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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 222593" data-attributes="member: 259">Actually, I aim for storytelling in my gaming sessions:  I think the emphasis on storytelling is the single best thing that's come out of White Wolf.It's not necessarily railroading, though.  One of my fave PCs ever received a prophecy from an old man that he would die if he participated in an upcoming battle, and that if he didn't participate, all his friends would die.He dealt with it in a way that the DM was not expecting:  he ran away, began a week-long heroin binge.  When his friends tracked him down, he screamed and ranted and attacked them until they left.  And when the battle came, he was nowhere to be found.But then, midway through the hours-long battle, he showed up.  Didn't talk to anyone; just fought and, in the end, died.Was it railroading?  Sort of:  the GM knew ahead of time that he'd die if he fought in the battle, and he didn't roll any dice for the death.  But I was totally fine with that.  Had I known as a player that the death was subject to dice rolls, the prophecy wouldn't have had the same impact.    And since I wasn't required to be at the battle, I had the opportunity to make a heroic decision.  And I got to roleplay through the decisionmaking process (including denial, anger, bargaining -- in which he spoke to guiding spirits and asked for an alternative -- and finally acceptance).  We handled some of it through one-on-one roleplaying, some of it through our regular session, and some of it even through written scenes sent via email.It was definitely a storytelling game at that point, and it affected me emotionally in a much more powerful way that I would've been affected had we been paying more attention to dice.It's not for everyone, sure; and I couldn't have done it with a GM that I trusted less.  But focusing on storytelling can be fun.Note that in this situation, had I focused entirely on character, the PC probably wouldn't have come back to the group.  However, since I wanted a good story to come of it, I worked and worked with the character until I could figure out a way that he would return to the group.  So this wasn't even pure roleplaying:  this was definitely storytelling, in which the needs of the character are subordinated by the players to the needs of the cooperative story.Daniel</blockquote>

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