Search results

I think this is absolutely one part, yes. So "play to find out" contrasts with Adventure Paths, metaplot, etc. I think the other part is that it contrasts with purely exploration-oriented RPGing (like, say, classic D&D). The focus in that sort of play isn't really on what happens (to the PCs...

The first RPG I know of to use the phrase "play to find out" is Apocalypse World. It appears on pp 108-9 of the rulebook: AGENDA • Make Apocalypse World seem real. • Make the players’ characters’ lives not boring. • Play to find out what happens. Everything you say, you should do it to...

Key to me, here, is "did as much as they could do". In a lot of RPGs - I mentioned a few in my post - this is all about GM decision-making, and so is not really gameable by the players. Which tends to reduce "play to find out". For example, in one of my first D&D sessions, the players had their...

if you don't like 5e D&D, isn't the answer not to play it?

Last Tuesday I bought a copy of Night Witches and of Badger and Coyote, both intended as gifts for family members.

Isn't it fairly apparent that they're designing for both? A lot of people look to the PC build rules to provide a set of "descriptors" for their PC, which provide flavour and also, in some cases, provide a justificatory framework for leveraging that flavour into action descriptions. I don't...

What is the process for determining the passage of time between the announcement of the deadline, and the arrival of that deadline? Some RPGs I've played are pretty clear about how time passes, and how that relates to players' declared actions: Classic Traveller (especially when it comes to...

Dogs in the Vineyard does something like this, although - at least by default - without intertwining the various characters.

Torchbearer uses, as its version of "say 'yes'", "Good Idea" - which is mostly GM control over pacing/focus. Because of its turn/grind structure, Torchbearer establishes stakes for tests that are independent of player-authored PC priorities. When something is a good idea, no test is required...

I don't have Mouse Guard, and have never played it. I have a memory of being told it doesn't have "say 'yes' or roll the dice". And so is different from Burning Wheel.

OK. But if we don't regard risk as inhering in fictional position, then an instruction to the GM like "only call for a roll when there is risk involved" will be pretty hopeless, won't it?

I was just rereading Vincent Baker on character sheets and currency: anyway: Things on Character Sheets (2) In the constable example, there is a currency relationship between position and effectiveness: when you make a Resources test (which is about your character's effectiveness at acquiring...

In Burning Wheel, the rule is "say 'yes' or roll the dice" in combination with the GM's job being to frame scenes that put pressure on the players by putting pressure on their PC priorities - predominantly Beliefs, but also Instincts, Relationships, Affiliations etc. So if there is an action...

Sure, but I don't think this shows that it makes sense. I mean, WotC could write that, canonically, there is a circular square. But that wouldn't mean that the square circle make sense. Or, they could write that there is a box, and the number of widgets in the box, canonically, is what each...

Yes that's my point: risk has to be assessed, and if there is a risk then there are stakes, and a roll to see what happens. (The leverage step is analogous to the "credibility test" in some other systems.) It's the opposite heuristic to BW. And I think assumes that risk will be worked out from...

Not as I read it. It first asks is there a risk?

To an extent, yes. That's why I've given examples from a few different systems. There does seem to be a significant dissensus, though, over whether or not generative resolution is (or should be) a thing in Apocalypse World. I don't think this is fully accurate. One known consequence of a failed...

This is important in Torchbearer 2e.

I don't think this makes much sense. There is no objective entity the D&D multiverse. When I play D&D, it's objectively true that I'm playing D&D. But it's not objectively, or canonically, true that the stuff I'm imagining with my friends is a component of some other imaginary thing the D&D...

I don't know exactly how BitD explains what you've posted here. I think Ironsworn does a pretty good job. And your post is clear too! It's pretty hard to translate it into a difficulty-based system without loss or distortion, but here's my attempt: In D&D, the difficult position would be...