Agenda & Principles Flashcards
Agenda - Portray a fantastic world
(Agenda) Fill the player’s adventures with magic, wonder, and the fantastical. But also epic chaos and destruction, unless the players act.
Agenda - Fill the character’s lives with adventure
(Agenda) Fill the player’s adventures with danger and excitement.
Agenda - Play to find out what happens
(Agenda) Don’t plan too hard. Focus on the questions you’re curious about. You’ll play to find out the answers.
Principle - Draw maps, leave blanks.
(Principle) Every time a location is mentioned, make sure to add it on a map. When you make a map, don’t try to make it complete. Leave room for the unknown.
Principle - Address the characters, not the players.
(Principle) Don’t call out player’s names, use character’s names instead.
Principle - Embrace the fantastic
(Principle) The world is full of fantasy, from the small (e.g. animals with gifts) to the very large (e.g. God planets).
Principle - Make a move that follows
(Principle) Use what is happening in the fiction and do something interesting with it. What makes sense here? What move could I use in this situation?
Principle - Never speak the name of your move
(Principle) Describe the fiction, don’t name the move.
Principle - Give every monster life
(Principle) Give each monster details that bring it to life (sight, smell, sounds).
Principle - Name every person
(Principle) Every NPC must be named. Think also of their personality and motivations.
Principle - Ask questions & use the answers
(Principle) If you don’t know something, you may ask the players, and use what they say.
Principle - Be a fan of the characters
(Principle) Cheer for their victories and lament their defeats. Don’t push them in a particular direction, but follow the characters and participate in their adventure.
Principle - Think dangerous
(Principle) Everyone is a target. Nothing is sacred. No one is safe. Think like an evil overlord. Without the characters, the world you become worse.
Principle - Begin & end with the fiction
(Principle) Moves comes from the fiction, trigger a mechanical effect, which influences the fiction. Start at the fiction, and end at the fiction.
Principle - Think offscreen too
(Principle) Not everything happens in front of the characters. Sometimes, your best move is elsewhere.
