[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Pump Priming: This is done far away from the session, and possibly even before the campaign. This is used as a kind of artificial brainstorming. I roll up adventure ideas, NPC's that could be useful, and themes. I've used this to roll up the next world an infinite worlds or space-faring campaign will visit next. I've used it on adventure tables to get the framework for an adventure. I've used it in monster hunters to both generate new monsters from a list of traits and to give me an edge in surprising my players as to which foe they are hunting this time.

I don't do this at all. It's fun to sit around, with friends, and roll on random tables to see how non-sequitur we can get with results, but, that's not something I'd set a game up around.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Resolving Interesting Decisions: As a GM, its my job to set up interesting decisions. Some of these decisions, the players will make on their own, agonizing between two choices. Other times, the choice isn't in the hands of the players, and both options are interesting. This is a fantastic time to bring out the dice. No one knows which way the dice will fall, not even the GM. And it matters which way they fall, but you aren't in trouble if they fall unexpectedly.

I always consider it important to let the characters have the choice.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Fleshing Out on the Fly: As a GM, I don't have the ability to predict everything my players will do, or everyone they meet. People are particularly hard to predict, and I often roll up a random NPC during the game. Such NPC's are unlikely to play a strong dramatic roll. Other times, Its used to answer questions the PC's had. A player will ask if a condition exists, and if it exists, everything will work out wonderfully. I haven't thought about this before, and I admit it to the player, hand them the dice, and say: "He could have a mistress... try to roll under 8 and we'll find out." That's drama.

I wouldn’t consider “roll and see” drama. Randomly generating NPCs, on the fly, isn’t something I would do. I have a large stable of NPCs that I can draw from, and, if necessary, I can always create a new one to fill the role I need right now. If they were in a position where “do they have a mistress” is a relevant question, I would already have an answer because I know what is going on, in general, and could decide that in an instant.

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Why is this storytelling? While I'm sitting at the RPG table I'm just directing my character's life. It doesn't become storytelling until I tell you about it later and I impose a narrative structure on it.

For the same reason slice-of-life shows are popular and considered storytelling. And you’re telling the story, with the GM, to the other players. They are your audience.

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Rolling the dice may produce a momentary thrill when seeing whether a gamble pays off, but the real drama comes from finding out whether your strategy or tactics have served you well. Whether or not your die-roll ends up with you slaying the dragon or being eaten by it is a momentary thrill; real drama comes from the culmination of your plans to infiltrate the dragon's lair, try to steal its treasure, have an improvisational contest of riddles with it, and finally decide to engage it in battle. YOU chose that course of action. It's YOUR success if you win, and YOUR failure if you lose. It's not about storytelling; it's about making decisions and seeing the consequences.

If you’re playing your game as a strategy/tactics/loot/shopping simulator, there’s nothing wrong with that, and I can see that you’d have a very hard time weaving a complex narrative. If you treat every encounter as happening in a void, then yes, there is no story.

We don’t play games where the goal of the game would ever be to steal the dragon’s treasure. Stealing the treasure would just be one, small, part of the overall narrative. If the dragon had the MacGuffin that the party needed to move the story forward, then they would do it, but the story continues after that. Your example would just be a single, small, chapter in the larger story.

If your example is the only “story” you’re looking for, that’s fine. But, many of us are more interested with how the characters react, and interact, before, during and after. Is someone against stealing from the dragon? What are the attempts to parlay with the dragon for the artifact in question? Can the dragon be reasoned with? If there’s a fight, how do the party members react to the incident? Was this because of a failed roll, or just someone’s ego (likely the Dragon’s but, could be a PCs)? After the party gets the treasure, how does that affect the characters? Did anyone die during the battle? If so, how do they mourn the loss of their companion? Did someone botch a roll, and one of the other characters think they did it on purpose? Did someone do something amazing, that they had never done before, and the other characters ask about it? That’s where the story and drama come from. Killing the monster and taking its loot isn’t the story or drama, it’s a scene and it’s behind what would drive the drama.