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Roleplaying in D&D 5E: It’s How You Play the Game
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8500727" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>But in an RPG the 'fluff' supplies REASONS for things to happen. Even in D&D, where they are the product of a single mind, the GM's, the players still make decisions based on this color, which then trigger more rules. I'm not saying I don't care about the color, I'm saying it is relevant to the play of the game. I'm saying I DO CARE about it, I want it to factor into the GAME part of my play, in a fairly direct way.</p><p></p><p>Sure, but the narrative of a checkers game is a mere recounting of moves, even if you embellish it. Nothing beyond the fact that a certain move was made by a player matters in checkers. The narrative is utterly separable from the game and the two do not interact. You cannot even narrate anything without making moves first, which never reference any narrative.</p><p></p><p>I'm not a guru of how people DO run Dungeon World or other PbtAs. Since I didn't write the game I will refrain from judging who is playing 'right' or 'wrong', the authors can judge that... In fact I have not spent much time at all, beyond reading some comments from [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] and [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] (maybe a couple others, not sure) about how it runs. Beyond that, I've run it, seemed like what I was doing was 'by the book' pretty much. I'd be amused to learn what these people you refer to think the game is supposed to be if not dramatically driven, and how they would square that with the game text though! The GM's job in DW is to make moves which increase the tension on the PCs, that is literally canonical. His job does not include telling a story or presenting a pre-written script. While genre and such present fictional position constraints (what you call ludic) they only present as modest constraints. Since there is no established fiction beyond what has been in the story (Story Now) there's very little 'logic' to be followed.</p><p></p><p>Literally we can analyze my off the cuff 'move' text. The PC needs gold in order to fulfill a dramatic need. Gold here being some sort of fiction which can only come true if risk is taken. The Spider King is presumably a villain or opponent of some kind whom it is fictionally appropriate to assign the role of 'stealing the gold'. This is clearly intended to accomplish the GM's function of putting pressure on the PC! This is an utterly classic 'soft move' in DW parlance. It would probably be delivered concretely in terms of maybe someone bringing news to the character that said theft has occurred. This would be something like a 'Reveal an Unwelcome Truth' though really it doesn't need any formalization. In classic fashion it would be followed by the PCs learning some additional information. Maybe the Spider King offers to give back the gold if the PC kills one of his friends (we can invent some in-game 'ludic' reason for this as-needed). The GM offers another option, track down the bad guy and confront him, but can it be done in time, only 3 days remain to obtain the gold! See, again, the whole structure is generated by and for putting pressure on the PC(s). I mean, this could be elaborated on all day, but everything that is going to go into that is 'drama logic', it builds story using dramatic elements. This is the very essence of DW, IMHO, though certainly not an exhaustive list of techniques.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8500727, member: 82106"] But in an RPG the 'fluff' supplies REASONS for things to happen. Even in D&D, where they are the product of a single mind, the GM's, the players still make decisions based on this color, which then trigger more rules. I'm not saying I don't care about the color, I'm saying it is relevant to the play of the game. I'm saying I DO CARE about it, I want it to factor into the GAME part of my play, in a fairly direct way. Sure, but the narrative of a checkers game is a mere recounting of moves, even if you embellish it. Nothing beyond the fact that a certain move was made by a player matters in checkers. The narrative is utterly separable from the game and the two do not interact. You cannot even narrate anything without making moves first, which never reference any narrative. I'm not a guru of how people DO run Dungeon World or other PbtAs. Since I didn't write the game I will refrain from judging who is playing 'right' or 'wrong', the authors can judge that... In fact I have not spent much time at all, beyond reading some comments from [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] and [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] (maybe a couple others, not sure) about how it runs. Beyond that, I've run it, seemed like what I was doing was 'by the book' pretty much. I'd be amused to learn what these people you refer to think the game is supposed to be if not dramatically driven, and how they would square that with the game text though! The GM's job in DW is to make moves which increase the tension on the PCs, that is literally canonical. His job does not include telling a story or presenting a pre-written script. While genre and such present fictional position constraints (what you call ludic) they only present as modest constraints. Since there is no established fiction beyond what has been in the story (Story Now) there's very little 'logic' to be followed. Literally we can analyze my off the cuff 'move' text. The PC needs gold in order to fulfill a dramatic need. Gold here being some sort of fiction which can only come true if risk is taken. The Spider King is presumably a villain or opponent of some kind whom it is fictionally appropriate to assign the role of 'stealing the gold'. This is clearly intended to accomplish the GM's function of putting pressure on the PC! This is an utterly classic 'soft move' in DW parlance. It would probably be delivered concretely in terms of maybe someone bringing news to the character that said theft has occurred. This would be something like a 'Reveal an Unwelcome Truth' though really it doesn't need any formalization. In classic fashion it would be followed by the PCs learning some additional information. Maybe the Spider King offers to give back the gold if the PC kills one of his friends (we can invent some in-game 'ludic' reason for this as-needed). The GM offers another option, track down the bad guy and confront him, but can it be done in time, only 3 days remain to obtain the gold! See, again, the whole structure is generated by and for putting pressure on the PC(s). I mean, this could be elaborated on all day, but everything that is going to go into that is 'drama logic', it builds story using dramatic elements. This is the very essence of DW, IMHO, though certainly not an exhaustive list of techniques. [/QUOTE]
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