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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8677387" data-attributes="member: 6696971">So different systems do quite different things and I would frame what those things are not in terms of "GM's goal" but in terms of "system's goal."  If the participants at the table want to do what that system does, play that system.  If they want to do what this other system does, then play this other system.So I answered this a bit in my post directly above, but it also dovetails with my answer to your first question.Take Torchbearer (one of the games I mentioned above).  Torchbearer is a multi-phased game (Journey > Adventure > Camp > Town).  Adventure phase will never, ever see Solo play.  The system isn't designed for it.  Its the most brutal sort of D&D that has ever been conceived of and executed.  Go it alone and prepare for an early retirement at best or a dirtnap more likely.  The game is predicated upon marshaling a lot of resources across 3-4 Adventurers (Inventory/Light Sources, Skills, Nature/Descriptors, Wises, Fate/Persona, among others).  You just can't deal with the demands of the Adventure phase (I won't go into it deeply, but its brutally resource-sensitive and Turn-sensitive).Contrast with Stonetop.  Those PCs can absolutely deal with solo scenes either in Stonetop or chasing down an Opportunity or executing A Plan (these are both Pronouns) beyond the walls of Stonetop by Requisitioning (a Move) Assets (Stonetop personnel like guards or experts or a mighty steed or a pair of horses and a wagon).  A GM might be cutting back and forth between 3 different play loops in the course of a session (perhaps 1 PC in Stonetop dealing with an internal Threat, 1 other PC pursuing an Opportunity outside of Stonetop who has Requisitioned a pair of Horses and a guard, and a pair of PCs off on a far-flung Perilous Journey as they deal with a Threat to Stonetop).  Its all in (a) what the game is in service to overall and (b) the systemitized execution of that service (see my post directly above).  A game that doesn't know what it wants to do (fails (a) ) or knows what it wants to do ( (a) ) but isn't designed particularly well (fails at (b) ) will harm a play experience and require a work-around (if that is even worth the trouble).  But there are plenty of games that do both of (a) and (b)lTorchbearer and Stonetop among them.  Just don't go into Torchbearer expecting the sort of play that Stonetop is for and produces and vice versa.</blockquote>

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