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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tav_Behemoth" data-source="post: 5082543" data-attributes="member: 18017">This would be more compelling if there was a unitary "the" fiction that informs D&D. I think it's fair to say that you need different DM techniques to incorporate the story elements of Tolkien and his heirs' quest-driven, epic plots unfolding across trilogies of fat novels than you do original-D&D inspirations originally written as series of short stories, like Vance (Cugel is teleported far away and has unrelated misadventures on his way home), Howard (Conan has unrelated adventures on his rise from barbarian to king), and Leiber (Fafhrd & the Mouser have unrelated adventures that end with them getting their hands on fabulous wealth and start again after they've thrown it away on drinking and wenching).The thing that impressed me about Piratecat's DM style is that it did incorporate some techniques of storytelling that I previously thought were better suited to fiction than gaming, like giving us bits of description of events going on around us.When he tossed these in during scenes where our characters were standing around talking about what to do next, it had the subtle effect of re-focusing us on the storyteller at a point when I and other GMs who self-identify as "old-school" might have leaned back and waited for player signs of boredom before saying anything. I admired the skill with which Piratecat did this and enjoyed the result, but it did seem emblematic of a different approach.It's interesting to see what other things that does and doesn't correlate with!</blockquote>

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