Last night at the workshop, we had a nice discussion about weaving character goals together. I wanted to post that example here so people looking for a more hands-on expression of this proactive stuff can see it. Here's how it worked: we had a group-designed setting (very loose) with a few facets we had decided on (starting conflicts, a few factions, locations, etc). Each player had a vague goal they were bringing to the table: 1. See the world 2. Uncover the truth of my origin/heritage 3. Get back the magical artifact that raiders stole from my community 4. Reconsider my stance on the ethical use of magic and come to a new understanding 5. Figure out what happened with the magical disaster all those years ago These are pretty vague, and they aren't specific enough to build encounters around - yet. Your job as a GM is guide the conversation (live, ideally) to help the players attach these goals to SPECIFIC people, places, and things, with as much overlapping interests as possible. I first asked Player #1 about seeing the world, and he said... 1. Travel to every island in the vast sea, starting with my list of islands I haven't been to yet This was slightly better, and it allowed me to ask for clarity on #3... 3. Follow the raiders to their island stronghold of [name]. I have never left the island before, so I need a crew who is well-traveled and capable. We can then use #3's goal to tie together #1's goal: we can have Player #1 be the well-traveled character who knows where the raider's island is, but hasn't been there yet - and wants to visit it because he hasn't been there. This points both of their "objects of desire", or the focus of their goals, at the same place. Meanwhile, we have goal #2 develop into... 2. Use my grandfather's secret notebooks to understand the magic of the [stolen magic item]. Since that item was stolen by the raiders and taken to the island that unites goal #1 and #3, this goal must also tie into that island destination (and also to the magic item itself, which is the object of desire for goal #3.

Hey everyone, Happy to discover this space as I've been running the PARP structure exclusively for 4 campaigns now over the past 2.5-ish(?) years, with lots of trial and error because I was coming from a very GM driven game and mindset that is D&D. The reason I first discovered the book was because I wanted to find a name for the style of game where my players kept pushing certain things that weren't part of the story -- it was interesting to them -- and I started leaning into the uncomfortable idea of letting go off the reigns to discover what following their interest session to session was like. And so a GM from the Toronto DND discord community recommended me this book as the structure that would benefit me. It was such an eye opening experience to consume the book and understand why as a player I felt like a character put on someone else's journey when playing in the traditional way of D&D campaigns that I was part of. Because my circle was all D&D folks who exclusively run "reactive" games or consume media like Critical Roll and Dimension 20, it was pretty much the gold standard that the GM drives the plot, the story, yadda yadda, players react and we RP. So when I tried sharing the concepts from the book with my circle it would lead to debates and folks dismissing the PARP style. Over the past years of trying to run PARP structured, I slowly tried to implement things from the book -- as I took my time reading it -- over 40 sessions of 3 campaigns with different sets of people, and it was really hard to get everyone on board and have them be diligent of goal making and in the proper way. BUT, i'm happy to say that my 4th and current table with PARP is with an amazing group of folks who are sticking to the asks -- it did take a lot of above table check-ins to ensure that. The RP and story has been better than anything that I could have created solo in the lone tower that I often found myself in traditional GMing. It feels like we are co-writing a drama together, and i'm genuinely appreciative that I get be surprised as a GM as I *discover* the story through PCs goals and factions goals.