Previous Topics
In RPG Theory

9/30/2002 Christoffer Lernö: Just a quickie: Look at the "unified" die mechanic
As previously mentioned, I had problems unifying my karma mechanic (roll a 50-50 roll if stats are equal, otherwise highest stat wins) with the two other die mechanics. Those were:…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Christoffer Lernö.

9/28/2002 contracycle: micro-mechanic opinion
Hi, I came across a wargame emchanic I want to steal but am curious to know what the statisticians think of it. It is a penalty die added to a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, Bailywolf, Christoffer Lernö, Bob McNamee, mahoux, Mike Holmes, Walt Freitag, Sparky.

9/27/2002 Alan: Core Premise Trait
Hi, I was just reading the material about premises for RPGs on the Universalis website (http://universalis.actionroll.com/StoryElements.htm) and had a revelation. As I understand it, a good narrativist premise is expressed…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Alan, contracycle, mahoux, Mike Holmes, Valamir.

9/27/2002 Steve Dustin: Combat mechanic
I'm not sure how this idea plays out, but I thought I'd see if people could poke holes in it. I'm trying to get away from an initiative-you hit-I hit…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Steve Dustin, Christoffer Lernö, M. J. Young, Jeremy Cole.

9/25/2002 Jeffrey Miller: Genre Knobs
I'm sure y'all will find a link here at The Forge to point me at... ;) ...but has anyone worked with the concept of "genre knobs" in their games? That…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jeffrey Miller, Jared A. Sorensen, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, wyrdlyng.

9/25/2002 greyorm: That Social Box
From a thread over in the Sorcerer forum My experience with one on one play is not extensive, but I've noticed myself having similar problems with me and two players.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: greyorm, deadpanbob, Jeffrey Miller, Jake Norwood, contracycle, Mike Holmes, Christoffer Lernö, Christopher Kubasik, M. J. Young.

9/24/2002 Matt Wilson: mechanic idea: too clunky?
Characters have traits, which are something like attributes + skills mixed together -- nod to WEG's Star Wars. Each trait is ranked from 1-5. Roll that many d20s and take…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Matt Wilson, Andrew Martin, Henry Fitch, Jeffrey Miller.

9/24/2002 mahoux: Here's a(nother) resolution mechanic
Alright. Just going to throw this by people. I'm thinking of using this for Future Perfect. So look at it and give me some feedback, ie. anything that seems odd…
In RPG Theory
Participants: mahoux, Mike Holmes, M. J. Young, ADGBoss, Bailywolf, Le Joueur.

9/24/2002 simon_hibbs: Nephilim Wars
I just posted some notes I wrote a while ago about using Hero Wars mechanics to run a Nephilim game on the Hero Wars forum. Was that a mistake? Since…
In RPG Theory
Participants: simon_hibbs, Ron Edwards.

9/24/2002 Christoffer Lernö: (Random) narrativist rule idea
Hi, I was watching Resident Evil last night and whenever the cop guy was threatened I was thinking: "oh, they can't kill him yet - they haven't revealed his mysterious…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Christoffer Lernö, simon_hibbs, Le Joueur.

9/24/2002 Jonathan Walton: Designing for a PBeM Format
Hey all, I'm new to these boards and new to the indy-rpg world in general. However, I somehow managed to get under contract to write a GM-less mystery campaign for…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Ron Edwards, Demonspahn, Valamir, wyrdlyng, Mike Holmes, quozl, Colin the Riot, Maurice Forrester, Andrew Martin, M. J. Young, contracycle, deadpanbob, C. Edwards.

9/23/2002 Alan: immersive authorship (split)
[Since this message has been promoted to a thread lead, I thought I edit it for focus.] I believe there's innate tension between the processes that create dramatic structure and…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Alan, contracycle, Ron Edwards, Andrew Martin, Mike Holmes.

9/23/2002 Marco: An Objective Standard of Quality for RPG's
In another post the idea of finding a way to grade RPG's was brought it (by Valimir) Since we know that all things produced are NOT of equal quality,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Marco, C. Edwards, Andrew Martin, deadpanbob, Valamir, Clinton R. Nixon, Mike Holmes, M. J. Young, contracycle, brainwipe, Jeremy Cole, Seth L. Blumberg.

9/21/2002 Christoffer Lernö: What is a beginner-friendly game?
I've got the pieces for Ygg now, more or less. Time to set down the rules. But, doing so I have to weigh in other considerations. Stuff which up to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Christoffer Lernö, Zak Arntson, Ron Edwards, Wart, damion, Jake Norwood, contracycle, M. J. Young, Le Joueur, Mike Holmes, Valamir, Jeremy Cole.

9/20/2002 kaworuiskool: Another magic thread
Before I go further, lemme say that I did my homework and there have been three threads with magic in the title in this forum. Since Ron said long ago…
In RPG Theory
Participants: kaworuiskool, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, M. J. Young, contracycle, simon_hibbs.

9/19/2002 kevin671: Some mechanics I'm toying with...
O.K. Here's an idea I came up with in a flash of inspiration...in the most unusual of places (but we wont get into that) I was thinking that the whole…
In RPG Theory
Participants: kevin671, Matt Wilson, M. J. Young, Christoffer Lernö, Henry Fitch, Ron Edwards.

9/19/2002 joe_llama: Experimental mechanic (context-free)
Here's a half-baked idea that fell on me last night just before I went to sleep. It's quite possible someone else thought about it already, so I apologize in advance.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: joe_llama, Mike Holmes.

9/19/2002 Ace: A Theory: System doesn't matter for RPing moments
On the whole I agree with Rons thesis that system does matter, but I think there is an overlooked point there when it comes to those who disagree. Ceratinly System…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ace, Marco, Mike Holmes, Valamir, C. Edwards, Ron Edwards, Matt Wilson, contracycle, deadpanbob, Gordon C. Landis, Andrew Martin, wyrdlyng, M. J. Young, Christoffer Lernö, greyorm, Walt Freitag.

9/18/2002 ThreeGee: LARPs
Okay, I looked carefully and could find nothing saying that we cannot talk about other forms of roleplaying than tabletop, and I searched carefully for any previous threads on the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ThreeGee, Jared A. Sorensen, Seth L. Blumberg, Ron Edwards, deadpanbob, Walt Freitag, Mike Holmes, Wart, marknau, James Holloway, Matt, Le Joueur, Merten, John Wick.

9/18/2002 M. J. Young: To fight?
O.K., I can't tell you whether to fight it or not. That's something you're going to have to work out from what you know of him. But I can tell…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, contracycle.

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Subsequent Topics
In RPG Theory

10/1/2002 JMendes: Feeble attempt at defining immersion
Ahoy, :) I'm bringing this over from the Site Discussion forum, specifically the thread on the forge vocab. What about the even more problematic ones like Immersion <...> The…
In RPG Theory
Participants: JMendes, Ron Edwards, Valamir, Marco, Wart, Merten, contracycle, M. J. Young, Mike Holmes, Andrew Martin, lumpley.

10/1/2002 rumble: Chickens and eggs
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Which comes first: the action statement or the die roll? I'm finding myself more and more frustrated with games which encourage players…
In RPG Theory
Participants: rumble, Paul Czege, Clinton R. Nixon, Zak Arntson, Le Joueur, M. J. Young, simon_hibbs, Jeremy Cole, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, contracycle, talysman, Walt Freitag.

10/2/2002 JMendes: Sources of Fortune: In defense of the unopposed roll
Yello, :) I would like to add some points in favor of the opposed/unopposed dichotomy (sp?): Myth #1: Opposed die rolls have no more information than unopposed ones Take an…
In RPG Theory
Participants: JMendes, Jonathan Walton, Le Joueur, Christoffer Lernö, Andrew Martin, Ron Edwards, damion, Mike Holmes.

10/2/2002 Mike Holmes: Observable Probability
Not as dry as the subject line sounds. What I want to look at is the question of players being able to discern the probabilties of their characters chances of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, Le Joueur, contracycle, damion, Andrew Martin, Christoffer Lernö, Jeremy Cole, deadpanbob, Valamir, C. Edwards, Marco, Bankuei, Matt Wilson, M. J. Young.

10/3/2002 Don Lag: Another diceless idea
This is an idea that sprung to me from reading the Diceless Resolution Mechanic thread (the initial post specifically). I'd have posted there but it seemed a bit off-topic. I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Don Lag, Mike Holmes, simon_hibbs, Christoffer Lernö.

10/3/2002 Kester Pelagius: Strange game dynamic forming...
Greetings all, I was just reading something about dice mechanics (which this post has nothing to do with) and ye olde torchlight of idea started sputtering. Say you have a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Kester Pelagius, Andrew Martin, Tony Irwin, Mike Holmes, Emily Care.

10/3/2002 Merten: Defining roleplaying; an alternative approach
Two Finnish fellows did a presentation about defining the roleplaying in local convention last summer. I missed the presentation (had to run a game), but here's some food for thought:…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Merten, Mike Holmes, Emily Care, Ron Edwards, lumpley, talysman, Jaakko, greyorm, Valamir, Le Joueur, hakkis, contracycle, M. J. Young, Alan, Walt Freitag, Revontuli.

10/3/2002 C. Edwards: Our big invisible brain
I was wondering if any games have been designed completely "on The Forge". Granted, a whole lot of input is often gathered here but have any games been designed from…
In RPG Theory
Participants: C. Edwards, Zak Arntson, kevin671, talysman, contracycle, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege, M. J. Young.

10/4/2002 CC Douglas: Converting from pen & paper to keyboard & mouse...
Ok, I'm new here so I hope this isn't a topic that's been run through many times before or anything... I love rpg's. I love to program. I love the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: CC Douglas, contracycle, greyorm, Eric J., M. J. Young.

10/4/2002 lumpley: Vincent's Standard Rant: Power, Credibility and Assent
I call the power in a roleplaying game Credibility. As in, whose statements about what happens are Credible? If I say that I shoot you, and you say the gun…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Walt Freitag, Le Joueur, Valamir, Mike Holmes, Emily Care, Zak Arntson, Andrew Martin, Paganini, M. J. Young, Bob McNamee, Jonathan Walton, Mark D. Eddy, contracycle.

10/4/2002 Matt Wilson: system critiques
I read an older post where Ron quoted himself from his GNS essay, where he talks about Hero's problem with "soybean trading." It got me wondering what Ron thinks about…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Matt Wilson, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes.

10/5/2002 M. J. Young: Character Personal Assessment
[quote="In the Observable Probability thread Chris a.k.a. Bankuei"]Not quite going as far as a myth, but a standard is that players know everything that their character is capable of doing.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, contracycle, damion, talysman, Andrew Martin, Le Joueur.

10/5/2002 Walt Freitag: Nonstandard Rant: Opposed rolls ARE more random, dammit!
In an Indie Game Design thread, JMendes wrote: wrote: I much prefer to make "opposed" tasks that little bit more random. Er... less random, you mean. Remember, once…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Walt Freitag, Christoffer Lernö, M. J. Young, JMendes, Jeremy Cole, Valamir, Mike Holmes.

10/6/2002 Nick Pagnucco: Role of Setting
Hi, I don't post in this part of the Forge much, but I had a question, and I think that this is the most appropriate forum to ask it. If…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Nick Pagnucco, Mike Holmes, Jonathan Walton, Paka, contracycle, simon_hibbs, Ron Edwards, Christoffer Lernö, M. J. Young.

10/7/2002 JMendes: A weird mechanic idea
Hi, all, :) I have no idea if you guys do this sort of thing or not, and if so, whether this is the right forum for it, but it…
In RPG Theory
Participants: JMendes, Bankuei, Christoffer Lernö, Walt Freitag, Paul Czege, M. J. Young.

10/8/2002 Jack Spencer Jr: Note from an improv mailing group.
I got an interesting note from the improv mailing list I've subscribed to. The author, Gary Schwartz was kind enough to let me reproduce it here because, reading it, I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr.

10/9/2002 Trevor Curtis: Insane idea
I had an idea two days ago, whihc came out of too much sleep or too little caffiene(or vice versa), but here goes: Ever heard of National Novel Writing Month?…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Trevor Curtis, C. Edwards, Mike Holmes, Emily Care, Jonathan Walton, Mytholder, lumpley, Blake Hutchins, Jasper, Eric J., Maurice Forrester, Zak Arntson.

10/9/2002 Emily Care: Credibility and System
Seems like some concensus has formed around the following: - Nothing's true in the game until all the players agree that it's true. - System, mechanics, having a GM and…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Emily Care, Valamir, Mark D. Eddy, Mike Holmes.

10/9/2002 Mike Holmes: Let's make a game!
People keep suggesting doing cool stuff, and then not starting the projects up themselves. Guess if you want something done... OK, here's a thread for a theoretical game design that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, talysman, Jack Spencer Jr, Bob McNamee, Bankuei, JMendes, Mark D. Eddy, Paganini, RPunkG, Emily Care, M. J. Young, amiel, Jeremy Cole, Valamir, Ron Edwards.

10/10/2002 Andy Kitkowski: Indie RPG Awards?
This is something I've been tossing around for a bit: What do you all think of a chance to run an "award ceremony" for Indies game designers and publishers? I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Andy Kitkowski, Christoffer Lernö, wyrdlyng, Kester Pelagius, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Valamir, GB Steve, M. J. Young, Marco, Jeremy Cole, Le Joueur, Jonathan Walton, Andrew Martin, quozl, Peregrine.

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