Ok, more to remember than to teach…

Narrative vs Simulationist games are really a collection of mechanics, and its mechanics that are narrative or simulationist.

For example, you could have a highly simulationist game — “your strength means you can carry Xlbs; your intelligence means you know N languages.” — while you also have a narrativist mechanic like “spend a fate point to get a reroll.”

For me, a key thing I think I see in story games vs narrativist games is this;

• in narrative games the mechanics give you an outcome, and let you dictate the means. In simulations you roll for the means, and the outcome follows.

For example; a narrative game might ask you to do this in turn;

• roll to see if you win a combat (the dramatic outcome)
• invite you to dictate how your character achieves it

While a simulationist game does it the other way round

• roll to move silently
• roll for backstab damage
• if you do more damage than the person has, then you have won the combat

As worked examples;

• in Blades in the Dark, you might roll Prowl to assassinate a guard; but we roll first. Then we agree as players that, yes, Carter has killed the unsuspecting guard. So now the GM says “ok, tell us how he does it.” The invitation is ‘safe’ because we know the little sandpit that Carter’s player is allowed to improvise in.
• In AD&D 1e, the guard has 7 hit points; Carter rolls ‘move silently’ and passes; then he gets +4 on hit attack roll and does triple damage – 3d4 – and rolls 9. The guard is reduced to below zero, and dies

Just bear in mind that trend;

• narrativist: roll for discrete outcomes, then improvise detail to match
• simulationist: roll for numbers or grades of success, then apply to the world to find out what happens.

Bonus; ‘rules light’ games in this light.

So a rules-light narrative game is one with really simple mechanics for determining the next dramatic outcome. “roll 2d6 – 6 or less, you fail, 7-9 it’s complicated; 10+ you win” Think Powered by The Apocalypse or Carved from Brindlewood. You cut straight to the dramatic questions.

A rules-light simulationist game is one with really simple mechanics for determining the effect of actions. The odd-likes (Into the Odd; Cairn; etc) have very simple mechanics for hits, damage, wounds, etc – allowing fast, effect-first play.