NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6179864" data-attributes="member: 6696971">This is a good conversation and one I very much appreciate in our hobby.  Unrelated, I typically use Freytag's dramatic structure for conflict resolution (one of the primary reasons I very much enjoy the Skill Challenge framework because it serves as the perfect medium).  I've always felt that the most lean determinant format for Story Now Creative Agenda is:1 - Establish premise to be addressed.2 - Address premise as mediated by system, GM scene-framing/bangs, player decision-making and deployment of resources/means, and finally fortune resolution of some kind.3 - Discover veracity of premise.D&D can certainly be played in a Story Now fashion.  Is it is profound as Sorcerer or Burning Wheel or Dogs in the Vineyard?  No.  It doesn't attempt to delve too deeply into dualities, moral dissonance, etc.  It most often attempts to address some very standard archtypical genre premises by way of (i) the depth of character info and deployable resources available to players and (ii) the means of the players to author their own bangs such that the macro-conflict interfaces with the content they seek or re-frame the present micro-conflict such that it captures something about it or outright reflects it.In 4e, one of the primary ways this is done is via the Quest system.  Players authoring their major/minor quests (or co-authoring with GM) is a very transparent way of addressing (typically high fantasy archtypical) premise.  "I will clear my name and punish those who framed me" attempts to address a very fundamental, time-old genre premise; This hero was wronged and unjustly punished for a crime he didn't commit...who committed the crime and what justice do they deserve?  During play he may have loaded his character with multiple thematic resources to deploy towards moving units toward conclusion and ultimately addressing premise (Background, Skills, Combat Powers, Theme Features and Utilities, etc).  During play, everything above in 2 will move us toward 3....which is the resolution of his quest and the D&D version of addressing premise.  Now this might change throughout the course of play due to various things.  Perhaps clearing his name puts someone innocent in danger?  Perhaps those who framed him are already dead, etc?  Or, perhaps there is no catch-22 and the bad guys are mustachio twirling Dick Dastardlies that always have a handy puppy to kick.  Either way, the premise is laid out (the quest).  There are incentives to seek it out (XP and archetype rendering).  There are scenes framed, resources deployed, fortune resolution intervention, scenes re-framed and as much player authorial control as the system/GM allows.  In the end, the premise is addressed in some way shape or form; (i) the hero isn't tough enough and dies along the way, (ii) the hero allows the death of an innocent for the sake of his vengeance, (iii) the hero forgoes his retribution and redemption for the sake of another, (iv) the hero's vengeance is stolen by the hand of another who snuffed his enemies first, (v) the hero came out with both barrels loaded, punched Dick Dastardly in his mustachio twirling, puppy-kitten head and rode the shoulders of the layfolk to the mayors office for the key to the city.Again, its typically not profound stuff.  Its genre-specific cliche' usually.  But there are means to establish, address via mediation of system/GM/player synthesis, and confirm/deny.  The important thing is that the premise is transparently established and the collaboration of players vs/+ GM as mediated by system causes the discovery of the conclusion of that premise, during play (not beforehand as in an All Roads Lead to Rome Railroad).I remember one Major Quest of my players was turned inside out at the end of the Heroic tier due to the failure of an ultimate stakes Skill Challenge.  We found out that his God forsook him and his atonement would never be found (he was not a paladin...this wasn't about power).  He has played a forlorn soul, evolving into an embittered nihilist, but still bound (automaton-like) by the lifelong ritual entrapments of duty and honor, ever since.  That was pretty awesome.</blockquote>

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