NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8634751" data-attributes="member: 42582">As an alternative/supplement to [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] and friends' Stonetop thread, consider the following (from Burning Wheel):I don't have an actual play record of Thurgon persuading Aramina to fix his breastplate, but as I've posted already, my recollection is that it was a Duel of Wits (with the GM scripting - ie declaring actions - for Aramina).Here are some of the features of this play that exemplify its "story now" character:* The player has requested the scene - it was not instigated by the GM; * The scene in fact contains no GM-authored antagonism at all; * But the scene is not a mere interlude or transition scene - it involves conflict between two characters; * The broad framing for the conflict has been established via player-authored features of the character builds: Thurgon's Belief that "Aramina will need my protection" and "I am a Knight of the Iron Tower, and by devotion and example I will lead the righteous to glorious victory"; and Aramina's Beliefs that "I'm not going to finish my career with no spellbooks and an empty purse!" and "I don't need Thurgon's pity". * The resolution of the conflict will affect both means (does Thurgon have his armour at full strength?) and ends (where will the PCs go and what will they do?); it will also affect characters (what is the relationship between Thurgon and Aramina?); * The ends are not being chosen from among GM-authored possibilities, but are themselves player-instigated: the presence of Evard's tower has been established via a player-initiated Wises check; the presence of abandoned fortresses of the order has already been established as a component of the setting that flows from Thurgon's backstory and the GM's elaboration on that.The stakes are not especially high, certainly not world-shattering. But they are real. And this is not a sidequest or an interlude or a diversion - this is the game!EDIT: Upthread, [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] posted this:It's with this in mind that I've described not just the events, but key aspects of the authorship, and the principles that governed the participants' use of their authority (over scene-framing, in the GM's case, and over action declarations in the player's case).Which comes back to the contrast between "story now" and "high concept simulation"/"genre emulation"/"dramatism".Being dramatic or reflecting the characters is primarily a property of the fiction. And as [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] points out, any agenda has the potential to produce fiction that is dramatic or reflects characters, and high concept simulation frequently aspires to produce such fiction.What characterises story now play is who among the participants is expected to make "the point". Everything else flows from this, I think: the need for player action declarations to trump the GM's conception of and desire for the setting; where character dramatic needs come from; the need for an absence of system or social dictation of "right answers" or "right responses.</blockquote>

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