Narrative Responsibility

Seeing as how I seem to have found a way to use blogspot despite the wobbly giant's best efforts to stop me, I will use it while it is available.

Somewhere on a disk that I haven't found since the move I started writing a post about where the responsibility for developing the narrative in a role playing game lies. Seeing as how I can't find it I will deliver the essence now and maybe add the details later.

Most games squarely hand narrative responsibility to the GM/narrator who in many cases is almost solely responsible for what happens as the story unfolds. Sure, the players (through their PCs) affect the story and can to a degree determine the outcome of individual situations, but it is really the GM that decides the direction of the story as a whole. This is not necessarily a problem as someone has to have a vision of where things are going, but if the GM has also done all the world creation (or taken it from a book) then where do the players have input?

I want to move away from supreme GM control to a more collaborative narrative building experience. I want the players to do more than just tell me about their character background at the start of the game. I want them to tell me about important people in the world. I want them to come up with influential organisations, famed artifacts and great legends that can ll be part of the game.

In game, while I will still hold the reins, I want the players to be having more input than just directing their characters. I want them to describe things that are important to them or their character. If a player is playing a holy knight on a quest, then when they reach the city he (the player) describes the church, inventing details as necessary. In character he can also tell us about the cardinal as the characters are on their way, giving me (the GM) clues to play the Cardinal when the group meets him.

That's it for now. I am going to expect my players in future to have more invested in the game than just a character. Is this reasonable? Well I know it is, but I am really just asking for opinions. Derek's Balance of Powers game (done with Mutants and Masterminds) had lots of these elements. I was just a player, but I invented the main antagonist for the whole first story arc. I felt very connected to the game.

Saffron Play Thread

You have been examining an ancient masterwork that has come into interpol's possession. For two days you have been pouring over it trying to discover if it is real or an almost perfect fake. The job is frustrating because interpol want results fast and at this point you think it will be days before you can be sure, unless you perform a procedure that is potentially damaging...damaging only on a scale that an expert would ever notice, but still damage.
It has been a long day and you are walking back from the subway station to your house in Woodland Heights when you notice that a guy that got on the train near your work, is walking up the street behind you on the other side of the road.