Canonical Texts

[rylen dreskin]

Hey,

I've been reading the HeroQuest pages.  From there I hunted terms like "bangs," "narrativist," and "social contract" to this forum.  Hope I'm in the right place.

I've found some decent descriptions of these things in several places.  But I'm sure --
1)  there are some strong general posts that cover things better then my simple hunting does
2)  there is some good jargon I don't even know to look for.

I think I've got a fairly strong understanding of the narr/sim/gam divide.  I've read some good accounts of bangs and r-maps.  I've some guesses about the social contract.

But I ask,
what fundamental reading do you recomend?
and what are the important terms/ideas/jargon?

--
An example of the last -- a lot of organized gaming around here involves the "living" campaings.  These are d20 games with certified modules of flow chart adventures intended to allow people to carry their characters between games w/o any "my home DM gave me this custom artifact with all these nifty rules."  Accepting that goal, it does pretty well.  I'm sure theres a term for that style.  What is it?

---
Thanks,
Rylen

[Alan]

Hi Rylen,

Welcome to the Forge.

Ron Edward's articles comprise the canon for GNS/Creative Agenda theory - terms like bangs, social contract, etc.  They have evolved over the past few years - you can read them in the http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/" >articles section.

But for a good overall introduction to the whole theory, read the most recent essay http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/25/" >Narrativism: Story Now.