Fiction-First GMing
After playing Blades in the Dark and struggling to operate using "Fiction First" mechanics, I did some reading in the text and finally read through the section covering GM Goals, Actions, and Principles. I felt pretty ignorant that I would try and just run the game without seeking advice from the designer on how to do so, as once I started to rewrite the section in my own words it felt like a lightbulb went off in my head. I realized the Actions were actually extremely similar to Chris McDowall's ICI Doctrine (or at least that's how it seems to me), so here goes my take on things: Ask establishing questions Information is the field in which TTRPG gameplay takes place, so both the GM and the Players need to establish the scene and setting. These questions can be systemic, like what do you do with your downtime, personal, like what your goal or motives are, or colourful, asking a yes/no question about the character's story and then a follow-up about how their curr...