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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5808191" data-attributes="member: 2067">The tension is as old as fiction.Are you a plot-based game or a character-based game?Most games are probably a bit of both, but some go to one extreme or the other, and have plenty of fun there. Plot-based games are more "GM-active." GM says stuff happens. Orcs invade. Earthquakes strike. Bad guys do bad things. Players mostly react to whatever happens (though they can certainly react in their own ways and choose their own paths -- some characters might save NPC's in an orc invasion, others would go fight the orc chief, others would flee as far and as fast as they can).Character-based games are more "PC-active." PC's have goals and desires and do things. Paladins seek the chalice. Thieves want to rob the temple. Fighters want to avenge the deaths of their wartime comrades. The DM mostly reacts to whatever happens (though she can certainly introduce her own twists -- a dragon guarding the chalice, a puzzle protecting the temple, a great necromancer raising the corpses of the wartime enemies...).Again, most folks probably hit somewhere in the middle. Sometimes, the characters have an idea, and the DM says whether or not that's possible. Sometimes, the DM has an idea, and the characters have to react to what happens. But even at the extremes, you can find a fun game.What Monte is talking about here is the micro level mechanic, though. How does anything get accomplished in D&D? How does your character hit the orc, or throw the switch, or otherwise interact with the world? You say you want your character to do something, and the DM says how it is done, and what happens as a result. Then, after the result, you say what you want to do next.Since the DM doesn't dictate character actions (even in a heavily plot-based game), even a game where the characters are mostly reacting is a game that follows that micro-level mechanic. If an earthquake hits, your character gets to do something to react, and then the DM decides the result, and then your character gets to react to that result, etc...</blockquote>

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