As the years go by and I've been a Dungeon Master for 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, dabbled in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, and now 5th Edition D&D, I think about what kind of experience I want to get from the table and our time there. I've read a lot about different strategies: playing the villain, playing god, railroading a narrative... I've got friends on Facebook who insist on trying to murder the player characters each session. That just isn't my thing.
So to wrap back around to your question this week, the moment I decided it was more about telling a story with these characters in the world, not necessarily trying to kill them each battle (or go the other route and give them a massive power fantasy), but focus on the narrative and player interaction, it became more fun for me. We don't linger on rules so much, inspiration and adventage/disadvantage help guide exciting moments, and I think it helps player engagement overall.
As the Dungeon Master, I'm providing opportunities for players to roleplay and tell their characters' stories. Storytelling puppet-master, rather than vengeful god.
There's a Game Boy Advance launch title called Pinobee: Wings of Adventure. The story is just an adaptation of Pinocchio; Grampa Bee has created a robotic bee, who has to rescue all his insect friends, and learn about emotions, friendship, etc. He's even got a fairy god...insect.
The gameplay is what's interesting. A simple platformer with dash-based jump mechanics, but depending on how Pinobee acts towards other insects, he can get different story endings (and straight up murdered by his fairy godmother if he acts too mean).
Each level ends with a diary entry, and your little robotic bee summarizes what he saw in the level, based on your actions. You then get a sense of whether he was more cold and calculated, or friendly and kind to others, etc.
There's also a golden enemy in each level, and if you don't kill it, the enemies in the next level get harder.
You also have this bingo board with spade, diamond, club and heart cards from one to four, and get permanent stat upgrades based on which you collect. It was weird!
I don't actually remember if it was fun to play or not, but at the time, I thought it was interesting in how it remembered and reacted to your gameplay actions.
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