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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libramarian" data-source="post: 5892156" data-attributes="member: 6688858">I like lots of PC-NPC interaction, but what's tripping me up is the word "storytelling". That's more of a word trap for me than gamism or immersion I guess.We don't really play for the plot, or character development -- that's good, but it's a secondary priority. World-building is more important, but still not really the focus. The players primarily play for XP, pretty much powergaming I suppose. But I as DM "force" them, if you will, to roleplay, because they have to make friends and contacts in order to get rumors and missions. I don't give them any quests just for showing up, they're not destined to be heroes. They have to explore around and talk to people and make alliances and deals, and generally ingratiate themselves into the political situation until they get information about what's up.(Basically all the good juicy stuff that the 4e DMG tells you to skip through to get to the next encounter.)So, probably pretty heavy on the roleplaying side, and yet not really because (a) I don't actually require or even reward the players for portraying consistent alternative personalities (they can just "be themselves" if they wish, UNLESS they choose a class with personality and conduct restrictions, such as the Paladin); and (b) none of us really make decisions during play specifically in order to produce the best story. The players play to get the XP and the loot, I as DM make this challenging, stimulating, and occasionally morally problematic.Would that be closer to 1 or 10 by your thinking?We really do have lots of roleplaying, and I would even say intrigue, but at the same time I would say that "cooperative storytelling" is very far away from our style. The players have no -- and no need for -- cooperative storytelling techniques like scene control, narrative declaration etc. They just move around, talk to people, fight things, and the story is whatever happens -- usually amusing, but also pretty basic and presumably less focused and coherent than it would be if we were more into storytelling as such.</blockquote>

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