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In RPG Theory

2/7/2002 Marco: Particles of Character Class
This is inspired by a discussion on the Scattershot Forum: Fang described his points in Scattershot as "particles of character class." I sort of disagreed with his definition--an indication to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Marco, Le Joueur.

2/7/2002 Fabrice G.: Narrativism, player authoring and hooror story
Hi, i plan to do an horror rpg and i have this question: can you have an horror story with a lot of player authoring power ? In my experience,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Fabrice G., Bankuei, J B Bell, Ron Edwards, jburneko, hardcoremoose, amiel, contracycle, lumpley, Paul Czege.

2/5/2002 Thededine: The Hell is a 'Kicker'?
Did I miss a newsfile or something? Everyone started talking about Kickers and I have no idea what they are. Help!
In RPG Theory
Participants: Thededine, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, Joe Murphy (Broin), Mithras.

2/1/2002 jburneko: Is 'Railroading' A Useful Term
Hello All, So, I was having a discussion with one of my players about various play styles and we seem to be constantly bumping heads about the meaning of the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, J B Bell, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, furashgf, Marco, xiombarg, amiel, TrizzlWizzl.

2/1/2002 Fabrice G.: Edwardian premises ?
Well i'm a newbie regarding premises. I read a lot about it here on The Forge, but still, it's not that clear to me. This morning i had some ideas…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Fabrice G., Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Marco.

1/30/2002 lumpley: Protagonism and Troupe-style play
Hey everybody. First off: Is Protagonism something that a player has, or something that a character has? Next off: Anybody thought about what it might mean to Protagonism to play…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Blake Hutchins, Paul Czege, Bankuei.

1/25/2002 RobMuadib: the SGR model - reconciling GDS/GNS (renamed topic).
Hey guys, I revised my document again, which I present for your edification and amusement. Please comment on it. The SGR RPG Theory. ========================================== RPG's are open-ended games in which…
In RPG Theory
Participants: RobMuadib, Valamir, Logan.

1/24/2002 RobMuadib: Paradigm Shift - The X-Styles - The Truth Is Out There
Morning all, I went to bad last night after reading the Replacing Dramatism thread, and one post in particlar, by Mytholder resonated for me, indeed it spurred a paradigm shift,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: RobMuadib, Mike Holmes.

1/23/2002 Zak Arntson: Operant Conditioning & RPG System
Okay, my wife has a degree in Psych, so I've got a layman's view of the field. I've often thought about how gambling psychology plays into video games: The most…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Zak Arntson, hardcoremoose, Bankuei, J B Bell, Le Joueur, Laurel, Blake Hutchins, Ron Edwards.

1/22/2002 Logan: What is IIEC?
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In RPG Theory
Participants: Logan, Ron Edwards, Gordon C. Landis, Paul Czege, Le Joueur, Manu.

1/22/2002 Jared A. Sorensen: Time, what is Time?
Okay, the obligatory heavy metal reference is outta the way. How does time factor into RPG design and play? Not like in a Puppetland kinda way...but more of a "what…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jared A. Sorensen, AndyGuest, Joe Murphy (Broin), Zak Arntson.

1/22/2002 Manu: Setting vs. Color
Hey all, I'm a bit confused by this; what exactly is Color, where does setting stops and color starts? Is it a matter of depth of treatment? Any examples of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Manu, Ron Edwards, james_west, Jared A. Sorensen, Le Joueur.

1/22/2002 Jack Spencer Jr: Elastic Premise
An odd thought occured to me today. I've been trucking on coffee and Starburst hard candies all day, so stay with me. I've been hearing this call for a premise,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Garbanzo, A.Neill, contracycle, Ron Edwards.

1/20/2002 Manu: On-screen time as a mechanic
Hey all, Has anyone already toyed with the idea of making the amount of "on screen" time a character gets a metagame characteristic, independent of the character's power level or…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Manu, Joe Murphy (Broin), Tim C Koppang, Ron Edwards.

1/19/2002 Le Joueur: More than Three 'Boxes'
Hi, over in the GNS forum, I mentioned trying to take Simulationism and 'break it out' into more 'boxes.' I am pressed for time so I am going to just…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Le Joueur, Ron Edwards, Logan, jburneko, contracycle, Marco, james_west, Mike Holmes, Gordon C. Landis.

1/18/2002 Gordon C. Landis: Player Illusionism
OK, Logan mentioned (in one of the GNS/Dramatism threads) that Illusionism is usually a GM "tool". I'm putting this here in Theory, even though it involves Actual Play, because it's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Gordon C. Landis, Ron Edwards, jburneko.

1/16/2002 Bankuei: Purpose of rules
Inspired by the Shared Power thread, I started thinking, in every roleplaying game I've seen(except Rune), the rules were all intended with the idea that the GM is supposed to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Bankuei, hardcoremoose, Ron Edwards, Paganini, Gordon C. Landis, Bailey, joshua neff, John Wick, contracycle, erithromycin, lumpley, James V. West, Paul Czege, Skippy.

1/15/2002 contracycle: Matrix Gaming
Well, I thought that it wasabout time I pushed out another gaming idea I've been tangenmtially working with for a bit. This is the concept of Matrix Games as pioneered…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege, J B Bell.

1/15/2002 Zak Arntson: D/F/K and the Unknown Factor
I've been thinking about mechanics for some time now. I'm trying to come up with a good vocabulary for working out systems in games. This applies only to rpgs with…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Zak Arntson, Bankuei, Garbanzo, Epoch.

1/14/2002 lumpley: Fortune-forward Vs. Fortune-backward
So I've been looking at my games, and others' games, and I've been thinking hard about the old Description-Based vs. Quantified thing, which seems to have lost currency, and about…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Jared A. Sorensen, Paul Czege, Joe Murphy (Broin), Gordon C. Landis, contracycle, Le Joueur, greyorm.

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In RPG Theory

2/13/2002 Steve Dustin: In-and-Out of the Box
I've been lurking on these boards for about a week, and have decided to jump in. I don't think I'm quite up-to-speed on the jargon that gets thrown about here…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Steve Dustin, Clinton R. Nixon, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, contracycle, Emily Care.

2/14/2002 Ayrizale: Newbie Question - Relationships - Maps, Modifiers, and Such
Hello, I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question, but I figure that it is as good a place to start as any. I've been…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ayrizale, Paul Czege, Ron Edwards, Jared A. Sorensen, efindel.

2/14/2002 wyrdlyng: Investigation and Interaction as Role-playing
This crosses over with a post I made at GO inquiring about how to a game which focused primarily on investigation and npc interactions. The short and sweet is how…
In RPG Theory
Participants: wyrdlyng, Ron Edwards, contracycle, Mike Holmes, Mithras, GB Steve.

2/20/2002 lumpley: Currency and Metagame &c vs. a Complete RPG
(There's been talk before about when and whether a game's complete, like Actually Finishing your RPG here.) So I've been designing some games and I've got some questions. I'll…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Mike Holmes, contracycle, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege.

2/20/2002 jburneko: Abstract Premises
First off I'm using Premise in the narrow Narrativist Sense. I was thinking about Science Fiction and how it often has rather abstract Premises. One of the things that gets…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, J B Bell, Ron Edwards, Christopher Kubasik, Seth L. Blumberg, contracycle, joshua neff.

2/21/2002 Joe Murphy (Broin): Narrativism = few stats?
There's a simple subject line for y'all. A game like Sorceror has 4 stats. Donjon Krawl has about half a dozen. Is more than a few stats necessarily a bad…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Joe Murphy (Broin), Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Jack Spencer Jr.

2/25/2002 erithromycin: Do unto others...
This was an idea I had, literally moments ago. What if the basis for interaction within a game was your initial interaction with the other party? GM: The room is…
In RPG Theory
Participants: erithromycin, Jared A. Sorensen, Mike Holmes, Valamir.

2/26/2002 Paul Czege: several hundred dollars worth of GM
Hey everyone, Ron's fantastic and complex post in the Sorcerer forum about the zones and categories of a character's interests brings up an interesting side issue. The post reveals…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paul Czege, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, J B Bell, Gordon C. Landis.

2/27/2002 joe_llama: Narrativist Catalyst
There is something I really think all Narrativists should check out. It's an interesting theory of story called Dramatica, freely available at www.dramatica.com . Using my own words will only…
In RPG Theory
Participants: joe_llama, lumpley, Seth L. Blumberg, Blake Hutchins, Valamir, Paul Czege, contracycle.

2/28/2002 Emily Care: Common Sense Guidelines for Group-Concensus Exploration...
Common Sense Guidelines to Group-Consensus Based Exploration of World, Setting, Character, System and Story First, find some folks with whom you are capable of having an enjoyable and productive conversation,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Emily Care, xiombarg, Ron Edwards, lumpley, jburneko, Paul Czege.

3/4/2002 erithromycin: Chasing Premise
Spun off from the Devilry over in IGD. Sorry Ron, I am a monkey. Which brings me to this thought: Is it possible for a ruleset to be Premise-less?…
In RPG Theory
Participants: erithromycin, hardcoremoose, Valamir, Ron Edwards, xiombarg, Seth L. Blumberg, C. Edwards, Balbinus, Mike Holmes, Blake Hutchins.

3/5/2002 Seth L. Blumberg: What makes a good Narrativist Premise?
There are lots of examples of Premise scattered around in various threads, but try as I might, I can't seem to find anywhere that the question "What are the conditions…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Seth L. Blumberg, Gordon C. Landis, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Le Joueur.

3/5/2002 hardcoremoose: Premise in the Whispering Vault
Okay, since we've been talking about hidden Premises of late... I'm prepping to run possibly my all-time favorite game, The Whispering Vault. Now, I've run the Vault in the past…
In RPG Theory
Participants: hardcoremoose, Ron Edwards.

3/8/2002 Sidhain: Character
I'm not sure if this relates to GNS besides in the most peripheral way. I was discussing with someone role-playing and they said something that I found odd. It was…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Sidhain, C. Edwards, Ron Edwards.

3/9/2002 Gordon C. Landis: Role playing is not a goal?
Plucked from the "GNS Showdown" thread over in the GNS Model discussion forum, in an attempt to curb my normal "support thread drift" tendencies . . . Start from scratch.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Gordon C. Landis, joe_llama, C. Edwards, contracycle.

3/12/2002 Walt Freitag: Looking deeper into Intuitive Continuity
Disclaimer: Presumptuous of me, I realize, to attempt a new thead with my very first post. Furthermore, I am new to this terminology and, while I believe I've absorbed the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Walt Freitag, Christopher Kubasik, Noble, contracycle, GB Steve, Valamir, Le Joueur, Jack Spencer Jr, Jared A. Sorensen, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Steve Dustin, Seth L. Blumberg, Paul Czege, C. Edwards, Michael Bowman, Blake Hutchins.

3/13/2002 amiel: Dramatism as Vanilla Narrativism
I may be wrong... I decided to take a game that I'm running toward a more Narrative angle while using most of the book rules. So I added some of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: amiel, Ron Edwards.

3/13/2002 Eric J.: D100 flaws
I'm creating a D100 system. Is it too complicated for the average person? It would almost always be if you roll a D100 is it lower than- X+Y=DC or X=DC+Y.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Eric J., Jared A. Sorensen, Clinton R. Nixon, Tim Denee, J B Bell.

3/14/2002 Valamir: Vanilla Narrativism
Really the basic definition of Vanilla Narrativism is "Narrativist play, without all of the Narrativist mechanics bells and whistles" The word having sprung from the idea that vanilla is "plain".…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Valamir, Bankuei, Mike Holmes, Walt Freitag, Ron Edwards, hardcoremoose, joshua neff.

3/14/2002 Tim C Koppang: Theory Serves Communication
Has anyone been reading some of the posts over at The Gaming Outpost? I have, and I noticed that Scarlet Jester has become a bit frustrated with himself and the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Tim C Koppang, Laurel, Christopher Kubasik, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

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