Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9224412" data-attributes="member: 42582">What is the conflict in &quot;the goblins attack the tavern&quot;?Maybe the PCs yell out to the attackers &quot;Knock yourselves out!&quot; as they head off. Maybe they join in. Conflict requires opposition to the protagonists - the goblins attack the tavern doesn't involve any conflict, as we don't yet have any protagonist goals (such as defend the tavern).Suppose the players declare that their PCs run from the attacking goblins - where is the conflict? Who or what is opposing the PCs?I mean, the GM can &quot;assert&quot; goblins attack the tavern. And then the players &quot;assert&quot; we - the PCs - run away. The fiction will change, but I don't think this is very compelling fiction, nor very compelling RPG play. There is no conflict - no opposition to the protagonists' goals.The fiction is just that - fiction. So there are no real possibilities. There are different ideas about what might happen next. Those are the competing conceptions: &quot;conceptions&quot; here is a synonym of &quot;idea&quot;; and they are competing because their difference means they can't both be accepted by the participants as what happened next.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9224412, member: 42582"] What is the conflict in "the goblins attack the tavern"? Maybe the PCs yell out to the attackers "Knock yourselves out!" as they head off. Maybe they join in. Conflict requires opposition to the protagonists - [I]the goblins attack the tavern[/I] doesn't involve any conflict, as we don't yet have any protagonist goals (such as [I]defend the tavern[/I]). Suppose the players declare that their PCs run from the attacking goblins - where is the conflict? Who or what is opposing the PCs? I mean, the GM can "assert" [I]goblins attack the tavern[/I]. And then the players "assert" [I]we - the PCs - run away[/I]. The fiction will change, but I don't think this is very compelling fiction, nor very compelling RPG play. There is no conflict - no opposition to the protagonists' goals. The fiction is just that - [I]fiction[/I]. So there are no [I]real[/I] possibilities. There are different ideas about what might happen next. Those are the competing conceptions: "conceptions" here is a synonym of "idea"; and they are [I]competing[/I] because their difference means they can't both be accepted by the participants as [I]what happened next[/I]. [/QUOTE]

Verification