Der PigDog's PigBlog

Prepare a scenario for play, using whatever tools are standard Frame scenes, including describing locations and marking the passage of time Tell other players whatever their characters would know Play their characters, on and off screen Adjudicate task resolution Make models And that’s it, literally nothing else. “Game” here doesn’t just mean published rules text, though it does also mean that. Mostly though it means whatever set of techniques, distributions of authority, constraints on authority, and resolution procedures your play group in fact uses. Following are some possible parts of a game that might not be in any rules text. They’re in the game if the play group does them. Write a little two-sentence bio. Make two characters at once, because one will likely die soon. Since your character died, do you want to play that guard until the end of session? Feel free to add details about [this place], your character is from there. Nat 20, nice! Tell me how you do it. We’re playing...

The following is experimental! I came up with these rules after reading lumpley's  Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven's Ars Magica: A Quaint & Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore  and mulling over the purpose of a dedicated GM in my own gaming . I haven't played with them yet. At any time, make a common move. When you don't have a main character in a scene, and everybody is silent, make an MC move. When you don't have a main character in a scene, and someone rolls a miss, make an MC move. If everybody has a main character in a scene, anybody can make MC moves, but not moves targeting their own character. One person shouldn't make an MC move immediately followed by a character move, nor a character move immediately followed by an MC move. Remember, the game is not a series of moves. It is a conversation about fictional events in which moves are triggered. Common moves Start a scene from scratch. Turn to another player and ask where their character is, what they are...