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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fenris-77" data-source="post: 8237144" data-attributes="member: 6993955">One of the beauties of playing a game like Blades, with all it's authorial permissions, is when you're playing it with a group of likeminded and engaged players (that includes the GM). So this scene above developed out of the snowball of our player decisions and the consequences thereof not just from the session in question, but from several previous sessions. This is true of idea level content, but also in the mechanical decisions we made as players, fully aware of what the fallout could be for failure or complication. Throughout those sessions, both [USER=6785785]@hawkeyefan[/USER] and I made strong authorial contributions to the game, both in and out of character. The framing of our Blades game is strongly recursive, by which I mean that the ideas bounce back and forth across the table at high speed with everyone bumping and setting ideas and consequences like pros. That gets back to [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] who does the actual scene framing, and the result is an encounter that is strongly welded to the characters involved, which in turn leads to player investment and, dare I say it, even immersion. So even as the non-present observer in this scene I found it enormously engaging and immersive, aided by the fact that I was peripherally involved of course, from a distance.The kind of immersion and engagement I'm describing here is different from the kind you get in a GM notes game. Not better, or worse, just different. There's a stronger connection directly to the mechanics of the game and player decision making, where in, say, D&D or OSR play the connection tends to be to the GMs adjudication rather than actual mechanics, which feels different in play. Both are good of course, they just play to different kinds of player engagement and expectations. I can't imagine anyone playing the series of session in question and not enjoying themselves immensely, but with different expectations and play priorities I'm sure it's possible.As for why someone might not enjoy it, several possibilities occur to me. Some players are uncomfortable with the idea of playing outside their character, which is fine and very common, but it doesn't produce the play I describe above. Some players are also not comfortable being as active as hawkeyefan and I are as players - there's no room for sitting back and enjoying the ride in Blades, it's hands on the wheel at all times. Beyond this, Blades puts a lot more of of the responsibility for consequences on the players because those consequences are often player facing, and not everyone is comfortable with that level of responsibility. I've termed this in positive terms on the Blades side, but I want to be clear that not wanting any of the above things isn't bad, weak, wrong or anything else negative.</blockquote>

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