The Difference Between Commenting and Asserting Reality

Assertions cannot make alterations to other PC's. You can only do that with Comments, and then you can only describe effects and not causes. That is, you can say that someone seemed weirdly interested in that dead body, in a way that gave you the creeps, but you can't say he is a necrophiliac.

Assertions use your Knowledge to make decisions about exterior facts, not about other PC's: “With my expert knowledge of tobacco ash, I can tell you that the killer smoked a Trichinopoly cigar in his left hand.” Or, “With my expert knowledge of medicine, I can tell you that the man we’re talking to is slowly slipping into the second stage of syphilis and is essentially beyond medical help; he’ll probably be dead in a year or so.” And then the Host has to live with that.

{Commenting <--> Concessions in Scenes}

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 24 Dec 2004

This page is linked to by: SitfNarrativeCommenting, SitfNarrativeConcessionsInScenes,