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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7341021" data-attributes="member: 42582">Sure. That's not in dispute.My goal in starting the thread was analysis, not aesthetic evaluation.I think it's fair to describe this sort of approach to RPGing as one in which the players declare moves, the purpose of which is to trigger the GM reading material from his/her notes. Progress through the adventure consists in making some of those moves (ie the ones that trigger boxed text) rather than others (ie the ones that trigger the GM elaborating on established details, or having to ad lib such that the "notes" become notional rather than literal).EDIT:This would be an instance of a significant element of play being to make moves that trigger the GM narrating material from his/her notes. intelligence acquired about the GM's world, after all, just means having learned the content of the GM's notes.There's a lot going on here!I agree about the GM-gated story, where a significant structural element of the gate is the GM's pre-authored setting material ("worldbuilding"). The players have the capacity to declare actions - but the GM exercises a very high degree of control over how these actions resolve.Want to build a castle? The GM has to decide how much stone is available from local quarries.Assinate the king? As you say, the GM decides on the bodyguards etc.There are potential issues of "fairness" here, but I don't think that's the main thing. The GM can be as fair as you like - that doesn't change the fact that assassinating the king is likely to involve a lot of play time spent with the players triggering the GM to tell them stuff (in the fiction, this will be spying etc). Or in the building example, the players spend a lot of time learning information about availability of materials, employees, etc.I've known of GMs who string this stuff out endlessly to avoid having to deal with the actual goal of the players' action declarations (to perform the assassination, build the castle or whatever).</blockquote>

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