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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GrimGent" data-source="post: 3701194" data-attributes="member: 35421">Perhaps not a great story, no, but a story nevertheless.A little while ago at another forum someone asked me how a game session can produce any kind of a story if there's a chance that it will all end up with a random TPK. I answered: "Then it's the story of a TPK, of course. And if your character is killed by a housecat right after the game has started, why, then it is the story of how he goes out one day and is killed by a housecat; and before his death, it is just the story of him going out, and right after that it's the story of him getting attacked by the ferocious feline, and finally it's the story of him dying at the claws of the murderous moggie." Only the beginning, the initial circumstances usually determined by the GM, can be fixed in place. After that, you will be in the middle of a story that is generated gradually, action after action, round after round, until the end in which whatever problems were involved with that original situation have been resolved properly. That might mean returning to civilization with newfound fame and loot, or it might mean suffering a gruesome death. Most RPGs don't guarantee happy endings. But a TPK is still an ending in a very concrete sense.It's not the GM who's telling the story, you see. It's everyone at the table, and the tale only takes shape during the telling: as soon as you describe how your paladin slashes at a goblin, and as soon as the GM confirms the results, you have added another detail to it, although it won't be finished until later.</blockquote>

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