Game Book + You = Creative Sentai!

[A.B.W]

"Sentai" is the Japanese word for stories about teams of characters who have special powers in combination, by the way.

In Art: Does It Matter?, Lxndr made a comment that opened up a door for me.  He commented that the visual element is the least important part of the game, since the roleplaying game in practice is concerned with words and numbers.  (I'm paraphrasing, but I think I'm being honest to the spirit of his words.)  

I think that art is important in game books precisely because it's scarce in play.  It's pretty well established that most people learn best when they get a point reinforced several different ways.  It's why teachers do well to say something and show it on a board or screen and have students take notes, if it's important.  I have friends who can draw well (or assemble Photoshop graphics or otherwise produce illustrations), but most of the people I play with can't.  I sure can't.  When there's a good picture to point at and say "this is the tone I want," it's as good in its way as having an external source like a movie or painting to cite.  By adding a visual dimension, the game book reinforces the experience of play in a way my players and I can't readily manage ourselves.

Once I thought of it in that way, I started wondering if it might apply to other areas.  In a game where poetry is important but players aren't poets, examples of the right sort of poetry in the book would be helpful.  My old roommate the Tekumel junkie seemed to find the Tekumaleni (sp?) script and art styles helpful in supporting his descriptions in play.  Games with a strong prose style might do the same sort of thing for players whose narrative skills aren't so hot.

Am I onto something here?

[Paganini]

I agree with you. I dunno if you've seen the out of print Zero RPG from Archangel, but the three sections of Steve Stone color plates perfectly convey the tone of the setting.

In fact, the game was actually designed from the art.

[A.B.W]

I saw Zero in the store once, and figured, "I can always pick it up later."  Well.

[Shreyas Sampat]

I gather that the point you're making is that the game book is a tool, not just for mechanics, but for Color.  This is non-obvious, and in some cases (The Pool and Lxndr's designs in general come to mind) absolutely not the case, but with that caveat I agree with you completely.  You're definitely getting somewhere.

You go on to suggest that gamebook Color source should be matched to play Color, if I'm not off my rocker.  I'd like to discuss how this could be done effectively - since text and graphics are more or less the limit of a paper game - and, more importantly, how one can exploit this possibility.

Shameless Plug Says: Hey! You can use mechanics to reinforce Color too, and even manipulate the tools of play, to make a game a visual, tactile, and auditory experience!  I've done it, twice!

[A.B.W]

Certainly I wouldn't want to say that all RPGs work this way.  I'm not even sure I want to say that I think all RPGs should.  I just think that many of them do for many of their players.

Tell me about tacticle and auditory input, please.  ("Tell me about the rabbits, George.")

[Shreyas Sampat]

Auditory is what you'd expect it to be - talk about the game.  You can also use recordings and music here... it seems to be popular, in some circles, to have 'game theme music'.  I've never used this, being a very visual person myself.

Visual input can be taken farther than it has - I'd contend that mime is a form of visual input for the people not actually miming.  The gameplay environment can be manipulated for effects - I try to run sessions that feature a lot of travelling outdoors, and use the kitchen or dining room for social situations.

Tactile input seems to be a newish thing - Dust Devils with its cards, Fastlane's roulette wheel, Torchbearer's Insignia, and the mah jongg tiles of Refreshing Rain are all tactile elements that can invoke Color.

Then there's the realm of clicky miniature gaming... that's all three senses bound up into one device!

[John Kim]

I gather that the point you're making is that the game book is a tool, not just for mechanics, but for Color.  This is non-obvious, and in some cases (The Pool and Lxndr's designs in general come to mind) absolutely not the case, but with that caveat I agree with you completely.  You're definitely getting somewhere.

This is an important point which has certainly been discussed before.  Ron discusses it in his Simulationism essay, saying:

A lot of game texts in this tradition reach for a fascinating ideal: that reading the book is actually the start of play, moving seamlessly into group play via character creation. Features of some texts like the NPC-to-PC explanatory style and GM-only sections are consistent with this ideal, as well as the otherwise-puzzling statement that character generation is a form of Director stance.  

I talk about it more in my essay http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/theory/narrative/paradigms.html">"Story and Narrative Paradigms in RPGs".  As I put it in terms of narrative paradigms, the question is whether the game texts themselves (including illustrations) are considered part of the story.  I contrast two points of view (paradigms).  Collaborative-Storytelling suggests that the story is only shared play (i.e. public statements during a game session).  So the shared play should hold together on its own as a story.  Virtual-Experience suggests that the story is more encompassing and multimedia.  i.e. It does include the game text and illustrations.

[Paganini]

Forgetting about woulds, shoulds, and coulds, and which RPGs do and which RPGs don't, I think the important point here is that we're talking about another tool in the toolbox, another gun in the aresenal, another technique in the Tesuji Bottle.

When designing a game, I think it's safe to say this: Everyone should keep in mind that the game-book itself is a tool that can communicate color. It has the potential to contribute input that can't be produced via actual play.

[A.B.W]

Yes, that's it precisely, Paganini:  to be aware of it as a possibility you can choose to follow up on.  You don't have to.  Sometimes it's not the right answer.  But sometimes it can be just the thing.

John:  That's an interesting distinction.  So it's the difference between "the game is part of what we consult while preparing to play" and "what we do in play is an extension/continuation of what we've read?"  Or am I just projecting my own interest here?

[John Kim]

John:  That's an interesting distinction.  So it's the difference between "the game is part of what we consult while preparing to play" and "what we do in play is an extension/continuation of what we've read?"  Or am I just projecting my own interest here?  

No, I think that's a fair characterization.  I'd add in that there are lots of other possible parts of play: i.e. generated text including character sheets and GM notes, any sorts of secrets (secrets that the GM holds from the players, or that the players hold from each other), and so forth.  For example, in my current games we have session write-ups on the web that are an integral part of play.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

I think my point about Color extends into actual play, not merely reading the book. 'Way back in System Does Matter, in fact.

Game books are often picked up, shown to one another, referenced, and generally handled during play, depending on the group or on the game. The pictures and so forth, or even the size of the lettering of a significant piece of game text, are all contributory Color (or rather, the person's use of them is such) during play.

I also think the tactile elements, which is what I mention in the System essay, aren't all that new. My favorite example is the sensation of rolling big ol' handfuls of dice in Champions or Tunnels & Trolls. "Yeah, this is a real Energy Blast, chump!"

Best,
Ron

[A.B.W]

John:  I like the idea of "the game" as extending out in a bunch of directions from play, but that's my bias showing, I guess.

Ron:  Fistfuls of dice.  Different polyhedrals.  Colors.  Yeah.  Hmm.  If I had more free time, it would be interesting to try some comparison study of the presence of such feedback systems in use at the table and feedback like art in the books.  Do bare-bones presentation and straightforward, unvarying mechanics go together a lot, sometimes, not at all?  I have no idea, I realize.

[Shreyas Sampat]

Ron, I'd wonder, how long have tactile elements been used deliberately, as opposed to emerging from a confluence of factors that happens to produce tactile feedback?

To make an example, I'll compare Mage and Exalted.

In Mage, a fistful of dice is a coincidental feature; it emerges from the way the system works.  Not knowing anything about the design process of this game, I think I can hypothesize that the designers did not consider the "fistful of dice phenomenon" while working on the game.

Exalted, on the other hand, quite deliberately uses this.  Virtue dice-adding and stunts, two strong feedback methods, consist of handing people dice.  Character 'kewlness' is measurable, in part, by the heaps of dice they can generate through the use of their magical powers, in contrast to Mage 'kewlness', which stems from being able to creatively use a rather narrow spectrum of abilities in a versatile manner.

[M. J. Young]

It happens that I was recently chatting with one of Exalted's authors, who mentioned that when he runs the game he uses a programmable calculator to generate large dice rolls. He doesn't care if the players want to roll all those dice, but it's too much trouble for him. (Players often object to this choice on his part, but he's rather firm on it.)

I'm curious whether that means he doesn't need the tactile reinforcement, whether being the referee makes it different, or whether there's something else involved on this level.

--M. J. Young

[Andrew Martin]

I think that art is important in game books precisely because it's scarce in play.

I went to a new gaming session on Thursday evening, and joined in. We started off with ICE Rolemaster, but the existing players were dissatisfied with that, so the group decided to switch to D&D rules. As we didn't have the D&D books, but did have computers, we instead used the computer game, Never Winter Nights, which is based on D&D3 to generate characters for the face to face game, even using the game's character pictures and character voices to help demonstrate to other players what the character looked like and sounded like.