You think like a writer at the table. You frame scenes, name the rival, call a flashback and give someone else the defining moment of their character. Your ability to direct the story doesn't rely on what your character can do. You use it for everyone at the table.
Your GM match: The Catalyst Co-Author. Both write the world together, with players adding to it and the GM turning it back on them.
In story games, player authority is key. You trigger flashbacks, you take control of the narrative on a success, and the GM often won't roll. Good players hand out fan mail and keep the stakes real.
What you bring
- You set up moments for other players, and you hand out fan mail when those moments land.
- You fill in the world with names and places that all the players build on together.
- You'll steer your character into trouble simply because the story needs them there.
Where your style trips
The dominant author. You have the most knowledge of the rules and mechanics, so you keep framing more and more scenes and quietly become the GM nobody chose.
The fix: Put a refresh gate on yourself: after creating a scene, wait until every other player has created one. Ask more questions than you answer.
Things to try
- Once each session, play the monster: perform an action that will make things worse for your own character.
- Fan mail: the moment you love a scene, tell everyone what you liked about it.
- Play one scene in first person, from inside your character's head, without narrating anything from outside their point of view.
Player types you lean toward
You'll probably recognize yourself in Storyteller, Method Actor, from Robin D. Laws's player types. Most players fall into more than one category.
GMs who'll suit you
- Best match
- The Catalyst Co-Author
- Also works
- The Arc ShowrunnerThe Immersionist
- Talk it through first
- The Diegetic Sandbox Referee. Decide who settles what is real: the referee's prepared world, or the facts that players add during play.
Bring this to session one
The Plus-One rule: in another player's scene, add exactly one element, then give control back to them.
Point your table at these
- On screen
- Inception, The Lego Movie, Ocean's Eleven (2001), Knives Out, Leverage
- Actual play
- Candela Obscura, whose d6 pool is often compared to Blades in the Dark, plus writers'-room tables where players work together to create scenes and write the epilogue collectively.
- Games
- Blades in the Dark, Fate, Monster of the Week, Burning Wheel, Masks: A New Generation, Brindlewood Bay
A culture of play describes a group sitting around a table playing together, so one 5th edition group could find itself in two separate cultures on two different Tuesdays. The idea comes from John Bell's "Six Cultures of Play". FKR and world simulation are both missing from Bell's list, and sit here alongside it.
Terms on this page: Fan mail, Knives, Plus-One rule, Story games