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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8633472" data-attributes="member: 82106">But this is both very common, and not necessarily the whole point. That is, even if play is 'freeform', what does that mean in terms of the model of play that a game like 5e cultivates? Wouldn't it STILL be GM-directed? That is, the GM invents the situations, and those situations are what dictate 'what the game is about', right? Even in the case of situations and non-linear play it is perfectly possible, likely, even typical, that the GM will design these situations such that they don't produce significant disruption (at least that is unplanned by the GM) to the setting itself. And yes, that setup is almost always one where the GM designs what the possibilities of change are, along which lines they fall, etc. When I ran a big 2e campaign back in the '90s that's exactly how things were put together. There was a preordained threat to 'civilization' and there were various different interest groups/factions which might be tapped to provide resources to resist it, but they all had their own agendas. The players didn't have any choice in any of this, it was all preordained, and the sequence of events that would take place without their intervention was also plotted out. This seems like a fairly typical non-linear approach (though I admit the scope of my ambition was rather larger than average, thus also the spectacularity of its failing when the players went off on their own tangent).I think the reference to modules was simply illustrative. This is a SUPER common form of play. The GM introduces a 'quest giver' in some form. The structure of the game/adventure/story arc is thus set, both in terms of what it engages and in the expected motivations and actions of the PCs.Sure, and my tastes on this differ somewhat from Pemerton's too. The point isn't that anyone posits a game where the participants are utterly free of non-fictional constraints. The question is what does the game expect of us? If it expects the PCs to subordinate any sort of personal agenda/character to other considerations then it is less focused on character's dramatic needs as articulated by the PLAYER and more on something else, which might still be dramatic needs (probably is if things are going OK) but doesn't have players deciding what they are (and even Story Now allows for 'setting' to provide motives, it just requires that players be given freedom to be protagonists, that is decide how they engage those needs). It is thus a critical difference where the focus of play comes from, not so much whether there are 'table constraints'.</blockquote>

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