As the Storyteller, you bring the world and its inhabitants alive by setting the stage and playing supporting characters for your players. Society of Rafa is structured into episodic scenarios, which you play in up to a few sessions. For each scenario, the storyteller sets out a core open-ended dilemma for the players to solve and describe how non-player characters (NPCs) react. Longterm, these stories and their resolutions can fill out town relationships and themes that allow you to tackle ever more detailed stories within a session.

In Society of Rafa, the storyteller guides the pacing and action, but players are equal creators of the world with you. Your players’ characters have lived in this world their entire lives. Therefore, they can bring knowledge of the world and its people and traditions they have followed. Players can and should create reasonable knowledge. The storyteller’s job is to cooperatively build upon what they add to the lore. If players ask for details they should know, give them answers or refer to where they can find them. 

Society of Rafa’s ethos is to give players full agency. “Yes, and” is a very important concept in improv and roleplaying. Even if you did not think of something earlier or often even if you do not personally like it, let players add it to the world. For example, during relationship building in character creation, one player wanted to port over a family from their fanfiction with an established intellectual property. We compromised by turning the alien husband into a spirit husband for the sake of worldbuilding but left the original’s characterization intact. Instead of blocking players because you did not anticipate their action, find ways to let your players do what they want. The alien husband had established a farming profession and dynamics with the townsfolk that ended up enhancing the story within that play session.

This extends to the interplay of other mechanics, such as Rafa Skills for Discovery that automatically succeed. Sometimes you will want to preserve a bit of mystery, such as the location of a person despite people casting skills deliberating attempting to locate them. Roll with your players desires, and give them something as sizable as possible while preserving the mystery. For example, say that a child went missing while playing with friends near the Weeping Well. You may not want to reveal that the child is hiding for a prank in a certain basement across town. When responding with a “Yes, and” mentality, you can say that they are in a dark, dry place with a candle reading a book. Observant players can infer a lot, such as ruling out the well because it’s dry and that the child is biding their time somewhere unusual.

Similarly, resolving a scenario should stem from what your players think is a satisfactory resolution. However, that does not always mean that the first solution a Rafa Circle proposes should immediately resolve the scenario. Some solutions make the scenario too easy, so you will challenge them with complications or new perspectives to their resolution. Sometimes their rolls will cause Side Effects even if it’s a good idea to treat the patient. But if their solution is reasonable, let them try it in good faith!