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="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8249883" data-attributes="member: 6696971">MHRP (Cortex+) and Masks (PBtA) are the games I've run that cover this genre.However, to be honest, you can look at Dungeon World as a super hero game as the Classes aren't careers/common nouns.  They're proper nouns, archetypes just like in a Super Hero game.  You aren't a Fighter.  You're the Fighter.  4e Story Now play with its Themes, Paragon Paths, and Epic Destinies cover this same ground (people aren't playing the same Themese/Paths/Destinies...so they're the, not a).Broadly, (a) they work well, but, like all Story Now play, (b) the game cannot be generically premised, (c) characters need to be aggressively and clearly themed, and (d) play orbits around this premise and these themes with GMs framing provocative situations that engage with premise and themes.So:* Premise play with a measure of specificity (it doesn't have to be hyper-specific, but with some level of specificity) that focuses play but doesn't narrow it to a singularity from which there is no escape.  It can (and will) become more specific as play continues, but it cannot be generic at the outset.  Now there is a fine line here, TOO much specificity can also cause problems because you're leaving no room for premise to sharpen during play.  But the hyper-generic D&D mercs/adventuring troupe pulling treasure from dungeon delves is WAAAAAY too generic.  At the opposite end of the spectrum is "x archetype doing y thing to ensure z outcome" can (and typically does) create a Story Before inertia.* Aggressively theme characters and (as I said in the other thread) players should be leading their PC and following them simultaneously.  Its kind of like Blades' Act Now, Plan Later, principle for players but applied in a different area.  Give them meaning, give them direction, but don't conceive or demand outcomes.  There has to be a curiosity and an impulsivity that heavily balances out the urge for advocacy.  Don't get me wrong, advocacy is going to be there.  But it can't overwhelm curiosity and impulsivity.* Play orbits around this premise and these themes with GMs framing provocative situations that engage with premise and themes.GMs aren't framing premise-neutral or theme-neutral scenes.  Their job is to provoke the players to action, action that addresses premise and engages with player-flagged themes.  The players' job is to answer that call to action aggressively, with care, curiosity, but also impulsivity.  The story will accrete (NOW) around this stuff until all questions are resolved (in some way) and characters are changed (rinse/repeat).</blockquote>

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