Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7385560" data-attributes="member: 42582">Impossible - and yet it is happening all the time! For my part, when I want to understand how &quot;story now&quot; RPGing works I ask people who are familiar with it, rather than people who (by their own account) have never engaged in it.Here's one thing that's gone wrong in your assumptions: in this sentence, &quot;One of the biggest hallmarks of a &quot;living, breathing world&quot; is that stuff goes on in the world outside of the PCs, the influence of the PCs, and what they are interested in,&quot; the word they refers to the PCs. Yet the anchor for &quot;story now&quot; RPGing is player-established themes, dramatic need etc. And as even a cursory familiarity with literature and film will reveal, something can speak to a protagonist's dramatic need although s/he is not (yet) interested in it.Here's another thing: making up rumours about what is going in Waterdeep takes about 5 seconds, if that. I don't need to have writen down anything in advance, or read it in a book that someone else wrote. Sometimes the players will even make it up and save me the trouble!Or there can be synergy between the two: for instance (to give another actua play report), a player might make a Circles check because his PC wants to meet with elven merchants to buy some herbs. When the chdck succeeds, it is established that merchants do indeed pass by the PCs out-of-the-way tower, on their way from Hardby to Urnst, and having heard that an elven princess is staying there. The ensuing conversation reveals that the Gynarch of Hardby is engaged to be married to Jabal! Later on, when the PCs arrive at a borderlands keep, a lady of Urnst is spending the night there en route to Hardby for the wedding.Before you know it, there's a living, breathing world, criss-crossed by merchants and wedding guests bearing all sorts of tale and rumour!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7385560, member: 42582"] [I]Impossible[/I] - and yet it is happening all the time! For my part, when I want to understand how "story now" RPGing works I ask people who are familiar with it, rather than people who (by their own account) have never engaged in it. Here's one thing that's gone wrong in your assumptions: in this sentence, "One of the biggest hallmarks of a "living, breathing world" is that stuff goes on in the world outside of the PCs, the influence of the PCs, and what they are interested in," the word [i]they[/I] refers to the PCs. Yet the anchor for "story now" RPGing is player-established themes, dramatic need etc. And as even a cursory familiarity with literature and film will reveal, something can speak to a protagonist's dramatic need although s/he is not (yet) interested in it. Here's another thing: making up rumours about what is going in Waterdeep takes about 5 seconds, if that. I don't need to have writen down anything in advance, or read it in a book that someone else wrote. Sometimes the players will even make it up and save me the trouble! Or there can be synergy between the two: for instance (to give another actua play report), a player might make a Circles check because his PC wants to meet with elven merchants to buy some herbs. When the chdck succeeds, it is established that merchants do indeed pass by the PCs out-of-the-way tower, on their way from Hardby to Urnst, and having heard that an elven princess is staying there. The ensuing conversation reveals that the Gynarch of Hardby is engaged to be married to Jabal! Later on, when the PCs arrive at a borderlands keep, a lady of Urnst is spending the night there en route to Hardby for the wedding. Before you know it, there's a living, breathing world, criss-crossed by merchants and wedding guests bearing all sorts of tale and rumour! [/QUOTE]

Verification