Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Alternatives to second-person POV narration in RPG settings

I'm not a RPG player, but it sounds to me like you are engaged in standard fiction writing with a 3rd person neutral narrator; perhaps unlimited (knows what all characters think and feel). The play...

posted 5y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:49Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46283
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:18:36Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46283
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:18:36Z (over 4 years ago)
I'm not a RPG player, but it sounds to me like you are engaged in standard fiction writing with a 3rd person neutral narrator; perhaps unlimited (knows what all characters think and feel). The player are the "characters".

The only thing I see out of place in that regard is the opinion phrase:

> After all, anyone with any sense would have avoided this place ...

That non-neutral claim suddenly (to me anyway) makes the speaker another _person_ in the book (or group). You would get the same effect, deleting it:

> An intense feeling of dread muffles every sense, it seems a place where no living being belongs.

If different characters see different things:

> The group sees a being materialize before them in the road. Bob sees an old witch. Gretchen sees a dragon. Frank sees a troll, and Larry sees a ghostly, half-transparent frog the size of a goat. The being speaks.

I would write your narrative like most commercial fiction is written, with a disembodied narrator that does _not_ feel like another character in the book with their own feelings or opinions, they just describe the settings and describe what the characters sense and feel. A neutral observer that has access to character emotions. (And in fiction often access to character thoughts, but it might be more effective to let your players think whatever they want).

Set yourself some rules for what this narrator can do, and stay consistent.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-06-26T20:43:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 3