ADVOCACY NARRATIVISM PART FOUR: JUDGEMENT Disclaimer: What follows is a series of claims about what it takes for Advocacy Narrativism to work. This isn’t the only style of Narrative play, these claims apply only to Advocacy Narrativism. Even then, feel free to disagree, your fun is your own. Here I reiterate what I previously said with rants and examples thrown in for good measure. THE MOMENT OF DECISION Grimbeard the Dwarf, broken and bloody, finally catches up with Thurgan the Oath Breaker. Thurgan is lying on the ground, wounded. Grimbeard raises his axe, ready to kill Thurgan, Thurgan looks at him. Grimbeard: You murdered my clan, you broke your sacred vows, it’s time to meet your end. Thurgan: Yes, and I’ll carry the guilt for that always. Yet I did what had to be done, what no one else had the courage for. Grimbeard reflects on those words. Thinks back to the series of events that led him here. There’s a moment of shame when he realises what Thurgan says is true. H...
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ADVOCACY NARRATIVISM PART THREE: MECHANICS AND ACT So far we have four spokes in the ACT circle. Some games add more and we’ll go over these now. PLAYER (DIS)INCENTIVES Sometimes you’ll add another spoke from carrot and stick (incentive) mechanics. These can come from two sources. Fictionally triggered: If you drink blood you get XP. Player triggered: If you allow me to persuade you you get XP. My view is that these two things are kind of different and should be treated as such. Fictional triggers that provide incentive allow you to position/jostle your character into a position where the incentive can trigger. ACT should still be in play when you make the decision and pull the trigger though. Sue is playing Eve, a vampire. Sue wants that sweet XP and so she arranges for a situation where she is alone with Josh. Situation one: Josh is talking crap and Eve sneaks up behind him and (ACT) bites his throat. Situation two: Josh is talking ...
ADVOCACY NARRATIVISM PART TWO: INTERESTS ZOOMING IN So interests is the catch all term for the goals/motivations/habits of a character. These can include specific things (look after the well being of my family), more vague things (burning with anger), things that may be negative from the players perspective but not the characters (doesn’t care about human life) (alcoholic). Rather than try and create a taxonomy, I’m leaving what constitutes interests as a little fuzzy. In general though, they are things that leads to action. When a CHARACTER is in a SITUATION they pursue their INTERESTS. Explicit interests: We call an interest Explicit if it’s written as such on a character sheet. Examples are the ‘beliefs’ in Burning Wheel. ‘Best interests’ in IAWA. This also covers, Traits, flaws, personality types and so on in any number of games. If it’s written down, it’s explicit. Implicit interests: Are all the expected interests that come with being a character in a certa...
ADVOCACY NARRATIVISM PART ONE: THE BASICS This is a series about a style of play in tabletop rpgs, Advocacy Narrativism, AN for short. It details the why and how of the style, with most of its emphasis being on how players make character decisions. At it’s most simple all AN really says is: When making a decision for your character. Think about what they would want. Think how the situation at hand might change that. Be open to that change. Make the decision. A lot of the ideas below are expressed in far more eloquent ways by. Jesse Burneko https://playpassionately.wordpress.com/ Christopher Kubasik https://playsorcerer.wordpress.com/ What follows is at most a footnote to the work they’ve already done. THE QUESTION AND ANSWER MODEL So one way to imagine narrative rpgs is that you’re playing to find out the answer to questions. Specifically questions related to a character. Will Bob overcome his alcoholism and...