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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9316327" data-attributes="member: 4937">So far, everyone's answer feels wrong to me.&nbsp; (Sorry.)The problem with the term &quot;narrative&quot; is that in this context it has both an ordinary definition such as [USER=7027880]@MacDhomnuill[/USER] and [USER=6925338]@soviet[/USER] provide and it is also a term of art with a more specific technical meaning.&nbsp; People encounter the term in different contexts, and they try to understand what is meant by it, and they apply either inference or their commonsense understanding, and we end up with dozens of different competing definitions one of which [USER=7006]@DEFCON 1[/USER] provides which represents a common feature of Nar games but is not their defining feature in my opinion.To me the big take away for this is that if you are going to invent a new term of art don't do it in the same language that you are speaking.&nbsp; Borrow a term from Greek or Latin or make use of German's word agglutination to come up with a unique term lacking an obvious meaning to the reader.&nbsp; Don't just repurpose a well-known English word because you'll only create confusion.Anyway, to me the defining feature of a narrative system is that resolution of a scene depends on the scenes context in the meta-fiction and not on the scenes context in the fiction.&nbsp; By this I mean how the scene plays out depends on where it is in the story and the story factors that go into it.&nbsp; In traditional play, you call out in fiction factors like, &quot;We're flanking the target.&quot;, &quot;I have a spear +1&quot;, &quot;I'm on the high ground.&quot; or &quot;I have proficiency with thieves' tools.&quot; in order to decide what happens next.&nbsp;&nbsp; All these are things the characters in the fiction observe.&nbsp; In a narrative game you call out features of the story that the players observe in order to decide what happens next.&nbsp; &quot;Is this the first act?&quot;,&nbsp; &quot;Is this the final act?&quot;,&nbsp; &quot;My character is secretly in love with the victim!&quot;,&nbsp; &quot;My character believes truth will always come out in the end!&quot;, &quot;In the second act, the villain told us that we couldn't win because he had the high ground, but now we have the ground!&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; The goal is to have the resolution of the scene depend not on what is logical to happen in the scene, but what would be best for the story.The definitive nar mechanic and one of the first ones in gaming comes from the game Toon, which had as a rule, &quot;If it is funny, then it works.&quot;&nbsp; That's adjudicating the outcome of a scene based on an external story factor and not on the basis of the fictional positioning internal to the fiction.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9316327, member: 4937"] So far, everyone's answer feels wrong to me. (Sorry.) The problem with the term "narrative" is that in this context it has both an ordinary definition such as [USER=7027880]@MacDhomnuill[/USER] and [USER=6925338]@soviet[/USER] provide and it is also a term of art with a more specific technical meaning. People encounter the term in different contexts, and they try to understand what is meant by it, and they apply either inference or their commonsense understanding, and we end up with dozens of different competing definitions one of which [USER=7006]@DEFCON 1[/USER] provides which represents a common feature of Nar games but is not their defining feature in my opinion. To me the big take away for this is that if you are going to invent a new term of art don't do it in the same language that you are speaking. Borrow a term from Greek or Latin or make use of German's word agglutination to come up with a unique term lacking an obvious meaning to the reader. Don't just repurpose a well-known English word because you'll only create confusion. Anyway, to me the defining feature of a narrative system is that resolution of a scene depends on the scenes context in the meta-fiction and not on the scenes context in the fiction. By this I mean how the scene plays out depends on where it is in the story and the story factors that go into it. In traditional play, you call out in fiction factors like, "We're flanking the target.", "I have a spear +1", "I'm on the high ground." or "I have proficiency with thieves' tools." in order to decide what happens next. All these are things the characters in the fiction observe. In a narrative game you call out features of the story that the players observe in order to decide what happens next. "Is this the first act?", "Is this the final act?", "My character is secretly in love with the victim!", "My character believes truth will always come out in the end!", "In the second act, the villain told us that we couldn't win because he had the high ground, but now we have the ground!". The goal is to have the resolution of the scene depend not on what is logical to happen in the scene, but what would be best for the story. The definitive nar mechanic and one of the first ones in gaming comes from the game Toon, which had as a rule, "If it is funny, then it works." That's adjudicating the outcome of a scene based on an external story factor and not on the basis of the fictional positioning internal to the fiction. [/QUOTE]

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