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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8227324" data-attributes="member: 42582">I've highlighted a key part of [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER]'s reply. This is consistent with my description, upthread, of the possible role of "aides memoire" in skill challenge adjudication. The preparation of "fronts" by an AW or DW GM is also (in part) for this purpose: when the rules and rhythm of the game tell the GM s/he has to introduce some new, oppositional fiction the AW or DW GM looks to his/her fronts for that material.This is obviously very different from introducing fiction by first asking where are the PCs on the map and then asking what do my notes tell me is at that place on the map? (For a bit more about this map-and-key approach, see my discussion upthread with [USER=7017304]@jmartkdr2[/USER] and the hypothetical black marble temple of Olath with its evil high priest.)On this point I do disagree. I've GMed 1a, and have played in a lot of 1a, and I have also GMed 2a. (2a is what eg Rolemaster and to some extent Classic Traveller tends to looks like when GMed in a protagonistic-oriented fashion.)The difference between deciding the fiction in advance of play and deciding the fiction in the moment of play, in response to player cues, and the back-and-forth at the table (which can take place even in games that do not have the formal PbtA injunction to ask questions and build on the answers) is huge. In my own view, based on my own experience, it can hardly be exaggerated. If you've tried it and disagree, I'm very interested to hear more. If you've not tried it, then I strongly suggest doing so and seeing what happens.Honouring the results will only produce protagonistic play if the player-authored PC's dramatic need was an input into those results.To elaborate the above point: honouring the results is crucial to GMing Moldvay Basic. The GM advice section of the game is all about this. But Moldvay Basic, played in accordance with the guidelines and principles set out, won't produce protagonistic play. The notion of dramatic needs is nowhere to be found.The most straightforward way to incorporate dramatic need as an input into action resolution is via (what Burning Wheel calls) Intent and Task and Let it Ride: ie if the check succeeds the PC achieves both the declared task and the player's intent, and the outcome is binding on all participants; and if the check fails then the GM establishes consequences that flow in some or other fashion from the task and that put pressure on the player's intent and hence constitute further adversity for the PC. Which goes back to what [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] posted about the role of prep: you can't do this sort of thing if the fiction is already subject to the constraints of pre-authorship.The BW procedures aren't the only feasible ones: PbtA games use their arrays of moves instead to incorporate dramatic need into resolution. But the implications for how and when fiction is established aren't that different.</blockquote>

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