Same page tool addition

#1

Hello,
The Same page tool by Bankuei is a valuable tool to discuss play before play :

I want to add one question to it :
Do the GM and players get to say “what’s true” (he falls in love with you ; 1D6 level 3 orcs) or only “what’s perceptible” (“he can’t help looking at you smiling as in a reverie” ; “the players encounter a strange looking creature on the side of the road”) ?

The mechanics always “tell it straight”
The GM always “tells it straight”
Anybody can “tell it straight” for ease of play
When they are not “telling it straight”, but hinting at the truth, they explicitly signal it
Nobody never “tells it straight”
(multiple answers are possible)

I probably got some wrong, but you get the idea. Can you inform this from your viewpoint ?

2 Likes
#2

Brilliant tool. I’d forgotten about it and I’ll be using that again going forward. Wish I could heart twice.

Two comments I think.

Firstly, I wonder if separating it into two questions is important here. Sometimes the players want the GM to be the source of truth, and sometimes it’s important that players can establish their own truth. Something like:

How much does the GM decide what’s true in the narrative presented?

and

How much do the other players decide what’s true in the narrative presented?

Secondly, if you retain the first question only, I would suggest adding in the idea that sometimes the players get to establish what’s true, which can arise mechanically (e.g. Move outcomes in PbtA) or in the fiction (what a player says about their character is true, for example).

#3

Oh, you take Truth to another level. I meant only low level truth, with the stress on “telling it straight” or “having access only to phenomena”.

I have edited OP to make it clear.
Of course, your point still holds : if something is told straight, it can still hint at something else. And then, who gets to tell what is straighter than straight.
It’s basic Pretend play to play with the borders of fiction and meta. But you still need to state what is an acceptable amount of trickery. Like a yellow card in soccer.

1 Like