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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 9381696" data-attributes="member: 6696971">[USER=6685541]@BookTenTiger[/USER] , [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] gave you several reasons why 5e is a pretty difficult ask in terms of running a fully-fledged Story Now game.  The game engine doesn't possess the integrated qualities that make most Story Now games go (and this is by design, because its very much intentfully designed in the Traditional, GM-Storyteller model).  I ran it off-and-on from 16-19 as a stand-in GM and those games were basically Vanilla Narrativism.  Don't overwhelm yourself with this project.  Think small and build outward.  Start with the most important, base substrate elements of Story Now games and see how that goes:* The premise of play needs to be absolutely clear to all participants and PC build is central to that.* The players need to be aggressively, boldly, overtly flagging content they're interested in engaging with.  Not outcomes of play they want to happen (that sort of player-side railroading is anathema to Story Now play...the players need to be curious and "hold on lightly" to conceptions and aspirations same as the GM), but conflicts they're interested in engaging with to find out what happens (while aggressively advocating for their PC's interests via system).  This sort of stuff should be clearly signaled through PC build and through action declarations they make in the course of play.Keep the metachannel open about this stuff and update it as needed.  Being coy or trying to subvert clear communication on this subject is almost surely going to lead to problems.* Make situation-framing and make action resolution dynamics (DCs, the prospective consequence-space as the players are mulling their decision-space) utterly table-facing and transparent.  The game layer should not be hidden from the players at_all.* High resolution setting backstory that serves as a hard constraint on the outputs of actual play is a dead-end...its kryptonite for Story Now play (because its basically "Story Before" and serves to foil the "play to find out" quality of Story Now play and also subverts where the focus of play should be; on the PCs rather than setting canon).  So if you're playing in an established setting, ease up on canon entirely.  Use setting stuff as inputs for situation-framing sure, but let the actual play decide the canonical elements as you go...and never make that stuff the focus of play (unless its going to feed right back into follow-on situation-framing around stuff that is fundamental to PC premise/theme).If you just do that stuff, you'll get in the neighborhood of Vanilla Narrativism.  5e as a system will fight you, but you can figure that out with your players as you go (and smooth out the rough edges of system where you are able).[HR][/HR]All of that stuff should lead to (a) clear premise that the players are in charge of (this is "player protagonism" in a nutshell), (b) conflicts/on-screen action that are always intimately relevant to PCs (this is that prior (a) happening in the moment-to-moment and throughline of play), and (c) an inverted orientation to "who has the breadcrumbs (players, system) and who is following the trail (everyone)" vs the Traditional GM Storyteller model where the GM has the breadcrumbs and the players are following the trail. And again, for good measure...no one should be holding onto strong conceptions or being unwilling to let aspirations go when the churn of play says "sorry...things are going sideways."  Everyone should embrace "sideways."  Player-side railroading is as much a problem for Story Now games as is GM-side railroading.Finally, finally...you know how the "Instigator" player archetype and "Main Character Syndrome" archetype have forever been used as epithets for players in Traditional TTRPG circles?  Invert that.  Anyone who isn't stirring crap up as an Instigator archetype and/or who doesn't "bring the protagonism" (characters possessing clear and intense dramatic needs/goals/beliefs and players boldly and aggressively pursuing them) is actually a "problem player" for Story Now games.  So make sure your players are mentally situated correctly in your aspiring 5e Story Now game.</blockquote>

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