When control is obtained, the player may narrate a scene right out of a Gamma World scenario. However, the scene is [i]narrated[/i] not [i]played[/i]. Obviously, this is a different experience from what you'd get in an actual Gamma World game. :) So, matters of preference aside, when discussing games that actively promote storytelling, you need to make a distinction between active narrative control and passive immersive experience. Hence, Trollbabe promotes "storytelling" and Storyteller promotes "immersion." Thanks for reading. ---Merova [/QUOTE]

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