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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7340498" data-attributes="member: 42582">In the context of action declarations which concern the PC learning about the gameworld rather than the PC changing the gameworld - and perhaps even for some of the latter, if there are secret elements of the fiction that the GM will treat as part of the fictional positioning (eg the notorious chamberlain example from years ago) - then succes here means trigger the GM to narrate for you the relevant part of his/her pre-authored material.Eg success in finding the map means, as player, declaring the right move (eg "I search the such-and-such") that will lead to the GM narrating the location of the map from his/her notes.This may or may not be fun - that's obviously a matter of taste. But clearly it involves relatively little player agency in respsect of the content of the shared fiction.Burning Wheel does not assume no prep. Monster Burning, full-fledged Character Burning, etc are lengthy processes. The game assumes that the GM will do these things between actual play sessions. (And also the players, if appropriate -eg the player of the mage in my BW game befriended a NPC cleric by way of a Circles check, and then burned her up.)What BW does assume is that the GM will not pre-author situations and outcomes. (The map example, once again, illustrates the point.)This thread keeps getting side-tracked by assumptions that don't hold good, and that I and you and [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] and [MENTION=99817]chaochou[/MENTION] have already posted about."Say 'yes' or roll the dice" is an approach to resolving action declarations: if the GM frames a situation (eg "OK, so you're in the cartographer's study - what are you doing?"), and the player then declares an action for his/her PC that is congruent with the established framing (eg "I search for the map!"), the GM has two options: either the GM says "yes", or the GM calls for a check. The GM says "yes" if nothing is at stake - essentially we're establishing some colour, or narrating some transition in the situation on our way to the crunch; the GM calls for a check when something is at stake.Plenty of RPGs can be run in this way: 4e seems to me to encourage it; Burning Wheel mandates it; Cortex+ Heroic appears to presuppose it. Classic Traveller can tolerate it (but defaults fairly heavily to rolling the dice, as it has a very liberal conception of when something is at stake).The use of this technique is quite separate from allowing the players to stipulate new elements of the fiction. That is not a default part of any of the above-mentioned systems. (Contrast, say Fate, or OGL Conan, which do allow this as a core system element, by way of fate point expenditure.)Sometimes saying "yes" may allow the player to, incidentally to the action declaration, establish some part of the fiction (eg "I collect herbs as we walk through the forest" "OK, no worries"). If the GM thinks this is controversial, of course s/he can call for a check ("OK, roll Foraging").Also, the GM in BW is encouraged to allow a player a bonus die if s/he asks for it by reference to some element of the fictional positioning (eg "I use those herbs I collected to flavour the soup" grants +1D to cooking), and in some context that could allow the player to establish modest elements of the situation (eg if events are unfolding a kitchen, the player might say "I take up a position near the oven, so they risk getting burned if they attack my flank" "OK, have +1D to block").But the player can't, by default, just specify something like "OK, my friend is here to help me" (in BW that would be a Circles check; in 4e the GM might call for a Streetwise check, or just say no).This is a signifcant difference between RPGing and improv theatre. RPGing, at least in its mainstream form, has distinct player and GM roles, and the player role is based around declaring actions for a particular character in the shared fiction. You don't need to move beyond that in order to have player-driven play (resulting from "say 'yes' or roll the diced adjudication of declared actions).</blockquote>

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