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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8234127" data-attributes="member: 16814">Yes, the protagonist is who the story is about.&nbsp; If I create a world that doesn't care about the PCs and then turn them loose in it to see what they uncover/do, is the story actually about those PCs?&nbsp; Play will focus on the PCs choices, sure, but the drama of the situation is rarely about the PCs.&nbsp; To use my session from last night, the PCs were raiding a dungeon under the home of a major NPC, all to discover what that NPC because they had been given a job to do just that.&nbsp; This will lead to further clues and directions on what the next steps in the mystery are.&nbsp; None of this is about the PCs -- none of it features anything that required any input from the PC or was designed with any given PC in mind.&nbsp; Yet, play is about the choices they make in navigating this situation.&nbsp; This isn't protagonism, because they aren't the main characters in this story, just the ones that feature in play (right now, if I kill one, they will be replaced), and what they're doing is reacting to the plans and plots of NPCs.&nbsp; This means this game is actually about those NPCs, and we're playing to see if the PCs foil their plans.&nbsp; The game isn't about the dramatic needs of the PCs.To offer a different example, the first Infinity War movie in the Marvel oeuvre, Thanos is the protagonist, not the Avengers.&nbsp; Yet the Avengers are clearly major characters and demand the majority of the screen time.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8234127, member: 16814"] Yes, the protagonist is who the story is about. If I create a world that doesn't care about the PCs and then turn them loose in it to see what they uncover/do, is the story actually about those PCs? Play will focus on the PCs choices, sure, but the drama of the situation is rarely about the PCs. To use my session from last night, the PCs were raiding a dungeon under the home of a major NPC, all to discover what that NPC because they had been given a job to do just that. This will lead to further clues and directions on what the next steps in the mystery are. None of this is about the PCs -- none of it features anything that required any input from the PC or was designed with any given PC in mind. Yet, play is about the choices they make in navigating this situation. This isn't protagonism, because they aren't the main characters in this story, just the ones that feature in play (right now, if I kill one, they will be replaced), and what they're doing is reacting to the plans and plots of NPCs. This means this game is actually about those NPCs, and we're playing to see if the PCs foil their plans. The game isn't about the dramatic needs of the PCs. To offer a different example, the first Infinity War movie in the Marvel oeuvre, Thanos is the protagonist, not the Avengers. Yet the Avengers are clearly major characters and demand the majority of the screen time. [/QUOTE]

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