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In RPG Theory

10/5/2004 KorbanDream: Hello Again?
I just thought I'd pop back to say hello... Mindwanders - Thank you for all your help, cheers! Ron Edwards - Thank you for all your support. Everyone Else; thanks…
In RPG Theory
Participants: KorbanDream.

10/4/2004 Grex: Elfs & Donjon
[b]Elfs[/b] and [b]Donjon[/b] are what really got me thinking, [i]deeply[/i], over what exactly a role-playing game is, and how it works. Coming from an old-school hack-and-slash RPG background, it really…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Grex.

10/4/2004 Noon: What can rules actually contribute?
Specifically fortune orientated ones here (though quite likely it can apply to all the other types). What can they actually contribute? I'm wondering if there are really only two things:…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Noon, TonyLB, Alan, lumpley, Galwinganoon, timfire, Roger, Doug Ruff, M. J. Young, GB Steve, Technocrat13, Sean, Doctor Xero, Ben Lehman, Mike Holmes, simon_hibbs, clehrich, contracycle, Tomas HVM, John Kim.

10/1/2004 kwill: D&D documentary
a documentary called "The Dungeons & Dragons Experience" has been released on DVD and is reviewed here: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=12314 a quick google reveals other reviews also available - http://www.google.com/search?q=dungeons+dragons+experience - including…
In RPG Theory
Participants: kwill.

10/1/2004 Paka: What I've taken from different games. Lessons learned.
[b]Dust Devils: [/b]It forced me to loosen my grip on the game and realize that it is our game and not my game that is at the table due to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paka, Negilent.

9/30/2004 timfire: Design equals... Play?
[quote="Jonathon (ErrathofKosh)"]Players design characters, GM's design settings and situations; those are considered play, so why wouldn't the game designer designing system be play?[/quote] I think this is a good topic…
In RPG Theory
Participants: timfire, TonyLB, DannyK, Ron Edwards, greyorm, Walt Freitag, bcook1971, John Kim, Vaxalon, Wormwood, clehrich, ErrathofKosh, M. J. Young, ffilz, John Kirk, Caldis.

9/30/2004 LordSmerf: Reasons for cross-gender play
I am a male. I play female characters in roughly 40% of my games. I was idly wondering about that the other day when i realized why i do it.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Vaxalon, beingfrank, Ben Lehman, Emily Care, Matt Wilson, Paul Czege, DannyK, Dr. Velocity, M Jason Parent, Sydney Freedberg, Roger, Ron Edwards, jrs, John Kim, M. J. Young, Ravien, List, Baraboo, John Uckele.

9/30/2004 madelf: consequences of magic redux
Awhile back I brought up some vague notions in this thread... http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12009&highlight= where a bunch of you helped me sort through my ideas. I found it very helpful. I've been…
In RPG Theory
Participants: madelf, clehrich, Andrew Martin, Ron Edwards, Vaxalon, Valamir, Jinx, TonyLB.

9/29/2004 Dauntless: When does combat resolution become too slow?
My system currently has quite a few factors to be considered during the play of combat. Most of it also requires quite a bit of record keeping. While I haven't…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dauntless, TonyLB, Noon, Andrew Martin, Jack Aidley, Vaxalon, Shreyas Sampat, John Kim, DannyK, John Uckele, contracycle, Mike Holmes, M. J. Young, Precious Villain, bcook1971, Doug Ruff, LordSmerf, Ben Lehman.

9/29/2004 Dauntless: A look at skills
I've been beating my head against a wall trying to decide exactly how I want to implement skills in my game. First off, let me introduce what I call the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dauntless, Andrew Martin, Dr. Velocity, TonyLB, M. J. Young.

9/29/2004 timfire: [Design Theory] Decision-Points?
This is an idea that I've had before, but wasn't able to articulate very well. But now I think I can articulate it better. I'm calling this a 'decision-point' in…
In RPG Theory
Participants: timfire, Michael S. Miller.

9/28/2004 Doyce: Game supplements: using the rules and dropping the Setup
[Originally mis-posted in Lumpley Games -- my bad.] In reading a ton of great one-sheets and "Variation" proposals for everything from Sorcerer to Trollbabe to My Life with Master to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Doyce, timfire, hanschristianandersen, DannyK, b_bankhead, M. J. Young, lumpley.

9/27/2004 Sean: Rehabilitation by New Example
T.S. Eliot once put forward the theory that a serious work of art changes the meaning of the tradition leading up to it. That is, when an artist creates an…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Sean, Noon, DannyK, Mark D. Eddy, Ron Edwards.

9/26/2004 jburneko: Social Contract and Automation
Hello Everyone, It's been a while since I posted. Most of that is due to the fact that I'm getting married at the end of October and because I have…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, clehrich, Rob MacDougall, Noon.

9/25/2004 Sean: IIEE in EABA
This past week, inspired by the Ythrek setting, I bought Greg Porter's EABA rules to see what the underlying mechanics he had in mind for the setting were. My first…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Sean, Noon, ChefKyle, madelf.

9/21/2004 Marco: Safewords in Gaming
In a thread from Actual Play Ron wrote: 1. No one hoses the bejesus out of a character like his own player. I was thinking about this.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Marco, Ben Lehman, xiombarg, lumpley, Ron Edwards, Blankshield, John Kim, Noon, clehrich, Madeline, Jinx, Walt Freitag, Erling Rognli, M. J. Young, Jonathan Walton, List, Doug Ruff.

9/21/2004 KorbanDream: Universe - (SMS A-RPG) - Continuity...
Hi all. Sorry I've been away. (I've been refining my life). This post is mainly aimed at M. J. Young who offered help on the Universe's Continuity dilemma but it's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: KorbanDream, M. J. Young.

9/21/2004 Eric J.: Pyron and the Galactic Frenzy
Alright, I admit it. I play computer games. If you've ever played Star control, or Master of Orion you know what I'm talking about. No? Well let's try this: Age…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Eric J., Nathan P., simon_hibbs, xiombarg, Ben Morgan, Vaxalon, Negilent.

9/19/2004 Noon: Group bonus determination for situations
I was thinking of a system where it isn't left to GM fiat to decide if a bonus is given. On top of that the system wouldn't be crunchy, so…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Noon, Andrew Martin, Doug Ruff, inky, M. J. Young, Doctor Xero.

9/17/2004 contracycle: Situation and Tension
I've been looking for a structural model of the RPG game again. Note, the actual game played at the table, not the rules text or anything else. So I mean…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, TonyLB, Marco, M. J. Young, John Kim.

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Subsequent Topics
In RPG Theory

10/5/2004 Green: Effects of One True Way on roleplaying experience
In a lot of online roleplaying communities, the concept of the One True Way to Roleplay gets a lot of criticism, but it's more or less based on the idea…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Green, Alan, Eero Tuovinen, Noon, greyorm, bcook1971, Marco, Doctor Xero, Ron Edwards, neelk, Sean, Mortaneus, ffilz, John Uckele, James Holloway, M. J. Young, simon_hibbs, Halzebier, Christopher Kubasik, clehrich, Cup of Iron, Jaik, Darksmith.

10/6/2004 JamesDJIII: IRC Protocol and online RPGs
I was wondering if any of your have had experience with playing RPGs via IRC (or similar chat mediums)? Do you know of any Social Contracts that explicitly deal with…
In RPG Theory
Participants: JamesDJIII, TonyLB, Vaxalon, M. J. Young, Ron Edwards, LordSmerf, Valamir, greyorm, Marco, jdagna, Shreyas Sampat, b_bankhead, Green, Noon, GaryTP.

10/6/2004 Ron Edwards: Hacking
Hi there, Walt Freitag and I were kicking around some ideas through private messages, and then it seemed to evolve into something of general interest. Walt wrote (the first internal…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ron Edwards, ErrathofKosh, Shreyas Sampat, Roger, Noon, nellist, Walt Freitag, Alan, M. J. Young, Doug Ruff, TonyLB, GaryTP, Jonathan Walton.

10/8/2004 LordSmerf: Technique and Ephemera Inventory
So over the past couple of days i have been going back over a bunch of old threads trying to find some sort of comprehensive (heck, i would settle for…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, lumpley, Ron Edwards.

10/8/2004 Dauntless: Game Design methodology
I'm curious what approaches people here take on the systematic processes they use to design their game. How do you go about actually figuring out how to create your game?…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dauntless, timfire, Tony Irwin, LordSmerf, M. J. Young, bcook1971, Shreyas Sampat, TonyLB, zephyr_cirrus.

10/10/2004 Halzebier: Compensating players for railroading
Both of my gaming groups currently run canned adventures (using the D&D Eberron series and the German DSA series of modules, respectively). This usually involves a lot of GM fiat.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Halzebier, efindel, Marco, Shreyas Sampat, ffilz, Noon, ragnar, madelf, TonyLB.

10/10/2004 Technocrat13: Mysteries. How do you run them? Is there another way?
Ok, so there was a thread recently that got my brain working on the idea of Mystery games. I started shuffling through random thoughts about the nature of the mystery…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Technocrat13, Zaidaco, teucer, Shreyas Sampat, Rob MacDougall, jdagna, M. J. Young, inky, Bankuei, clehrich, Green, komradebob, Lollo, Tim Alexander.

10/11/2004 zephyr_cirrus: The Price
Getting back to the original topic (sorry if this has already been said, I haven't the time to read the entire thread), maybe the person who dabbled in magic could…
In RPG Theory
Participants: zephyr_cirrus, Ron Edwards.

10/11/2004 Mark Johnson: Player Death
Have you ever had a player die in a long term campaign? Does the campaign continue? Does the player's character remain alive in the campaign? Does the player's character get…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mark Johnson, ffilz, Ron Edwards, M. J. Young, SlurpeeMoney, jdagna, contracycle, Factor 8, Blankshield, daMoose_Neo, nikola, Riff Raff.

10/11/2004 bigsimon: A Diceless Resolution System using Resource Management
This is a repost from RPG.net, but I thought I'd run it by you guys (for those of you who don't browse that other site). Please keep in mind that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: bigsimon, Ben Lehman, TonyLB, dredd_funk, andy, LordSmerf, neelk, M. J. Young, simon_hibbs.

10/12/2004 Peter Nordstrand: Roleplaying with Kids
Hi, I've been searching for old threads (I know they are there) about roleplaying with kids. Apparently, I'm not very good at the search tool here at the Forge, so…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Peter Nordstrand, Arref, Ron Edwards, cappadocius, Green, hajons, ffilz, Jeremy, M. J. Young, TonyLB, nikola.

10/12/2004 ffilz: Balancing story continuity against player participation
[url=http://p222.ezboard.com/fokayyourturnfrm9.showMessage?topicID=2821.topic]This thread[/url] on Monte Cook's EzBoard has got me thinking about how to balance continuity of story against player participation. Many of my experiences as a player (as opposed to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ffilz, TonyLB, Thor Olavsrud, M. J. Young, Marco, bcook1971.

10/13/2004 Paganini: Stance Theory: The Hegemony of One Character
So, Ben Lehman said this tonight: "It cleaves to close to the hegemony of one player corresponding to one character only, so much that only one category is made for…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paganini, LordSmerf, Ben Lehman, Alan, TonyLB, Ron Edwards, timfire, Shreyas Sampat, greyorm, John Kim, Walt Freitag, M. J. Young, Blankshield, lumpley, simon_hibbs, clehrich.

10/13/2004 Roy: Organizing A "Game Day"
Hi, everyone! We're forming an RPG club here in Northwestern Arkansas (Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers/Bentonville) and we're considering hosting a "Game Day". The roleplaying community is still too small for a full-blown convention,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Roy, teucer, Alan.

10/14/2004 GaryTP: Disallowing Hacks
I took the following post from the one on "hacking" to give this thread some context. Noon said: I mentioned hacking some creature to be dead, but not as an…
In RPG Theory
Participants: GaryTP, Ron Edwards, Noon, Jonathan Walton, Bankuei, clehrich, Roger.

10/14/2004 Mortaneus: Hacking and Fortune-at-the-end (split)
It just struck me that Fortune-at-the-End tends to almost universally require some basic hacking to create a cohesive IIEE.
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mortaneus, Shreyas Sampat, Ron Edwards, ffilz, Blankshield, John Kim, M. J. Young.

10/15/2004 Technocrat13: Mysteries. Step by step instructions.
Follwing through with all the wonderful advice and thoughts given on my previous thread about mysteries, I began to wonder; Is it possible to make step-by-step instructions for a GM…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Technocrat13, Ron Edwards, clehrich, neelk, Sean, inky, teucer, M. J. Young.

10/17/2004 Green: OTW: What can be done?
In this thread posters were asked to contribute their own stories of how their encounters with the One True Way mentality have affected their gaming experience. While I hope that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Green, John Kim.

10/18/2004 jone: Fast but realistic firearms RPG-system?
Hi. I'm searching for a RPG-system for modern combat (=firearms). I'd like to find a system that works both with a WW2 and a present day (~year 2000) campaigns. So…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jone, Chris Geisel, M. J. Young, Darksmith, contracycle, Negilent, Dev, Ben Lehman, Vaxalon, Tom B, jerry, cheeplives, smokewolf, GreedIsGod.

10/18/2004 Darksmith: GM is god?
There have been a couple of refences to the whole, "GM is god" mindset. What are the general views on this type of mentality? Is is accepted and expected? Do…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Darksmith, Eero Tuovinen, TonyLB, Marco, Ron Edwards, Mortaneus, bcook1971, Halzebier, Jeremy, DannyK, eralston, Chris Goodwin, John Uckele, nikola, Noon, John Kim, Mark Johnson, M. J. Young, beingfrank, ffilz, Scripty, Vaxalon, Tomas HVM, simon_hibbs, Christopher Kubasik, Rob Carriere, komradebob, contracycle, jdrakeh.

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