NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5179458" data-attributes="member: 26473">Okay, I'm not EW, but I'm going to take a hack at these.I think most of us are trying to convey that "story" in the sense of the tale of the adventurers' exploits after they happen is different from "story" in the sense of planning a series of structured encounters or adventurers leading to a climax of some sort. The former is an emergent feature only recognizible as such after the events of the game transpire.If I were a member of the Forge, I might draft a lengthy treatise on the properties of, "Story After!"If by "scene" you mean a place and its associated features and by "actor" you mean someone or something which does something, then I'd say you're using the words the same way I might in reference to a game.If you're using "scene" in the sense of a subset of an act and "actor" as in someone playing a role, then no, that's not at all how I would use them.This is one of the reasons, by the way, I've become very choosy about what words I'll use in describing my roleplaying game experiences. In another thread recently I talked about improvising, and someone else agreed but used an example of improvisation that I consider an anathema.This again is predicated on how you're using "story arc." Is it the events of the game described after they occur, or is it part of the particpants' planning process for the game?Frex, I suppose you could say that the last game I ran, Traveller, featured a 'story arc,' which was the experiences of the crew of merchanters trading between star systems. However, my 'planning' for the game consisted of rolling random encounters and skinning them to fit the setting. The game produced a story, but none of the events of that story were known in advance of actually playing the game.The decisions and movements of the merchanters in my Traveller game had consequences and results, and the players had a virtually unlimited palate of choices limited only by their resources, all played out against a richly detailed setting, and there was nary an adventure path or story arc to be found.Once again, e pur si muove.Let's say you're running a game with no pre-planned adventures and no story arc . . . now how well does this apply?I would argue the opposite: some are framing ideas like "story," "scene," and so forth way too loosely.If I write something in my notes on a location like, "The guards at the gate to the chateau will only admit those with business with Baron de Bauchery as evidenced by an invitation bearing his seal," it appears that some here are ready to exclaim, "See! You've created a scene, with characters, so that's a story!" It's getting pretty silly.</blockquote>

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