09-09-2026, 07:20 PM
Oh, this is really good. I don't have anything interesting to say on 1 or 4, but. . .
For 3, I do think that abduction is a huge part of what I love in play, and something I very much design my dungeons to support. I guess I do that with deduction (okay, maybe prep itself isn't inferring itself, but hopefully you get what I mean)? It does feel a bit like whatever the GM is using to prep is the mirror of what the players will then get something from doing mid-game; when I make a deduction in prep it lets the players fruitfully make abductive inferences.
And I think for 2, I feel like deductive inferences are more creative and feel better in the short term--for situations where you're creating the fiction rather than predicting it you end with with a result that's much more satisfying, but also once you finish with that specific instance you're done with it. Abductive inferences feel less 'creative', but also feel to me like they have longer effects on play; as a player in a megadungeon, if I can deduce the general forces shaping the dungeon I become better able to survive it indefinitely.
For 3, I do think that abduction is a huge part of what I love in play, and something I very much design my dungeons to support. I guess I do that with deduction (okay, maybe prep itself isn't inferring itself, but hopefully you get what I mean)? It does feel a bit like whatever the GM is using to prep is the mirror of what the players will then get something from doing mid-game; when I make a deduction in prep it lets the players fruitfully make abductive inferences.
And I think for 2, I feel like deductive inferences are more creative and feel better in the short term--for situations where you're creating the fiction rather than predicting it you end with with a result that's much more satisfying, but also once you finish with that specific instance you're done with it. Abductive inferences feel less 'creative', but also feel to me like they have longer effects on play; as a player in a megadungeon, if I can deduce the general forces shaping the dungeon I become better able to survive it indefinitely.