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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7412570" data-attributes="member: 16814">I think you're still stuck on worldbuilding being outcome determining -- ie, not just setting information but planned story outcomes.  And, yes, that is a style of traditional play, and, yes, you're not wrong in describing this kind of play.  However, that kind of play is not the sum of traditional playstyles.  In sandbox play, your formulation is incorrect, as the worldbuilding only informs the framing -- player actions lead to narration of outcomes when then change the setting.  In this formulation, worldbuilding is there to provide information so that players can plan for success, a type of play that is absent in Story Now (by design, not by fault).  Traditional playstyle systems lack the more neutral resolution mechanics (where, regardless of situation, a success is X, a mixed success is <X but >Y and a failure is <Y) and the often strong mechanics to offset outcomes after the fact (systems where you can choose to lose a resource rather than accept an outcome from a failure).  Instead, they feature the ability to learn what's ahead and to mitigate risk via preparation and planning and approach.  If a Story Now group declares they're being stealthy, this really doesn't make much difference -- the GM will still frame a scene into drama/crisis and all the stealthy approach does is alter the framing a bit.  Whereas in traditional play, a stealthy approach can trivialize a challenge that would otherwise be much more risky.  So, what's the purpose of worldbuilding in traditional games? To provide the player's information and foreshadowing so that they can make meaningful choices and alter the setting.  I point back to my 'negotiate with the orcs' example from much earlier in this thread, where I used the worldbuilding I had set up to provide the framework for when the characters unexpectedly decided to negotiate with orcs.  The outcome of that negotiation was a group of orc allies for the players.  The fact that this could easily have happened in Story Now goes a good way towards showing that backstory that informs framing but not outcomes can still have player action declarations that have a lot of impact on the fiction.  Now, true, you aren't finding a secret door by succeeding, but, again, I strongly contend that's an exercise in the player engaging in backstory authoring as part of their action declaration and not just a simple action declaration.  There's a different element to that.  And, as [MENTION=6816042]Arilyn[/MENTION] just said, the offer for players to create backstory in traditional play can also be present.</blockquote>

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