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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8677881" data-attributes="member: 6696971">My guess is [USER=6993955]@Fenris-77[/USER] might be using Narrative Control in a few different ways. When people use that term, they’re often using it a a stand-in for “control of the gamestate and shape of the imagined space via deployment of game currency (often but not always meta) or player fiat abilities (this happens_full stop).” Blades does have some of that.However, the way Blades players have control over both the content of play and the trajectory of play is more far-reaching and sometimes more subtle (or by-proxy). Here are all the various player inputs into this:* Beliefs, drives, heritage, background, playbook-specific xp trigger, vice, traumas. All 7 of these are xp triggers so there will be obstacle-framing and consequences and Devil’s Bargain’s around these.* Desperate action rolls. These are xp triggers so players are inventivized (doubly sometimes) and directed (best practices) to punch above your belt, take on more than you can handle, or make moves/negotiate a situation to be as threatening as possible (with multiple means at your disposal to do so).* Enemies, Friends, Contacts, Cohorts. These are assets, liabilities, and foils. Players decide what they care about and what they oppose by bringing these into play or sustaining them through play (or not). They affect the gamestate in multiple ways (obstacle-framing, consequence-space, Engagement Rolls, Entanglement results, the ability to Acquire Assets, etc).* Players direct the opening content of Information Gathering/Free Play nearly fully (whether it be player-authored/negotiated kickers to frame scenes or via their Info Gathering questions).* Players choose (and effectively create them like Kickers via a complex, integrated, feedback-sensitive system of Downtime + Info Gathering + Entanglements + prior fiction + everything rise mentioned above) Scores based on their personal thematic interests, Crew-needs, Claim Map management, evolving fiction, and stakes from Downtime Activities (their own and Setting/Faction Clocks).* Payoff amplification or nullification decisions (including Crime-boss and Factions perturbed from play).* All the various resources they can marshal (far too many to list) and must be managed + all the various configurations of PC and Crew build/Score type/Score Detail/Loadout + approaches to obstacles (immediate and downstream) and Teamwork and Cohort deployment and Flashbacks and Position : Effect negotiation + Downtime management (Projects in particular).* The huge input on play that is building out The Crew (including what consequences a GM can bring to bear against you and your Lair, Lair toe and location for Hunting Grounds, what means you can collectively bring to bear - both type and + Tier).* Management of The Faction Game and (the punishing) At-War status both for The Crew and for enemy and allied Factions alike.* The ability to Resist (or outright mitigate) Consequences and the significant through-line impacts upon play (intra-Score and somewhat persistent) that this yields.* Character change/erosion with the choice of Traumas when you Stress Out of a scene (which then feeds back onto the top bullet point and might feed into the directly below one).* Managing Heat/Wanted Level including who does time in Ironhook Prison to alleviate it and whether to engage with the Claim Map while within or effectively “retire the character.”* The ubiquitous “Ask Questions and Use the Answers” that is pervasive in each session. This is “input-by-proxy” and helps inform everything from the setting at large, scene framing, macro Score framing, consequence-space, Devil’s Bargains.[HR][/HR]I think that about covers it. Quite a bit of stuff.</blockquote>

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