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<blockquote data-quote="Pedantic" data-source="post: 9017148" data-attributes="member: 6690965">I see, that makes sense with earlier context.Yes, but I think I should clarify that I'm evaluating lines of play in the context of effectiveness. You're kind of talking about a higher order concern, which is interesting, but I don't think complete. I try to think about the point I'm making with the positioning of intent. I'd prefer actions exist on a neutral plane: they cannot take intent (aside from, &quot;trying to succeed&quot; if success is uncertain) into account, they are machines that do whatever they say they do and act in known ways on the fiction. A player's intent is thus expressed by determining what their goal is (and they will likely have a complex hierarchy of goals, ranging from &quot;stay alive&quot; to &quot;get into that place&quot; to &quot;kill this person&quot; to &quot;acquire a tchotchke from every town I visit&quot;), and then stringing together actions to best achieve it.The problem I run into is that I'm prioritizing that relationship between intent and action declaration and the resulting gameplay of trying to find the best path through that system, as the first design priority. The unique feature of a TTRPG (and the reason you'd play one instead of a board game) then is the flexibility of player intent. You can set your own victory conditions, and play continues (in most cases) after victory is achieved or becomes impossible, with the ability to set new goals. Whatever is necessary in the play constrains of the GM, and/or the design constraints of the system to serve that point is fundamentally more important than either producing a consistent simulation or &quot;interesting&quot; situations. To that end, I've found it's generally necessary to assign the GM broad authority and heavy constraints on its use. Perhaps the ideal state of affairs would be to actually split the assorted GM roles into separate people, someone with broad worldbuilding authority, someone serving as a referee and someone else providing motive/action to established NPCs.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Pedantic, post: 9017148, member: 6690965"] I see, that makes sense with earlier context. Yes, but I think I should clarify that I'm evaluating lines of play in the context of effectiveness. You're kind of talking about a higher order concern, which is interesting, but I don't think complete. I try to think about the point I'm making with the positioning of intent. I'd prefer actions exist on a neutral plane: they cannot take intent (aside from, "trying to succeed" if success is uncertain) into account, they are machines that do whatever they say they do and act in known ways on the fiction. A player's intent is thus expressed by determining what their goal is (and they will likely have a complex hierarchy of goals, ranging from "stay alive" to "get into that place" to "kill this person" to "acquire a tchotchke from every town I visit"), and then stringing together actions to best achieve it. The problem I run into is that I'm prioritizing that relationship between intent and action declaration and the resulting gameplay of trying to find the best path through that system, as the first design priority. The unique feature of a TTRPG (and the reason you'd play one instead of a board game) then is the flexibility of player intent. You can set your own victory conditions, and play continues (in most cases) after victory is achieved or becomes impossible, with the ability to set new goals. Whatever is necessary in the play constrains of the GM, and/or the design constraints of the system to serve that point is fundamentally more important than either producing a consistent simulation or "interesting" situations. To that end, I've found it's generally necessary to assign the GM broad authority and heavy constraints on its use. Perhaps the ideal state of affairs would be to actually split the assorted GM roles into separate people, someone with broad worldbuilding authority, someone serving as a referee and someone else providing motive/action to established NPCs. [/QUOTE]

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