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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8666163" data-attributes="member: 82106">I guess I would argue that this, at least in the case of common PbtAs like AW, DW, and Stonetop, kind of indirectly increases player authority since the player is given a number of mechanisms by which they can assert what the fiction is about. So in Dungeon World the GM is required to ask questions and use the answers. The players are not really constrained in how they answer (although one assumes genre and such are applicable, the table can always discuss any issues, which the rules do point out). The moves and bonds at various points also effectively represent players pointing at something in the game and saying "tell us about that thing!" which is certainly a level of authority that is not clearly allocated to them in more traditional games (but might be present).Aye, and ALL ELSE that Vince ever says (and I would basically say that RE must fundamentally agree with this) follows FROM THIS STATEMENT. RPGs are fundamentally, at the core of it, a group of people sitting at a table communicating and negotiating about a shared imaginary experience. This is fundamentally why there is a difference in character between GDS, for example, as I understand it, and GNS. GDS is addressing the 'stuff at the table' and classifying what is there based on certain traits, but GNS is about the PROCESS, entirely. Indie game theory in general is not really about the attributes of the game, it is only about the attributes of a group of people sitting at the table engaged in the activity of gaming. It may, from that perspective, derive ideas about game mechanics and whatever, but that is all secondary, that's process and technique which is employed. This is why you cannot, if you are being a purist at least, say that an RPG is 'Gamist' in the GNS sense of that term!But more to the point of this thread, the GM/player authority parsing is one of the more interesting characteristics of a given table which is playing. The written RPG itself can only ever really SUGGEST how things work, but suggestions are powerful. Honestly I think the biggest two sources of conception at the table about authority are related to history, and to the overall tone and voice of the RPG. How RP relates to certain genre expectations may also be fairly important, depending on the genre (IE there's a strong notion in the super hero genre that 'what is in the characters head' will be significant).</blockquote>

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