My questions are mostly about the player side, and about how deeply the DM should model the player:
Should the player be assumed to be implicitly collaborating towards a coherent, meaningful narrative, as is necessary for a long-lived TTRPG? Or might they be the type of player you often find in AI Dungeon who tries to murder and/or have sex with everything in sight?
Should players ever try to steer the story in a genre-breaking direction, like erotica or murder-hobo power fantasy? Should DMs resist these efforts or play along? If the latter, should the DM go a step further to actively intuit what this particular player would like to see happen?
Should players provide input that might be more sweeping than usable in narrative? (e.g. Take over the world!) If so, on what sort of level should the DM respond to these?
Should players be assumed to be ready to end the narrative at the ~1,000-step point?
It’s the playing chess against yourself problem. I’ve intentionally done or said “just the right thing” thru the player to get past a section, but I’ve also tried to resist going with my first choice or replies because the player isn’t supposed to know about the world building going on in the DM’s mind. One aspect of of this is the DM thinking about how to push the player into doing something, and allowing the player to not follow every planned idea. You could think of it as replay value, where there are branch points not taken, but these are still ideas that need to be captured.
I don’t think manually ending at 1,000 steps will be an issue. “Player engagement” is going to be an issue before hitting the 300 step mark. I’d imaging the narrative is going to feel forced and made-up beyond that point.
My questions are mostly about the player side, and about how deeply the DM should model the player:
Should the player be assumed to be implicitly collaborating towards a coherent, meaningful narrative, as is necessary for a long-lived TTRPG? Or might they be the type of player you often find in AI Dungeon who tries to murder and/or have sex with everything in sight?
Should players ever try to steer the story in a genre-breaking direction, like erotica or murder-hobo power fantasy? Should DMs resist these efforts or play along? If the latter, should the DM go a step further to actively intuit what this particular player would like to see happen?
Should players provide input that might be more sweeping than usable in narrative? (e.g. Take over the world!) If so, on what sort of level should the DM respond to these?
Should players be assumed to be ready to end the narrative at the ~1,000-step point?
It’s the playing chess against yourself problem. I’ve intentionally done or said “just the right thing” thru the player to get past a section, but I’ve also tried to resist going with my first choice or replies because the player isn’t supposed to know about the world building going on in the DM’s mind. One aspect of of this is the DM thinking about how to push the player into doing something, and allowing the player to not follow every planned idea. You could think of it as replay value, where there are branch points not taken, but these are still ideas that need to be captured.
I don’t think manually ending at 1,000 steps will be an issue. “Player engagement” is going to be an issue before hitting the 300 step mark. I’d imaging the narrative is going to feel forced and made-up beyond that point.