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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9332714" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Yeah, I think it's tough to examine our games and realize this, but like you, I know I did my fair share of this earlier on. Even when I started running D&D in a more neo-trad style (before I knew what that was, or before it was even labeled as such), it still involved a lot of GM authority. I think the thing about games that are more story now in implementation is that it structures things for the GM and also for the players. I mean, when a player shows up with a 32 page backstory, I don't blame a GM for rolling their eyes and discarding the vast majority of it. But when there's a structure in place... a process the GM and players follow... a lot can be accomplished with minimal effort. And as [USER=16586]@Campbell[/USER] pointed out... it's not just the details, but how they inform play. These are actionable things that are determined. I look at the game of Stonetop that I'm running and so much of what is going on in that game came from our character creation session. The Ranger had to come up with a threat he'd encountered in the forest. The Seeker came up with a strange man who gifted an artifact to him. The Blessed had vanished when he was young, and lived with wolves walking the spirit roads and only recently returned, much older than he should be. All of this stuff has directly influenced much of our play. These things are central to it... what's the nature of the beast in the forest? What's happening to the forest? How does it connect to the spirit realm? Who was the gaunt stranger who gave the Seeker her artifact? Did he also give an artifact to a Manmarch warlord? What about the artifact held by the vizier in Marshedge? These are all questions that have come up as a result, and still matter to the game many sessions later. If I sat down ahead of time and tried to craft all this in a more trad approach to play, I'd never have come up with these different elements, and never seen how they could connect in interesting ways that challenge the PCs and the players. It's not just about collaboration, it's about that collaboration driving play.</blockquote>

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