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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8265653" data-attributes="member: 7016699">It's possible that I don't understand, either. Let me try again, please.I think we're establishing something happened earlier in the fiction, so something else can draw on it, either in the present or in the near future. Essentially, we're establishing that the gun has been on the mantelpiece the whole time, so we can take it down and fire it. In one case the metaphorical gun is a pot of coffee; in the other, it's an explosive device on a safe. Yes?My point is that the people around the table are experiencing those things being established in the fiction--in the order they're established around the table. In the fiction, your character is remembering drinking the coffee, which is not the same thing as drinking the coffee. There is no non-linearity here.I don't remember how the mechanics work in Blades, but in any authored fiction I'd strongly expect to see the explosive and the cue established before showing the cue in the main narrative timeline. Even here, I think it's worth remembering that the experience around the table--and the narrative structure applied--is not exactly what the characters are experiencing. The non-linearity is entirely in the narrative, not in the character's experience--and this disjunction, I think, is at the heart of some people's aesthetic dislike for it, especially if those people don't find themselves drifting into thousands of words of narrative if the aroma of a pastry wafts across their face.I concur that the big disconnect is probably for people who feel that the Flashback mechanic (among others) detracts from the pleasure/s they want out of their TRPGs. As you (I think) imply, most of those pleasures are going to be better-served by plan-then-act play.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8265653, member: 7016699"] It's possible that I don't understand, either. Let me try again, please. I think we're establishing something happened [I]earlier[/I] in the fiction, so something else can draw on it, either in the present or in the near future. Essentially, we're establishing that the gun has been on the mantelpiece the whole time, so we can take it down and fire it. In one case the metaphorical gun is a pot of coffee; in the other, it's an explosive device on a safe. Yes? My point is that the people around the table are experiencing those things being established in the fiction--in the order they're established around the table. In the fiction, your character is remembering drinking the coffee, which is not the same thing as drinking the coffee. There is no non-linearity here. I don't remember how the mechanics work in Blades, but in any authored fiction I'd strongly expect to see the explosive and the cue established before showing the cue in the main narrative timeline. Even here, I think it's worth remembering that the experience around the table--and the narrative structure applied--is not exactly what the characters are experiencing. The non-linearity is entirely in the narrative, not in the character's experience--and this disjunction, I think, is at the heart of some people's aesthetic dislike for it, especially if those people don't find themselves drifting into thousands of words of narrative if the aroma of a pastry wafts across their face. I concur that the big disconnect is probably for people who feel that the Flashback mechanic (among others) detracts from the pleasure/s they want out of their TRPGs. As you (I think) imply, most of those pleasures are going to be better-served by plan-then-act play. [/QUOTE]

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