The Conversation and Fictional Positioning

You play Stonetop by talking. The GM says something; the players respond. The shared imagined space that emerges is called the fiction, and it's what every rule eventually defers to.

You are responsible for your PC: what they say and do, how they feel, their past. The GM is responsible for everything else — the world, the weather, NPCs, monsters, what happened before, what happens after. The GM will ask for input and invite you to define details, but the world beyond your character is theirs to curate.

The sum of everything established about your character and their surroundings — gear in hand vs. stowed, position relative to foes, what you can see and hear, your footing, your emotional state, how you describe your action — is your fictional positioning. It determines:

• whether an action is even feasible ("the cliff is sheer, wet, and your fingers are numb — I don't think you can just climb it")
• whether a move triggers ("you've caught him flat-footed, just deal your damage")
• which move triggers (Defy Danger with WIS to spot them, not Seek Insight)
• the scope and stakes of the result ("on a 6-, you're rolling for Death's Door")
• rarely, whether you roll with advantage or disadvantage

Fictional positioning is not a bonus or penalty to your roll. Stonetop doesn't model difficulty with +1/-1 modifiers. Position shapes what's possible and what's at stake, then the dice tell us how it goes.