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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 8417362" data-attributes="member: 85870">Tossing my hat back in the ring for as second --- Quick note for [USER=6915329]@Faolyn[/USER] -- Powered by the Apocalypse / Forged in the Dark games didn't fully make sense to me until I played Ironsworn.Honestly, if you want to really get a feel for what it should feel like, pick up the free Ironsworn PDF and try running a solo adventure just for yourself using the basic premises, principles, and the "oracles" provided. It's completely designed to handle a game where you are playing solo by yourself, with no GM. Or try it with one other player using the "No GM" mode together.If you can do that for 1.5-3 hours and find the results to be engaging and compelling, you're on the right track. For me, that's exactly what I did before I presented Ironsworn to my players. And it completely unlocked the mindset for me of the way it should be played. What [USER=99817]@chaochou[/USER] and [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] are saying is that there's an approach and mindset to PbtA / FitD play that isn't always readily apparent from reading the rules. You can read/hear/comprehend the principles and approaches, and have a relatively good notion of what play should look like, but it was the actual play of Ironsworn where I was finally able to grasp what the mindset of play looks like in the moment.You have to have the ability to frame a situation in your mind based on the fiction that has preceded the current moment, derive possible outcomes and path branches, and then fully commit to bringing the fiction back in line with the outcomes of your choices, moves, and fate (dice). You cannot hold to any preconceived idea of what "was" or what "should be." There is only the inevitable "what is now", being informed by the entire cycle of play.If that sounds too "meta" compared to what you're used to, it's because, as mentioned, the in-the-moment mindset during play bears almost no resemblance to the mindset during a game of D&D.And that can be good or bad, depending on your preferences!In context of a "mystery" / investigation scenario, they're exactly right --- in PbtA, key components of the entire scenario may change and change drastically as the result of any number inputs based on adhering to the principles of play. And there are reasons for that to be the case. As a GM you have to be willing to completely withhold judgment / keep ideas hanging in the balance until scenes and moves play out in front of you. Only then can you fully put the transpiring events back into context and shape the fiction to fit the new reality of what is happening to your character now.It really is hard to explain in words. Like I said, for me, playing Ironsworn solo is what unlocked the appropriate mental state / approach in ways that had never happened previously with Dungeon World.A mystery/investigation in a PbtA game has almost nothing to do with the "sussing out what actually happened and feeling awesome about what great detectives we are," a la Hercule Poirot. It's more about, "what does the outcome and influence of the events that transpired during this investigation have to do with who my character is, what is challenging his/her core beliefs and place in the world, and what will it drive him/her to do next?"Obviously Ironsworn has differences in presentation and mechanics compared to "stock" Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark, but the overall approaches and mindset should carry over ~95% directly to other PbtA / FitD systems. However, if you're the type of player that finds typical "GM procedural investigations + players in actor stance" gameplay to be the ultimate realization of RPG greatness, truthfully you'll probably bounce off of PbtA / FitD pretty hard.One final note --- be careful poking [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] and [USER=99817]@chaochou[/USER] (and [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] and [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] for that matter) about how much they do or don't understand about running "D&D". They probably understand better than most just exactly what D&D's strengths and weaknesses are. Assessing their comments about D&D and coming to the conclusion that "Well, they probably just had crappy GMs" is well-meaningly misguided at best, and laughably uninformed at worst. But let that pass!TL;DR -- Try Ironsworn, if you like it, you'll probably find PbtA games to your liking.</blockquote>

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