Previous Topics
In RPG Theory

5/6/2005 M. J. Young: Character, Sheet, and Play Revisited
In The relationship between character, sheet, and play Fred (Vaxalon) wrote of character secrets not being part of the shared imagined space. I disagree. I'm very sorry I missed this…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, Troy_Costisick, 1of3, MatrixGamer, Valamir, pete_darby, Mike Holmes, John Kim, C. Edwards, xenopulse, contracycle.

5/4/2005 am: Do RPGS allow for diverse participation/discourse?
Hello, my name is Anna. I've been gaming for around 2 years. I am working on my masters degree, & I plan on analyzing role playing games from a performance/literary/rhetorical…
In RPG Theory
Participants: am, Bankuei, Ben Lehman, John Kim, greyorm, jrs, TonyLB, Michael S. Miller, Ron Edwards, Christopher Kubasik, Matt Wilson, Danny_K, xenopulse, WhiteRat, paulkdad, zephyr_cirrus, Miskatonic, Wysardry, J. Tuomas Harviainen, Mike Holmes, GameLoft, komradebob, contracycle, BrennaLaRosa.

5/2/2005 Adam Dray: Giving players control of risk
In David Bapst's Difficulty/Success Needed as it relates to GM Fiat, people posted a variety of ways to remove GM Fiat from setting difficulty levels. In my Verge game (in…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Adam Dray, Mike Holmes, Lxndr, Jasper, Noon.

5/2/2005 Valamir: Fun with math
So I was noodling around with some mechanics (I'll spare you the boring details) and hit upon an interesting relationship I thought some might find useful. We're all familiar with…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Valamir, Technocrat13, Victor Gijsbers, TonyLB, Mike Holmes, bcook1971, Ben Lehman, Eva Deinum.

5/1/2005 killacozzy: Destiny and the Universal Character
Start by clicking here and catching up, as this is a continuation of a thread I started in the Design Forum asking about game traits, which evolved into a discussion…
In RPG Theory
Participants: killacozzy, TonyLB, Troy_Costisick, timfire, Valamir, pasoliati, Bob Goat, Sydney Freedberg, contracycle, Doug Ruff, shaheddy.

4/27/2005 Wysardry: Earth-like worlds in fantasy games
I am in the early stages of planning a single player CRPG aimed at less casual CRPG and PnP RPG players, and have reached somewhat of an impasse with the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Wysardry, contracycle, killacozzy, Troy_Costisick, Sydney Freedberg, Jake Boone, Mike Holmes.

4/27/2005 TonyLB: (Accepting/Rejecting) x (Text/Meaning)
Recent discussions have led me to think a lot about what it means to tell people that they cannot reject anything that another player contributes to the narration of a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, Vaxalon, Shreyas Sampat, xenopulse, Brendan, Walt Freitag, Noon, Troy_Costisick, charles ferguson, Victor Gijsbers, John Harper.

4/26/2005 paulkdad: Stages of Development and Roleplaying Theory
Background: The thread, “Meaning at the beginning, middle and end” got me thinking about the active construction of meaning in RPGs, which in turn got me thinking about something I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: paulkdad, J. Tuomas Harviainen.

4/26/2005 David Chunn: Layering Conflict Resoultion over Task Res.
Does anyone have suggestions and methods for or experiences with layering conflict resolution over a task resolution system without changing the existing game mechanics? In other words, I don't want…
In RPG Theory
Participants: David Chunn, WhiteRat, Ben Lehman.

4/25/2005 David Bapst: Difficulty/Success Needed as it relates to GM Fiat
Hello all, Don't precisely know if this has been discussed before. If anyone could post links to past conversations, that would be greatly helpful. I've been thinking recently on difficulties/success…
In RPG Theory
Participants: David Bapst, Matt Wilson, WhiteRat, Jinx, John Burdick, Noon, John Kim, daMoose_Neo, Valamir, Landon Darkwood.

4/21/2005 Andrew Morris: DFK (and SRV): Concrete examples and discussion (long-ish)
[b][i]Introduction[/i][/b] Back in [url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14773]this thread[/url], I brought up the concept of Skill as a possible candidate to flesh out the Drama, Fortune, and Karma triumvirate used to classify resolution mechanics…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Andrew Morris, xenopulse, Miskatonic, M. J. Young.

4/19/2005 1of3: Gamism not for Game masters?
Hi. This is my first post here, so I will introduce myself first. My name is Stefan, I'm from Germany and I'm studying math and Latin for becoming a teacher.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: 1of3, komradebob, Gaerik, Gordon C. Landis, JMendes, xenopulse, Alan, Simon Kamber, Ron Edwards, Noon, John Kim, FzGhouL, MrSandman666, Walt Freitag.

4/19/2005 TonyLB: Meaning at the beginning, middle and end
In "Thematic Causality": What, why and how?, over in the Muse of Fire forums, we hit some very interesting general-purpose questions. Folks reckon, and I agree, that it might be…
In RPG Theory
Participants: TonyLB, Ron Edwards, Troy_Costisick, xenopulse, Miskatonic, Valamir, Ben Lehman, Noon, Simon Marks, JMendes, Sydney Freedberg, Silmenume.

4/18/2005 Gordon C. Landis: How DO Game Designers (or computers) influence play?
Borrowing from Josh's post towards the end of this thread, I'd like to offer a distinction between "participating in" the SIS and "contributing to" the SIS. "Participating in" the SIS…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Gordon C. Landis, efindel, Eva Deinum, Noon, Wysardry, contracycle.

4/17/2005 simonf: Single-player mystery RPGs?
Hi, Apologies if it's a bad forum - please relocate this to the appropriate place if necessary. I'm looking for single-person RPGs and adventures to run for my girlfriend. The…
In RPG Theory
Participants: simonf, MatrixGamer.

4/16/2005 John Kim: Role-playing Limits, or Do we need Molotov cocktails?
OK, so this is picking up from Walt Frietag: the LP in Solo CRPGs?. What I am curious about is a formulation of credibility which is inclusive of live-action…
In RPG Theory
Participants: John Kim, immlass, Alephnul, James Holloway, TonyLB, Wolfen, M. J. Young, Valamir, Mike Holmes.

4/15/2005 Roger: Solo (C)RPGs: A Thought Experiment
(inspired from Walt Frietag: the LP in Solo CRPGs?) Let's say that you've logged into a big old MMORPG and you're running around the system with thousands of other players,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Roger, xenopulse, Gordon C. Landis, Bill Masek, Noon, Eva Deinum, Paul Hebble, Domhnall, Sabazius, M. J. Young.

4/14/2005 lumpley: Walt Frietag: the LP in Solo CRPGs?
This is a very narrow, very focused post. I want to hear from Walt before anybody else, if that's possible? Here, Walt Frietag"]Yes, the Lumpley Principle does get in the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Walt Freitag, pete_darby, contracycle, Bankuei, Valamir, Gaerik, John Kim, Paul Czege, Gordon C. Landis, C. Edwards, Wolfen, Noon, kenjib, joshua neff, Ben Lehman, Wysardry, James Holloway, Domhnall, Ron Edwards.

4/13/2005 Paka: System Examples of Scene Framing
I am thinking about scene framing and all I can think of for examples is MLwM where each scene contains one conflict roll. Is this even a tool of scene…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paka, JMendes, Alan, Eva Deinum, Trevis Martin, GB Steve.

4/13/2005 contracycle: Raph Koster: A Theory Of Fun For Game Design
This is mostly an FYI/Heads Up post. Raph Koster is the creative director behind StarWars Galaxies, and something of a Name in the world of MUD design. He has recently…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, C. Edwards.

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Subsequent Topics
In RPG Theory

5/10/2005 Troy_Costisick: Using Task Reso to get Conflict Reso
Heya, This is loosely related to another thread over in the GNS forum: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=15369. I hope I'm not honking off anyone by asking this sort of question here about a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Troy_Costisick, pete_darby, paulkdad, timfire, Ron Edwards, John Burdick, Doug Ruff, Yokiboy, Valamir, M. J. Young, Alephnul.

5/10/2005 Ben Lehman: [Vocab] Task versus Conflict
Hi. Boy, there are a lot of threads about Task Resolution vs. Conflict resolution. Gee whiz. I think a lot of these are stumbling over the meanings of the terms,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, Adam Dray, timfire, Valamir, Gordon C. Landis, xenopulse, John Kim, Jinx, Noon, Ron Edwards, lumpley, Matt Snyder, Troy_Costisick, Andrew Morris, Walt Freitag, Caldis, Alephnul, Alan, Warren, WhiteRat, M. J. Young, GB Steve, greyorm.

5/10/2005 MatrixGamer: Role Playing as it is done in Historical Miniatures Games
I live in that part of the gaming world that crosses over between miniatures gaming and RPGs. Role playing is it is done now grew out of miniatures but the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: MatrixGamer, komradebob, Vaxalon, Noon, contracycle, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Hereward The Wake.

5/11/2005 Andrew Morris: Mechanical limitations to the scope of conflict resolution
Reading the recent threads on conflict resolution (here and here) reminded me of a question I have about defining stakes in conflict resolution. What mechanical methods currently exist for limiting…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Andrew Morris, Ron Edwards, Jasper, MatrixGamer, Gaerik, Bankuei, Harlequin, TonyLB.

5/12/2005 List: Larps?
I noticed that there is very little discussion of larps and larp theory... Is this because larps are not generally Forge domain? If not, could somebody point me to some…
In RPG Theory
Participants: List, Andrew Morris, komradebob.

5/12/2005 johnzo: Renouncing the agenda-driven NPC
From this thread: I've encountered this very situation with many instances of Sorcerer and HeroQuest, in which playing an agenda-driven NPC has resulted in very clear cues from…
In RPG Theory
Participants: johnzo, TonyLB, Domhnall, Noon, Troy_Costisick, Danny_K, MatrixGamer.

5/12/2005 afray: Japanese-style computer-rpg mechanics? [ot?]
First off, I realise this may be out of your area of expertise, but thought I'd ask anyway. :-) I'm a video games developer who's trying to develop a new…
In RPG Theory
Participants: afray, Bankuei, Mike Holmes, Miskatonic, contracycle, Selene Tan, Noon.

5/12/2005 M. J. Young: Perpetuating Sing-Sex Play Groups
[quote="In [a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=15305"]Do RPGS allow for diverse participation/discourse?[/a] Julie"]One of these days I'd like to see someone address the issue of why gamers perpetuate the existance of single sex play…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, Mike Holmes, xenopulse, Noon, jrs, James Holloway, Bret Gillan, Gordon C. Landis, Paka, komradebob, BrennaLaRosa, Emily Care, GameLoft, Andrew Morris, Ron Edwards, contracycle, Walt Freitag.

5/13/2005 Selene Tan: Meta-information/systems and Narrativism in CRPGs
This is something I've been thinking about, but haven't managed to collect my thoughts enough to write an organized essay on. So yay, semi-coherent post. One of the things I've…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Selene Tan, pete_darby, Valamir, Noon.

5/13/2005 Thierry Michel: Random numbers (split)
Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I found recently exactly the type of thing I was thinking of here: Chance and wargames So if you had any interest…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Thierry Michel, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Bowen Simmons.

5/16/2005 zephyr_cirrus: Time - Battle Mechanic
Well, here's a time mechanic I came up with for use in the RPG that I'm currently working on. Just tell me what you think of it and what could…
In RPG Theory
Participants: zephyr_cirrus, Jasper, Lee Short, Albert of Feh.

5/16/2005 foucalt: Gaming at the Senior Citizens Center?
Recently there was some attention paid to the fact that staying "mentally active" helps ward off Alzheimer's disease. I remember wondering whether roleplaying games might be a good way…
In RPG Theory
Participants: foucalt, Adam Dray, Mike Holmes, Andrew Morris, TonyLB, komradebob.

5/17/2005 Darcy Burgess: Suggestions on running my first truly Narr game
Or, "switching gears for fun and profit" :) Here's a little background to the situation: - up until recently, I've been running a game set in the Star Wars universe…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Darcy Burgess, Gaerik, Bankuei, jburneko.

5/18/2005 Noon: Nar turns out to be a good gamist penalty to evade?
I was recently talking with my friends girlfriend, about her role playing past. I was curious as to what she enjoyed back then and why she hadn't continued now. I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Noon, TonyLB, Alan.

5/18/2005 MatrixGamer: What is Main Stream gaming? Another look.
One of the most intriguing ideas in the "Infamous Five" threads was the look at how D+D fantasy and superhero genres are not mainstream - instead things like horror, sex,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: MatrixGamer, Jasper, Mike Holmes, Paul Czege, John Kim, quozl, Trevis Martin, Noon, Caldis, Brendan, M. J. Young, Remko, komradebob, gsoylent, cerbie, Valamir.

5/19/2005 John Kim: Non-violent Roleplaying
OK, so I recently came across some controversy on Vincent's blog, in his post on Paintball and little boy bullshit. This was followed up by Heroes Live, Cowards…
In RPG Theory
Participants: John Kim, TonyLB, lumpley, Justin A Hamilton, Noon, timfire, Trevis Martin, J. Tuomas Harviainen, Mikko Lehtinen, Marco, greyorm, Brendan, komradebob, Andrew Morris, J B Bell, MatrixGamer, Nathan P., Technocrat13, NN, Russell Impagliazzo, GB Steve, James Holloway, Mike Holmes, chadu, contracycle, Picador.

5/20/2005 tj333: Success to Dice ratios
For affecting another character I’m looking at having a target number that must be reached on one roll. The player rolls a die pool(The die pool is the same for…
In RPG Theory
Participants: tj333, Eric J., Walt Freitag, Valamir, JMendes, HereticalFaction.

5/20/2005 M. J. Young: Stance as Credibility Distribution
O.K., I'm actually sort of puzzling over something I wrote, and I thought I'd initiate some discussion on this to see if I'm off my rocker. I took a long…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, TonyLB, timfire, lumpley, Ron Edwards, Gaerik, John Kim, Mike Holmes.

5/20/2005 Eric J.: Telling a Story, Conveying a Theme: What does it mean?
Hey, everybody. This is Pyron. That's right. You will never get rid of me. Ever. I know I haven't posted in a long time (I almost posted once but a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Eric J., bcook1971.

5/20/2005 Yokiboy: Games with Conflict Resolution
All the threads regarding Conflict Resolution offer widely differing views on what it really is, and how it differs from Task Resolution. We all know of tons of games with…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Yokiboy, Gaerik, Andrew Morris, Valamir, greyorm, Mike Holmes, M. J. Young, GameLoft.

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