Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
So, for example, my off-the-cuff idea in the Star Wars thread, where Droid characters could (perhaps by spending a resource) declare that they have found a data port. Something like that?
What is a "Narrative Mechanic"?
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
So, for example, my off-the-cuff idea in the Star Wars thread, where Droid characters could (perhaps by spending a resource) declare that they have found a data port. Something like that?
Or, just for clarity, the smuggler says he finds one and tells the droid to jack in. To me, though, that feels like a typical metacurrency spend and I'm still not sure that counts as "narrative" for my own internal definition.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
A narrative mechanic is a means for both the players and GM to add new information to a scene in order to influence ongoing roleplay.
in games like DnD the mechanic is baked in at character creation (eg I have the skill to pick locks) but the DM decides if there is lock to open. Whereas in games like Fate the mechanic allows the player to declare that there is a door
in games like DnD the mechanic is baked in at character creation (eg I have the skill to pick locks) but the DM decides if there is lock to open. Whereas in games like Fate the mechanic allows the player to declare that there is a door
Last edited:
overgeeked
B/X Known World
If we go with the most basic idea of a mechanic that effects the narrative, then that's basically all mechanics in the game.
The opposite would be the infamous disassociated mechanic, i.e. the mechanic that is not connected to the narrative.
The opposite would be the infamous disassociated mechanic, i.e. the mechanic that is not connected to the narrative.
niklinna
have a snickers
As a fan of such mechanics, I wouldn't even call them "narrative"*: That term to me implies I have a fixed idea of how things must shake out. I far prefer thinking in terms of taking risks to achieve goals within a given context, that risk being open and clear, apparent in advance of resolution, of how things will not go my way if I don't win the die roll. In other words, when I say I want to do a thing, the GM responds with okay, but if you get a mixed win† on the roll, this will happen, and if you outright lose† on the roll, that will happen—NOW roll those bones.I think that one problem is that mechanics are often labeled "narrative mechanics" not by fans of such mechanics but, rather, by detractors of story or narrative games as a quick and easy way to identify mechanics they don't like. So the metric of what can make something a "narrative mechanic" sometimes reads as criteria with a low bar:
* I think "narrative game" is itself bespoke and ill-fitting jargon.
† Bespoke terminology, perhaps, but I've long felt that saying "succeed" & "fail" in what some folks call narrative or Story Now games really give people the wrong idea. Such rolls aren't about character competence, they are about the total situation, including competence but also including potential confounding factors (perhaps think of it as a wondering monster check built into an action resolution
).Any mechanic that moves the nexus of causality away from an action taken by the player's character.
I don't think it's generally helpful to treat this as a binary though, there's clearly a spectrum at play that differentiates "I spend a Willpower token from that earlier mishap for a +4 bonus" and "I use 'find an edge' to locate a rope to swing across the pit."
I don't think it's generally helpful to treat this as a binary though, there's clearly a spectrum at play that differentiates "I spend a Willpower token from that earlier mishap for a +4 bonus" and "I use 'find an edge' to locate a rope to swing across the pit."
niklinna
have a snickers
Oh this is a bit different from what I first thought of on seeing "narrative mechanic". But yeah I see people use the term for that, too. And I really like "nexus of causality"! It presents a central desideratum right up front.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
That's a misreading of the disassociated mechanic. The reason a disassociated mechanic is disassociated is because it's the player doing something outside of the point of view of the PC - like the spending of metacurrency to modify a situation or assert narrative control outside of the PC point of view.
So dissociated mechanics are, based on Jason Alexander's definition, generally narrative mechanics.
Dissociated Mechanics
COLLECTED EDITION OF AN ESSAY BY JUSTIN ALEXANDERUPDATE 2: This essay is the original use of the term "dissociated mechanics", but it was written during a time when I was still trying to figure out
thealexandrian.net
Roleplaying Games vs. Storytelling Games
For the first couple decades after D&D, virtually all roleplaying games looked fundamentally similar: There was a GM who controlled the game world, there were players who each controlled a singl
thealexandrian.net
Crimson Longinus
Legend
I generally understand it to mean mechanics that let the player to affect the fictional reality beyond the causal effects of their character's actions.
And I think that's roughly what most people mean when they use the term. I'm not sure that it is a good term for that, but it is what it is.
And I think that's roughly what most people mean when they use the term. I'm not sure that it is a good term for that, but it is what it is.
schneeland
Hero
I haven't fully decided how useful I find the term "narrative mechanic", and thus also not settled on an exact definition.
My working definition is pretty close to what @Pedantic writes: a narrative mechanic is a mechanic that allows people to influence the narrative directly (instead of indirectly through actors in the scene). This would include techniques like establishing new facts about the current scene (e.g. helpful features of the environment), retroactively establishing facts about past scenes (e.g. flashbacks in which useful gear is acquired) or deciding on the development of the scene (e.g. defeating an enemy, but at the cost of reinforcements arriving later).
I'm unsure if I consider things like spending some sort of token for re-rolls a narrative mechanic or not (I tend towards not, but to a certain extent this would still qualify).
My working definition is pretty close to what @Pedantic writes: a narrative mechanic is a mechanic that allows people to influence the narrative directly (instead of indirectly through actors in the scene). This would include techniques like establishing new facts about the current scene (e.g. helpful features of the environment), retroactively establishing facts about past scenes (e.g. flashbacks in which useful gear is acquired) or deciding on the development of the scene (e.g. defeating an enemy, but at the cost of reinforcements arriving later).
I'm unsure if I consider things like spending some sort of token for re-rolls a narrative mechanic or not (I tend towards not, but to a certain extent this would still qualify).
Parmandur
Book-Friend
What is a meta-currency being meta- towards? The narrative.
It can also be meta toward the mechanics. Using metacurrency to get a bonus or reroll or temporary feat is not any more connected to the narrative than the mechanics without using the hero point or whatever. The crossover to "narrative" is fuzzier. The example I mentioned earlier was a Hero variable power pool. It allows Bat.an to have just the right tool in his belt. Is that a narrative mechanic? If not, is it if it requires a metacurrency spend?
Parmandur
Book-Friend
It's a continuum.
Right, with narrative on one end and not-narrative on the other.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
With narrative control on one end and action declaration and DM adjudication on the other, I would say.
No, I think that's both a false spectrum (those are not opposite, only one is concerned with the method of resolution), and not the same question being addressed by "narrative mechanic" here. The relationship between a player's action declarations and their character's actions doesn't necessarily weigh on resolution mechanism, and especially it doesn't weigh on the player vs. GM relationship.
My definition would be that Narrative mechanics are derived from a players actions, not the characters.
“Is there a rock in the middle of the road?”
Narrative player: “There is now”
Traditional GM: “I don’t know, roll a d% to find out”
*Luck talents or abilities occupy middle ground. They use standard narrative mechanics but the ability comes from the PC, not the player.
^2
“Is there a rock in the middle of the road?”
Narrative player: “There is now”
Traditional GM: “I don’t know, roll a d% to find out”
*Luck talents or abilities occupy middle ground. They use standard narrative mechanics but the ability comes from the PC, not the player.
^2
hawkeyefan
Legend
Maybe some examples might help?
Is Inspiration from 5e D&D a narrative mechanic?
If so, how so?
If not, why not?
Is Inspiration from 5e D&D a narrative mechanic?
If so, how so?
If not, why not?
Not to my mind, it is a metagame mechanic. it allows a reroll, the narrative has not been established yet. While I have no experience with "narrative" games to my mind a narrative mechanic would allow the rogue to declare that "why, yes I braided some lockpicks into my hair" or I certainly have a crowbar in my inventory, or Bob the fence live around here.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Any mechanic designed to affect the game without being representative of any actual physical thing (including supernatural things like magic) in the game world. Metacurrency, pacing mechanics, anything that allows players to invent material outside of their PCs in-universe control, any mechanic designed to affect drama or that pushes genre conventions over simulation of the actual imaginary world in which the PCs and NPCs exist.
I tried to keep as much jargon out of that as possible.
Similar Threads
