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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8998856" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think this is an interesting point of contrast between neo-trad and "story now".I'll elaborate a bit (and will necessarily have to speak with a degree of generality, and assume certain paradigms of what neo-trad and story now are).Let's take as a premise that the way a player expresses their character is via action declaration.When we ask what is an action the answer is quite complicated. To allude to a famous example from the philosopher Donald Davidson, when I declare an action for my bard who is sitting in the tavern any and all of the following might be true of that single action:*I wink; *I wink at the barmaid; *I make the barmaid smile; *I gain an ally in the town; *I melt the barmaid's heart; *I make myself vulnerable to how the barmaid responds.In "story now" play, truths about the action that appear further down my list will tend to be important. These are what set up the scope for conflict in play, for challenges to the character, for rising action and climax, for dramatic fall out that leaves the character changed forever.As a result, the actual process of resolution can probably focus on those things, which get their "texture" and their "definition" from the richness of the fiction and the dramatic trajectories that they are part of. It is not super-important that - for instance - making the barmaid smile have a different resolution process from threatening someone with a knife or even stabbing someone with a knife.On the other hand, I think in neo-trad play it is descriptions closer to the top of my list that will tend to be important, precisely because of the general hesitance to push towards conflict or challenge to the character. In which case, the fiction on its own will tend not to generate the same degree of and distinctness of texture and definition, and the actual mechanical expression might therefore become more important.</blockquote>

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