Previous Topics
In RPG Theory

7/5/2001 james_west: Favorite things I've learned
Favorite things I’ve learned from reading this site: (1) Facilitating the creation of good stories as an explicit design goal. This is from the GNS discussions. Previously, I’d only thought…
In RPG Theory
Participants: james_west, joshua neff, John Wick.

7/2/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: Character currency
I got this from the GO forum. It's Hunter Logan quoting Ron Edwards Ron wrote, ]Effectiveness then becomes all the ROLLS (or Karma scores) that determine how well the character…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Ron Edwards, Epoch, Mytholder, Clinton R. Nixon, Blake Hutchins, Supplanter, Jared A. Sorensen.

6/29/2001 Epoch: Player Control
This is an idea I threw out at one point on the GO, and didn't get any feedback on, so I figured I'd try it here. I got the idea…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Epoch, jburneko, Supplanter, GreatWolf, Tim C Koppang, Mytholder, Ron Edwards.

6/25/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: Story, schmory
I suppose there are several ways to look at it. Some of the more recent RPGs (meaning post 1982) have been focused on story even to the point of having…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, joshua neff, james_west, Zak Arntson, Stivven, Paul Czege, jburneko, Mytholder, Supplanter, John Wick, contracycle.

6/22/2001 james_west: A Mechanic for Other Plot Types?
In Relationship Maps, Edwards has done a very good job of producing a concrete mechanic for running scenarios based on the style of plot found in mysteries and a lot…
In RPG Theory
Participants: james_west, Paul Czege, Jared A. Sorensen, joshua neff, Uncle Dark.

6/13/2001 jburneko: The Orchestra Metaphor
I don't know if this belongs down in the Sorcerer Forum or up in the G/N/S Forum so I thought I would comprimise and post it here. Ron has often…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Mike Holmes, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, ConfigSys.boy.

6/7/2001 Ron Edwards: The "universal" issue
Hello everybody, Martin and I were saying hello in the Site forum, and this topic came up. I thought it might be better served here. It seems like a good…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ron Edwards, Dav.

6/6/2001 Damocles: Preventing dysfunction
Most of the time, game design seems to be concerned with attempts to faciliate (or create) a certain style of play. But lately I have been wondering whether it should…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Damocles, Ron Edwards, John Wick, joshua neff, james_west, greyorm.

6/6/2001 james_west: Fiduciary responsibility?
[I]:: Warning: This essay is going to seem elitist and egotistical, but it is genuinely something I wonder about. I'm honestly not trying to troll. ::[/I] When you look into…
In RPG Theory
Participants: james_west, Valamir, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Ian O'Rourke, John Wick, JSDiamond, gentrification, greyorm, Nathan, Gordon C. Landis, Ian Freeman, James V. West.

6/3/2001 james_west: strong player directorial power
To me, games with strong, continuous player directorial power seem to as different from traditional RPGs as RPGs are from boardgames. I'm thinking Baron Munchhausen, Crayne's Storyboard or SOAP, Clinton's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: james_west, Ron Edwards, joshua neff.

6/1/2001 Gordon C. Landis: The FitM pattern at other "scales"
I've been thinking a lot about Ron's focus on linear vs. non-linear resolution mechanics. It took me a little work to wrap my brain around Fortune in the middle (FitM),…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Gordon C. Landis, Supplanter, Paul Czege, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, james_west, Dav.

5/27/2001 Damocles: Time
I have been thinking about the role of time in rpgs. Not so much story time vs. real world time, but practical issues like how long a session lasts, how…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Damocles, Ron Edwards, james_west, greyorm.

5/23/2001 Logan: Attributes or skills, not both?
I think I missed this rant, so somebody please fill me in. Best, Logan
In RPG Theory
Participants: Logan, Ron Edwards, joshua neff, james_west, Blake Hutchins, Mike Holmes, Valamir, Paul Czege.

5/23/2001 JSDiamond: Rolling bones and other things
This was brought up by james_west and got me to thinking. How does the physical system-mechanic of a game affect its 'feel'? I chose percentiles (2d10) for Orbit for this…
In RPG Theory
Participants: JSDiamond, Dav, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, J B Bell, Le Joueur, efindel, Jack Spencer Jr, Bailywolf, James V. West.

5/23/2001 Dav: Metagame mechanics
Okay, so we've got a new forum, which is dandy. So, there seemed to be some question as to metagame mechanics, among other issues. I chose to just pull this…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dav, GreatWolf, hardcoremoose, james_west, Ron Edwards, Logan, Zak Arntson, Gordon C. Landis, Mytholder.

5/21/2001 Ron Edwards: All righty then
Hello everyone, I think we've successfully dissected G/N/S to current forum members' satisfaction. I'm seeing a lot of light-bulbs going on, and a lot of shared vocabulary being used constructively.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ron Edwards, joshua neff, james_west, Dav, Gordon C. Landis, hardcoremoose, Logan, Blake Hutchins, JSDiamond, Ian O'Rourke.

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In RPG Theory

7/16/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: premise
The education of Jack continues.... Now I'm trying to get a handle on this thing called a premise and i know it's fairly simple, something like "It's what the game…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Ron Edwards, James Holloway, Blake Hutchins, jburneko, joshua neff, contracycle, James V. West, Supplanter, Mike Holmes, Valamir.

7/18/2001 Dav: the Gamble and the Stake
I wanted to bring this theory up to the collective to see what happens with it. on and I were talking briefly about the stakes in games. My position is…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dav, Ron Edwards, John Wick, Jared A. Sorensen, hardcoremoose, James V. West, Le Joueur.

7/20/2001 hardcoremoose: Reward Systems, or Making Your Players Behave
I've discussed this topic elsewhere and it came back to me full force while reading through the "silliness" thread in the GNS forum. Basically I propose that the most important…
In RPG Theory
Participants: hardcoremoose, James V. West, Ron Edwards, Jack Spencer Jr, wyrdlyng, Jared A. Sorensen, kwill, John Wick, Damocles, james_west, Doc Midnight, Tim C Koppang.

7/22/2001 Tim C Koppang: Player Induced Rewards
After reading a couple of posts, I was thinking about a mechanic that would allow players to divvy out rewards themselves instead of giving the GM all of the control.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Tim C Koppang, James V. West, Le Joueur.

7/23/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: This fifth business.
OK, after reading Kubasik's Interactive Toolkit, I've noted something. He refers to a narrativist (as it were) GM as Fifth Business after an old theatre term, etc etc... Here's my…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Mytholder, joshua neff, Le Joueur, Ron Edwards, Damocles.

7/23/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: "Not enough rules"
Over on the Elfs board I mention playing briefly w/ the wife. (The game. The game.) AFterwards I asked for her impressions and she said it could be fun but…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, joshua neff, jburneko, GreatWolf, Ron Edwards.

7/25/2001 joshua neff: new directions
What are the assumptions about RPGs? What traditions have we become bound by? & how can we break these assumptions & rethink RPGs? Off the top of my head: *…
In RPG Theory
Participants: joshua neff, James Holloway, Dav, Gordon C. Landis, GreatWolf, Uncle Dark, Jack Spencer Jr, Damocles, jburneko, james_west, Mike Holmes, Valamir, Ron Edwards, Blake Hutchins, contracycle.

8/3/2001 Mytholder: Gamestudies.org
http://www.gamestudies.org is an attempt to set up an academic journal about computer games. I had a quick glance over their first issue. Most of it went over my head by…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mytholder, Gordon C. Landis.

8/6/2001 lumpley: An approach for mechanics and innovation
I'm new, but that doesn't stop me having crackpot theories. The point of every game mechanic is to create consensus among the players. Consensus is the underlying mechanism of roleplaying,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Jack Spencer Jr, Emily Care, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, Paul Czege, Doc Midnight, Mike Holmes, greyorm, Tim C Koppang, Gordon C. Landis, contracycle, Logan.

8/9/2001 Theory of X: D*/"&yd^
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In RPG Theory
Participants: Theory of X, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, Jack Spencer Jr, contracycle, Clinton R. Nixon, joshua neff, Cameron.

8/9/2001 Jeffrey Straszheim: What is Fortune in the Middle
Hey folks, I've been reading the archives on this site and I've noticed many references to "Fortune in the Middle". This seems to refer to the types of resolution mechnaics…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jeffrey Straszheim, Ron Edwards, jburneko, joshua neff, Uncle Dark, Supplanter.

8/10/2001 Theory of X: E=p/c@ert%4

In RPG Theory
Participants: Theory of X, jburneko, James V. West, Ron Edwards.

8/12/2001 Jared A. Sorensen: Those wacky Swedes...
http://fate.laiv.org/index.htm
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jared A. Sorensen, joshua neff.

8/15/2001 jburneko: Mixing Styles Across The Table
This might belong in the GNS forum but this isn't a discussion about the model directly but rather the set of tools that are generally associated with each point of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Gordon C. Landis, gentrification, Supplanter, Ron Edwards, Emily Care, Jack Spencer Jr, TrizzlWizzl, Blake Hutchins, Mike Holmes, Laurel, James Holloway, Marco, Paul Czege, Valamir, joshua neff.

8/17/2001 contracycle: player character premises
Hiya, Just wanted to ask if people are conscious of the character premises brought to the table by players. I imagine the root concept of a character is/strongly related to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, jburneko, Ron Edwards, TrizzlWizzl, Blake Hutchins, Mike Holmes, Laurel.

8/17/2001 jburneko: On Author and Director Stance
This post is probably more 'thinking out loud' than asking an actual question. But in my gaming circles I find it difficult to explain why having Author/Director power given to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, joshua neff, Emily Care, Laura Bishop, Ron Edwards.

8/20/2001 GraveyardGreg: Incomplete Games
It was mentioned over in the "Publishing" aspect of the forums that Sorcerer was not complete because it had no sourcebooks. It struck me as odd. Sorcerer doesn't need any…
In RPG Theory
Participants: GraveyardGreg, peteramthor, Laura Bishop, James Holloway, Ron Edwards.

8/21/2001 Paul Czege: talkin' 'bout degeneration
On the "Mixing Styles Across the Table" thread, Gordon wrote: I'm already well aware of many degenerate forms of G and S. I would like to see more discussion…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paul Czege, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Gordon C. Landis, Zak Arntson, Supplanter, pacific_steve.

8/22/2001 jburneko: The Role of Genre In RPG Design
Down in the Theory Forum Ron made the claim that Genre is not a very useful term when it comes to RPGs. I'd like to explore this assertion. When someone…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Ron Edwards, Jack Spencer Jr, Jared A. Sorensen, FilthySuperman, Laura Bishop, Marco.

8/29/2001 James Holloway: Theoretical Speculations about LARPs.
I don't have an agenda, really. I just wonder if there are any differences in the way that the theoretical framework discussed here and described in the FAQ applies to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: James Holloway, jburneko, Ron Edwards, Epoch, Matt, Mytholder.

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