Previous Topics
In RPG Theory

3/18/2005 anonymouse: [metasystem] Frames
(I apparently wrote this back in October and promptly forgot about it. wanted to get it posted, just because; I still think it's a cool idea, I've used it a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: anonymouse.

3/16/2005 Domhnall: "Balance", "Fairness" ?
M. J. Young responded in a topic (Immersive-Relevant Realism (essay)) concerning the issue of game balance/fairness among character types. An argument that justifies a game system being imbalanced: balanced characters…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Domhnall, Troy_Costisick, JMendes, lumpley, Andrew Norris, Marco, M. J. Young, Noon, James Holloway, J. Tuomas Harviainen, Mike Holmes, John Kim, ffilz, The God of the Machine, OliverTheMerc, Ron Edwards, Kat Miller.

3/15/2005 ADGBoss: Gamer Development
[b]Social Contract, Player Empowerment, & Game Master Blues[/b] If you were to take a survey of the entirety of the Role Playing community and ask them the question ‘How did…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ADGBoss, bcook1971, Doctor Xero.

3/12/2005 Domhnall: Immersive-Relevant Realism (essay)
I came across this site ~11 months ago and I posted this essay at that time: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=10632&highlight=. The conversation in the replying posts asked me the “why” regarding this structure…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Domhnall, Halzebier, Ben Lehman, John Burdick, LordSmerf, Marco, James Holloway, M. J. Young, NN.

3/12/2005 Nathan P.: University Game Design
So Vaxalon found this collection of lectures for Cornell's Game Design Initiative progam. It's focused on computer games, but the course description does read "Students with no game design experience…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Nathan P..

3/11/2005 LordSmerf: Character death revisited (now with bricolage!)
I've been thinking about Chris Lehrich's stuff on bricolage and long term play, and a couple of comments on this post on Anyway really caught my attention. But I also…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Marco, Kesher, Silmenume, contracycle, Brendan.

3/10/2005 makeshiftwings: Game rules for social interaction
Hi, this is my first time on these boards, and I just want to say I'm amazed to find such a resource of great information on RPGs. Anyway, on to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: makeshiftwings, Walt Freitag, The Horror, MrSandman666.

3/10/2005 Space Cowboy: RPG.net Guest Column on Wild Sphere's developmental history
RPG.net has just published a guest column discussing Wild Sphere's developmental and conceptual history: http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/glove09mar05.html General comments and constructive feedback on the column or how well WS' rules meet their…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Space Cowboy.

3/5/2005 Halzebier: Gamist Advice for D&D (long)
GAMIST ADVICE FOR D&D (LONG) Background Our D&D group has mostly gamist tastes, but I sense some simulationist and illusionist tendencies in some of the others. For this particular game,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Halzebier, Bankuei, Simon Kamber, NN, tj333, JMendes, Noon, Vaxalon, M. J. Young, Sean, ADGBoss.

3/5/2005 matthijs: Attempts to extend rpg theory into empirical research?
A friend of mine is writing an article on RPG theory, but wants to make sure he's not just covering old ground, so he asked me to post this question:…
In RPG Theory
Participants: matthijs, J. Tuomas Harviainen, Shreyas Sampat, Steve Verdon.

3/4/2005 gorckat: Ordinary vs Extraordinay Characters/Worlds
Mornin' all- Apologies if this belongs in Play (as prep), but while skimming a book on writing SF this morning, I came across a quote by CS Lewis, which I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: gorckat, Ron Edwards, M. J. Young, Nathan P..

3/4/2005 Dauntless: Metaplots: Creative Inspiration or Creative Limitation?
I tend to like the idea of a game having a metaplot running through it. From a purely business standpoint, it's an excellent way to get people to buy more…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dauntless, xenopulse, TonyLB.

3/3/2005 btrc: Interesting new tech with possible game application
I saw: http://www.parc.com/research/istl/projects/dataglyphs/demo.html on a gadget blog, and tried it out. Turned six paragraphs of text into a 2" x 2" quasi-cunieform glyph, which I then printed, mangled a bit,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: btrc, Noon, J B Bell, zobmie, Sabazius.

3/2/2005 humis: The Process Model of Roleplaying
Hello all, the just published Knutepunkt Book contains an article by me and a few friends, titled "The Process Model of Roleplaying". While waiting for the electronic version of the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: humis, xenopulse, John Kim.

3/2/2005 Valamir: Plausibility, Realism and game design goals [an essay]
In this thread Most traditional as well as most narration-based mechanics would be plausible but not realistic. There is no particular effort at simulation. The game designer/GM/player may…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Valamir, Nicolas Crost, xenopulse, neelk, Marco, Gaerik, John Kim, Bankuei, John Burdick, LordSmerf, lev_lafayette, M. J. Young, Noon, Vaxalon, Dauntless, Nathan P., b_bankhead, Walt Freitag, Ian Charvill, Domhnall, Ben Terry, contracycle, James Holloway, JMendes, Sean.

3/2/2005 Green: approaches to creating characters
When it comes to creating and playing campaigns, there are a lot of resources about setting, mechanics, and player dynamics, but relatively few dedicated to what is supposed to be…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Green, M. J. Young, Danny_K.

3/1/2005 TonyLB: Magic by design
In Incoherence... How would a ruleset put "magic" in magic and "spirituality" in religion? I'm curious how that would happen. I'm going to duck spirituality (a harder issue) and handle…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, timfire, Sydney Freedberg, John Kim, Vaxalon, Noon, lev_lafayette, Doug Ruff, lumpley, Bill_White, Shreyas Sampat, Valamir, M. J. Young, ffilz, contracycle, Doctor Xero, Dantai, Garbanzo, Silmenume.

2/28/2005 Vaxalon: "Bricolage" : BAH!
No, no, I'm not casting aspersions on the concept that the word "bricolage" is being used to describe. I'm casting aspersions on the choice of the word "bricolage". I don't…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Vaxalon, LordSmerf, contracycle, matthijs, GB Steve, Ian Charvill, Silmenume, Ron Edwards, Phersu, Artanis, Mike Holmes.

2/28/2005 zobmie: I dont have any skills. girls only like guys with skills...
Sorry about the subject, its a movie quote, but it DOES have to do with my question. I am trying to make a list of skills. A giant master list…
In RPG Theory
Participants: zobmie, Bankuei, Latigo, LordSmerf, M. J. Young, eef, Walt Freitag, lev_lafayette, Dr. Velocity, Dantai, Garbanzo, zephyr_cirrus, Jared A. Sorensen.

2/27/2005 Paganini: Theory Without Jargon - Help for the Desparate - Number 3
Last time I ended up by talking about how most contributions are automatically accepted by the group, but that some contributions need to be arbitrated by an agreed-on mechanical method.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paganini, Emily Care.

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In RPG Theory

3/20/2005 matthijs: RPGs without movies
This is a thought experiment. What if our cultural experiences weren't so strongly anchored in the visual media? What if movies & television didn't exist? How would we play RPGs…
In RPG Theory
Participants: matthijs, nellist, Domhnall, beingfrank, efindel, timfire, Ian Charvill, John Kim, ffilz, M. J. Young, Damballa, Lxndr.

3/21/2005 Paka: Regarding Theme
I don't believe that themes are determined before play. Themes, to my mind, happen during play. They happen due to the players' choices. I played a game of TRoS set…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paka, TonyLB, lumpley, Marco, pete_darby, John Kim, Ron Edwards.

3/21/2005 TonyLB: Where can you talk about "Objective" and "Sub
Over in 20' by 20' Room, we had a fun conversation where we all tried to suss out what we think about objective and subjective rules. The main take-away was…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, Silmenume, MikeSands, ffilz, Bankuei, Marco, Lxndr, John Kim, M. J. Young, Noon, Arref, Jasper Polane, Valamir, Simon Kamber.

3/22/2005 Lxndr: RPG History: Limiting GM Resources
[b]Fastlane[/b] does something that, as far as I'm aware, not too many roleplaying games does: it gives the GM limited resources to spend on the world and the opposition of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Lxndr, lumpley, Marco, James Holloway, M. J. Young, Zubon-do, contracycle, anonymouse.

3/23/2005 Domhnall: Terms: 'High' vs 'Low' Fantasy
For at least the past decade one can see the terms ‘High’ and ‘Low’ Fantasy tossed around by different people, and now tenfold (a hundredfold?) with the internet. Just doing…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Domhnall, Alan, contracycle, Troy_Costisick, Sydney Freedberg, Ron Edwards, Nathan P., Bankuei, Doctor Xero, The God of the Machine, Andrew Norris, M. J. Young, John Kim, Kat Miller.

3/23/2005 ffilz: Thoughts on conflict resolution in D&D
I have some thoughts on Conflict Resolution and other Forgey things (l that don't relate to the actual play so I thought I'd open a discussion here. I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ffilz, Bankuei, xenopulse, Gaerik, Valamir, JusticeZero.

3/23/2005 Andrew Morris: Drama, Fortune, Karma -- Is there anything else?
Okay, so I'm slow to pick up new things. I know it. But I keep banging my head into the topic until it finally sinks in. Right now, I'm still…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Andrew Morris, ffilz, lumpley, Valamir, Sean, Sydney Freedberg, John Kim, M. J. Young, Brendan, kenjib, JMendes, gorckat.

3/24/2005 Andrew Morris: Drama, Fortune, Karma -- Still valid? [split]
Since the discussion on this thread is veering away from what I initially wanted to address, I decided to create this thread for discussing whether the Drama, Fortune, Karma model…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Andrew Morris, Lxndr, Valamir, groundhog, greyorm, JMendes, LordSmerf, M. J. Young, contracycle, komradebob, Emily Care, Lee Short, kenjib, Grover, John Kim, Vaxalon, The God of the Machine, rrr.

3/25/2005 James_Nostack: Constructing Good Bangs
While most of the people who post at the Forge are regulars, I expect a lot of the lurkers are newcomers who don't understand all this Bang and Kicker stuff.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: James_Nostack, Paka, TonyLB, bcook1971, Noon, Alan, Ron Edwards, FzGhouL, Christopher Kubasik, Trevis Martin, M. J. Young.

3/25/2005 Damballa: Re: Structured Game Design (Warning: Long Post)
[quote="Roy"][b]<EXAMPLE BEGINS HERE>[/b] [b]GM, Bob, Jim and Sally...[/b] Well, that's my two cents on the topic. What do you think? What structures have you found that help you design games?…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Damballa, Ron Edwards.

3/29/2005 John Kim: The place of character sheet and die rolls within play
So I had an interesting conversation on Vincent's (aka lumpley) blog anyway: cf. "Strong stuff indeed". However, I'm afraid I may have overstepped or sidetracked discussion on there.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: John Kim, Andrew Norris, Alephnul, Bankuei, lumpley, jrs, Emily Care, M. J. Young, groundhog, contracycle, Jason Newquist.

3/29/2005 jamesdbr: Spotlight time in D20.
I'm considering running a one-shot dungeon crawl for a regular gaming group of mine, to give the GM a break from running all the time and also to get some…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jamesdbr, Valamir, Noon, Bankuei, Rob Carriere.

3/31/2005 demiurgeastaroth: Opposed resolution and directorial control
I like the way Trollbabe and the Pool can grant the player the ability to describe the result of a conflict. Are there any systems that combine such an approach…
In RPG Theory
Participants: demiurgeastaroth, TonyLB, Paul Czege, jburneko, Andrew Morris, ironick, JMendes, Ron Edwards.

4/1/2005 M. J. Young: Introduction to Theory article posted
In response to inquiries from Places to Go, People to Be, I have submitted a three-part miniseries attempting to summarize the basics of role playing game theory as discussed here…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, Mike Holmes, Ben Lehman, Doug Ruff, timfire, Kit, Dobamine, GB Steve.

4/1/2005 ironick: Simulationism and Conflict Resolution
Caveat #1: I had trouble deciding which forum to post this in, because it is for a game I want to design, but I have too much on my plate…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ironick, Bob the Fighter, Ron Edwards, contracycle, Andrew Norris, TonyLB, timfire, Lee Short, Valamir, M. J. Young, charles ferguson.

4/1/2005 Eva Deinum: Can you really explore a theme in a game designed for this?
I have played several games designed around a certain thematic question. At first sight is seems those games are perfect to explore that theme. I more and more doubt so.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Eva Deinum, MisterPoppet, Trevis Martin, TonyLB, Bob the Fighter, Ron Edwards, Andrew Norris, Bankuei, Vaxalon, timfire, Valamir, Mike Holmes, Victor Gijsbers, pete_darby, Alan.

4/1/2005 Sean: Random Attribute Scores
OK. It sort of embarrasses me that I'm still thinking about this, but I am. You can't always be one of the smart kids if you want to make progress.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Sean, Paul Czege, Mike Holmes, Doug Ruff, Lxndr, M. J. Young, John Kim, FzGhouL, NN, kenjib, daMoose_Neo, Lee Short, Jinx, Kit, JMendes, Noon.

4/2/2005 Victor Gijsbers: Shared Imagined Space, Shared Text
In the Provisional Glossary, Shared Imagined Space is defined as: The fictional content of play as it is established among participants through role-playing interactions. This is open to different…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Victor Gijsbers, Noon, Vaxalon, lumpley, Alan, Ron Edwards, am, Sean, Jonathan Walton, JMendes, contracycle, Silmenume.

4/3/2005 WhiteRat: Types of Reward?
I am interested in learning what different categories of reward mechanics exist in RPGs. I haven't found any threads that address this (my search-fu is weak) -- perhaps someone can…
In RPG Theory
Participants: WhiteRat.

4/3/2005 Vaxalon: Addressing theme negatively
[quote="timfire"]As others have implied, there's always 'two sides' so to speak in regard to any theme. Not choosing an option that the system seems to push is a perfectly valid…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Vaxalon, Bankuei.

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