Previous Topics
In RPG Theory

10/23/2004 SlurpeeMoney: The Try/Fail Sequence as a Mechanic
The Try/Fail Sequence is the term commonly used for points four and five of Algis Budreys' Seven-Point Plot. The Seven-Point Plot looks something like this: 1) A person 2) In…
In RPG Theory
Participants: SlurpeeMoney, Jasper, Grover, Noon, Michael S. Miller, contracycle, timfire, TonyLB, Roger, daMoose_Neo.

10/23/2004 Nathan P.: Character Goals and Explication
Here's something that came up on this thread . Context: In my game Timestream, characters explicity identify their Goals and the Obstacles that stand in the way of them.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Nathan P., SlurpeeMoney.

10/23/2004 JamesDJIII: Not Just an Example of Play
Splitting off from http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=13143. John Kim said: As far as I can tell, the examples of play I've seen are exactly what they purport to be -- examples in order…
In RPG Theory
Participants: JamesDJIII, Rob MacDougall, efindel, Sean, M. J. Young, contracycle, Jack Aidley.

10/20/2004 mindwanders: Plain English Explanation of Social Contracts
Hi folks, Has anyone writen/seen a good description of the Social Contract that does not require a previous knowledge of the Big Model? I'd prefer something that is not too…
In RPG Theory
Participants: mindwanders, jdagna, clehrich, TonyLB, Alan, Christopher Kubasik, neelk, contracycle, Roger, matthijs, M. J. Young, Ben Morgan, ScottM.

10/20/2004 LordSmerf: Director Stance (more) (split)
Raven (greyorm) mentioned something in the new thread Different Types of Director Stance that really solidified my problems with Stance Theory. My problem starts with and centers on Director Stance.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Mike Holmes, Jinx, Ron Edwards, Blankshield, clehrich, Marhault, Valamir, timfire, Shreyas Sampat, M. J. Young, Paganini.

10/20/2004 SlurpeeMoney: [Cross Post] The Benefits of Game Master Fiat
[This was also posted in the Actual Play forum, but I feel it warrants discussion here as well] Ron requested that I post an my style of play, as I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: SlurpeeMoney, Ron Edwards.

10/20/2004 contracycle: RPG sheet music?
I had an interesting thought while going over my previous ideas on Sitation & Tension. The general direction in which I was trying to head was toward constructing a tool…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle.

10/20/2004 bcook1971: Task Resolution vs Conflict Resolution
Ok. Quicky thread. I just read the glossary definitions in an attempt to settle my confusion. I'm assuming that tasks are understood to be conflict components. My understanding at present…
In RPG Theory
Participants: bcook1971, Trevis Martin, Alan, Jack Aidley, Shreyas Sampat, timfire, greyorm.

10/20/2004 bcook1971: Complex Conflict That's Not Combat
Hello. I read two things recently: The failing in the Sorcerer book is to talk about a "combat" system at all. There is no combat system. There is a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: bcook1971, Lxndr, jdagna, M. J. Young, timfire, Jonathan Walton.

10/19/2004 JamesDJIII: Red-Box D&D Example of Play
I'm speaking about the 1979, or 1980 "red cover" Basic D&D rulebook. I remember when I convinced my parents to buy it for me when I was about 11 or…
In RPG Theory
Participants: JamesDJIII, John Kim, efindel, DannyK, jerry, contracycle, anonymouse, Eric J..

10/19/2004 LordSmerf: Different types of Director Stance
Over in Stance Theory: The Hegemony of One Character is suggested that we should differentiate between different types of Director Stance. Ron replied with: Oooh! New thread, Thomas, new…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Ron Edwards, TonyLB, greyorm.

10/19/2004 Sir Privy Toastrack: Would this idea work? Has anyone tried it?
In trying to think of ways to better engage players in their characters and the story, I was thinking that an interesting way to generate PCs would be to have…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Sir Privy Toastrack, Technocrat13, Jeremy, daMoose_Neo, Michael S. Miller, Darksmith, Cmonkey, dredd_funk, ffilz, neelk, SlurpeeMoney, M. J. Young, nellist, contracycle, inky, John Uckele, zephyr_cirrus.

10/19/2004 greyorm: OTW: Definitions
Over in Effects of One True Way on roleplaying experience, Simon asked me: Aren't you being a bit One True Way-ist yourself? I cite 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: greyorm, Noon, Marco, contracycle, M. J. Young, Cup of Iron, John Kim, Vaxalon.

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.

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.

10/17/2004 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.

10/15/2004 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.

10/14/2004 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.

10/14/2004 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.

10/13/2004 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.

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Subsequent Topics
In RPG Theory

10/23/2004 IanEHewitt: Hobgoblin & Lizardfolk PCs
After reading the advice in the DMG (and MonteCook.com) I have tried to create Hobgoblins and Lizardfolk as PC Races. My intention was to create a race that could be…
In RPG Theory
Participants: IanEHewitt, TonyLB, Ron Edwards, Ben Lehman, Noon, SlurpeeMoney, Jinx, Chris Geisel, mindwanders, John Uckele, Jack Aidley.

10/26/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Applied Design II: The False World
In many fictions (Snow Crash, Otherland, The Matrix, the .hack series, to give some examples), there is a virtual world layered on top of, or intependent from, the real world;…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, timfire, neelk.

10/27/2004 greedo1379: Restrictive setting (split)
I realize I'm bringing this one back from the dead. I hope that's ok. The alien admiral you are talking about is named Thrawn. He was a super cool villian…
In RPG Theory
Participants: greedo1379, Ron Edwards.

10/29/2004 contracycle: the sword of damocles
This is a post sort of inspired by Shreyas Applied Design post and others. It's a notional mechanism offered for comment, and in this case aimed at a reinterpretation oof…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, TonyLB, Valamir, Technocrat13, Tobias, Walt Freitag, Shreyas Sampat, Mark Johnson, Precious Villain.

10/30/2004 TonyLB: Functional Roles and Narr
In "GM is God"... I'm all for taking some of the duties off of a GM and see Narr games like Sorcerer and its deriviatives as putting some of the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, timfire, Noon, Scripty, M. J. Young.

11/1/2004 Eric J.: Do PCs ever talk to eachother?
This is not really a split from the Red-Box D&D Example of Play thread. Here's my question? Is it just me where it seems that PCs don't talk to eachother…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Eric J., Darksmith, timfire, John Uckele, clehrich, Shreyas Sampat, madelf, M. J. Young, Dr. Velocity, TonyLB, neelk, nellist, TheLHF, Noon, John Kim, Emily Care, contracycle, GB Steve, GreedIsGod.

11/2/2004 TonyLB: Social Contract and upset players (Split)
In GM is God, The socalled "social contract" is an agreement on what to do and how to do it. When someone shouts out about injustice or malpractise the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, Tomas HVM.

11/3/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Towards a More Flexible Sword of Damocles
[url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=13242]The Sword of Damocles,[/url] as depicted by contracycle, is a fairly exciting [b]move toward highly abstracted but tactical conflict systems,[/b] if the concept of the "sword" is allowed to be…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Jonathan Walton, LordSmerf, Sydney Freedberg.

11/5/2004 Space Cowboy: Writing/Designing Gamebooks
Hey all, How’s it going? After I finish a trilogy of novellas I’m working on, I’m taking a page from the Homestar Runner playbook and my next project will be…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Space Cowboy, xiombarg, Cup of Iron, Kesher.

11/6/2004 komradebob: Participationist Play One Shot
The "GM is God" thread got me thinking about social contract and participationist style play. I'd recently encountered what I thought was a good example of how participationist style design…
In RPG Theory
Participants: komradebob.

11/6/2004 greyorm: Why Choice Sucks: the Beauty of Random Generation
Recently, I was trying to make a TROS character for a game starting via Indie-netgaming and about five minutes into character creation, I realized something: I had no idea what…
In RPG Theory
Participants: greyorm, b_bankhead, anonymouse, Eero Tuovinen, jdagna, Simon W, efindel, madelf, timfire, Cup of Iron, Ben Lehman, Noon, xiombarg, ffilz, TonyLB, M. J. Young, jerry, Sydney Freedberg, John Kim, simon_hibbs, Bankuei, inky, Caldis, Adam Dray, clehrich, contracycle, Mike Holmes, Manxome, Ron Edwards.

11/9/2004 SlurpeeMoney: Rootin' fer the Underdog
Alright. Everyone's chatting about the comparative bonuses of Random vs. Player-determined character generation, and I've noticed a bit of a trend in the posts... Everyone's looking for characters that are…
In RPG Theory
Participants: SlurpeeMoney, Nathan P., daMoose_Neo, Caldis, timfire, Noon, GreedIsGod, Roger, M. J. Young, bcook1971, Madeline, Ron Edwards, simon_hibbs, John Kim, epweissengruber, James Holloway.

11/9/2004 GB Steve: The state of play, or refute-o-matic
The next issue of Places to Go, People to Be is going to be carrying a small article by Balbinus. This is basically a reprint of a post to RPG.net…
In RPG Theory
Participants: GB Steve, pete_darby, Ron Edwards, Clinton R. Nixon, TonyLB, Walt Freitag, Emily Care, Ben Lehman, simon_hibbs, timfire, M. J. Young, Matt Wilson, Noon, John Kim, contracycle, clehrich, ffilz.

11/9/2004 Gamskee: Alternate Reality Gaming
I didn't find anything on this after searching, so I felt safe to post about this topic. Apparently a new type of RPG has started. Its kind of a cross…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Gamskee, M. J. Young.

11/10/2004 MisterPoppet: How To Balance A Game...
Hello. Though I am a new member, I've been watching for quite some time. I wish to know if anyone has ever had balancing issues with numbers and abilities and…
In RPG Theory
Participants: MisterPoppet, Shreyas Sampat, Ben Lehman, jdagna, TonyLB, M. J. Young, Noon, Simon Kamber, Vaxalon, ffilz, Marco.

11/10/2004 John Kim: NxN PC Relation Chart
I thought I'd bring up a technique which I used for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer campaign. The principle for it is based on my thoughts in the essay, a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: John Kim, TonyLB, DannyK, contracycle.

11/10/2004 Mithras: Solo Game. My Life As A Legionary.
Or something like that :) Its the kind of thing that would suck as a multi-player table-top RPG, but appeals to my love of Roman military history and reminds my…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mithras, M. J. Young, Grex, Noon.

11/12/2004 Shreyas Sampat: Rules Diagrams
In Game Design Methodology, As an extension to Tony's thought about integral design: So here's my design process: Take a few simple rules and provide a framework for them to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Shreyas Sampat, Adam Dray, Ron Edwards, Andy Kitkowski, Malckuss, contracycle.

11/12/2004 Valamir: Role Playing Flair in Board Games
Recently I've been thinking about games I've played that provide some of the same feeling of characterization that I get from role playing. I'm not talking so much about "adventure…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Valamir, ffilz, Blankshield, Sydney Freedberg, CplFerro, GreatWolf, Noon, Itai Greif, Bob Goat, contracycle.

11/12/2004 Scripty: Setting Up the Social Contract [split from GM is God]
A lot of very elucidating discussion, at least for me, has taken place on the GM is God thread. Most of the conclusions in that thread seem to point back…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Scripty, jdrakeh, M. J. Young, Yokiboy, bcook1971, contracycle.

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