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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8306644" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Here is the thing about me that may be making some of my commentary non-transferable or incomprehensible to others.I come from an athletics and martial arts background.I spent ages 4 through college ruthlessly committed to baseball (of which I played through college). I spent most of that time period also playing basketball, football, wrestling, tennis, golf, and various track/running.I’m a Brown Belt and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (and I really have no excuse to not be a Black Belt other than losing interest primarily due to both rotator cuffs being torn multiple times and cervical injuries).I now spend much of my physical time working on being as good of a climber as I can be.My brain is absolutely oriented toward extreme focus on micro-goal-attainment. Part of this is genetic, but a HUGE part of the array of cognitive features that make that so is due to the mental demands of that physical life and the well-understood Best Practices approach to maximizing your capability (focus on what you can control and narrow your focus to the attainment of micro goals to the exclusion of the big picture).This has very much helped me to focus intensively on the moment and run scene-based games with obstacles and objectives.So when I look at any TTRPG tech, I look at it through that prism. When I run any scene, I look at it through that prism. If for whatever reason I don’t understand what players are trying to accomplish, I make it abundantly clear for all parties via direct conversation. We then set about mechanizing the test for “is this objective attained or not attained?” And I make that mechanical archetecture clear. I doubt players who come away from a game with me will ever be confused as to (a) what just happened or (b) how the gamestate was moved from here to there and how the content of the shared fiction was resolved.Now will this be different in a scene of Dogs in the Vineyard where you’re confronting your traumatic past (and making decisions about when/how to martial Traits/Relationships/Things and how to manage your dice pools/potential Fallout…and maybe when/if you Give) with your abusive Aunt…the same Aunt that you’re now obliged to try to exorcise a demon from…vs a social conflict in DW using a Tug of War Clock where you’re a Paladin trying to adjure a demon from a non-relative (and you’re simultaneously dealing with the various tech and subtle thematic divergence that underwrites this scene in each game)?ABSOLUTELY.But my brain has a very particular focus. And if I had to guess ([USER=1282]@darkbard[/USER] can correct me on this if I’m wrong), that focus comes through in play as distilling moments of play and objectives of play in an extremely clear fashion.That focus…that lack of murk and obfuscation…coupled with the clarity of ethos and mechanical effect of the games I run…we’ll, it feels very Win Con - ey to me!</blockquote>

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