thread: 2009-06-22 : Secrets: the Smelly Chamberlain
On 2009-06-22, Roger wrote:
So this is about authority over the fiction.
I'm going to go right into Spirit of the Century, because these systemless examples (or maybe it's parlor narration or something) feel a bit too loose.
GM: As you search through the Chamberlain's desk, he leaps from his hiding spot behind the curtain and attacks! I'm rolling his Stealth versus your Alertness to see how much of an ambush bonus he gets.
Players: Okay, but we're totally spending a Fate Point and tagging his 'Stinky' Aspect to get a +2 to our rolls.
GM: HE DOESN'T STINK.
(et cetera, et cetera)
So what's going on with this example? The mechanics of the system are not letting each player have his own personal unsynchronized fiction. The system is demanding they get synched up and on the same page.
(Furthermore, SotC has explicit mechanisms by which they can cause the "Chamberlain is stinky" concept to become a fact within the fiction.)
It's not really important here what the answers to A and B are, but that everyone involved agrees on the same answers. The fiction doesn't fork. The system won't allow it.
