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In RPG Theory

3/6/2003 Matt Wilson: most fun moment of play?
In another thread, Ron requested this info from a potential game designer: please provide us with some better perspective on what, in your view, will be the single most fun…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Matt Wilson, Ron Edwards.

3/5/2003 Paganini: Real Color
I like miniatures. And game cards with cool artwork. And dungeon floor-plans. And actual dungeon / landscape layouts. I don't typically like your standard fantasy wargame, or your standard skirmish…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paganini, Matt Wilson, C. Edwards, John Kim, Le Joueur, Cryostorm, contracycle, Michael S. Miller, Mike Holmes, Sylus Thane, Jared A. Sorensen, bluegargantua.

3/5/2003 ethan_greer: What makes a game it's own thing?
So. I'm hard at work on a "new" RPG. I'm quite pleased with what I have so far, and more information will of course be forthcoming as it approaches drafthood.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ethan_greer, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes.

3/5/2003 Stuart DJ Purdie: Ordering of play elements
[quote="Ron Edwards"]Of course Setting matters. Without characters, setting, situation, a system, and color, role-playing isn't happening.[/quote] Read this over in the setting matter thread, and it crystalised something that I've…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Stuart DJ Purdie, Ron Edwards, Emily Care.

3/4/2003 ThreeGee: Does Setting Matter?
Hey all, In this thread about system, the point was raised that the majority of gamers (at least the vocal ones on another board) think that setting is the single…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ThreeGee, Ron Edwards, Matt Wilson, Mike Holmes, Valamir, contracycle, Bankuei, Rob Donoghue, Clinton R. Nixon, Alan, clehrich, Le Joueur, John Kim, DaGreatJL, simon_hibbs, M. J. Young, Blake Hutchins.

3/4/2003 Matt Snyder: It's the system, stupid
I've had several polite, shall we say, disagreements with my fellow players about whether system does indeed matter. Their positions are all over the "spectrum" from matters to doesn'tmatter. Obviously,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Matt Snyder, Le Joueur, Paganini, ThreeGee, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Matt Wilson, Sylus Thane, jburneko, Walt Freitag, clehrich.

3/4/2003 Tony Irwin: Author Stance
Folks I need some help, I'm trying to read up on games that encourage players to take author stance rather than actor stance. I'm especially interested in games that make…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Tony Irwin, Valamir, Mike Holmes, Bankuei, Ron Edwards, M. J. Young, Bruce Baugh, Ben Morgan.

2/27/2003 Jack Spencer Jr: Morale and identification [split from Wargames]
Man, I'll tell you. I'm not much of a wargamer at all. Mostly because I just cannot treat any of my units as cannon fodder. I just can't march a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, contracycle, Thierry Michel, Mike Holmes, clehrich, arxhon, Valamir.

3/3/2003 Drew Stevens: Central and Secondry Protagonism in Roleplaying
So, I was reflecting a bit today, on previously and presently run Games I Have Known. Specifically, on the nature of the protagonism of the characters. Now, most games I'm…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Drew Stevens, Sylus Thane, M. J. Young, Johannes, Michael S. Miller, Mike Holmes, clehrich.

3/1/2003 Johannes: Two senses of realism
Hi, After teching Russian classics to my students I came to think about how relism in litterature has been defined in criticism and what is realism in general. I think…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Johannes, ThreeGee, Marco, Mike Holmes, lumpley, clehrich.

2/28/2003 Mike Holmes: Age-old Imponderables
Quoting Jason from another thread: To list or not to list? You're kind of fighting the impossible to answer question. That was a good point. Over the years, I've…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, clehrich, cruciel, M. J. Young, Jack Spencer Jr, Walt Freitag, Andrew Martin, Thierry Michel, Drew Stevens, simon, Le Joueur.

2/28/2003 szilard: PC/NPC Symmetry
In a game I'm working on, I'm struggling with the issue of whether PCs and NPCs should be constructed in (at least vaguely) the same manner. My immediate inclination (born…
In RPG Theory
Participants: szilard, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes.

2/28/2003 Andy Kitkowski: The new Marvel RPG, Or: Why Jared's Games Have a Shot Now :)
Maybe some of you had heard about this new game on other forums: From this site: http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?threadid=16029 "MURPG is unlike any other roleplaying game, even other diceless ones. The entire…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Andy Kitkowski, Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes, Clinton R. Nixon, Jared A. Sorensen, Bankuei, arxhon, Drew Stevens, b_bankhead, ghoest, Brand_Robins, Michael Hopcroft, Matt Gwinn, wyrdlyng, Ron Edwards, Valamir, Bill_White, Le Joueur, Matt Snyder, szilard, Paka, M. J. Young, Stuart DJ Purdie, talysman, John Harper, Sparky, Evan Jones, DaGreatJL.

2/28/2003 KeithBVaughn: YATU...How to identify???
To the Group Members and Moderators, While I have seen many comments on what makes another "Fantasy Heartbreaker" or "Yet Another Fantasy Game" from the neophyte game designers, I'm curious…
In RPG Theory
Participants: KeithBVaughn, Andrew Martin, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Kester Pelagius, Walt Freitag, arxhon, Blake Hutchins, M. J. Young, MoonHunter.

2/27/2003 Valamir: Brief thoughts on Battlesystem
I didn't want to clutter up the discussion on wargaming and RPGs in general with more thoughts on Battlesystem specifically, so I thought I'd respond to that tangent seperately. Basically…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Valamir, arxhon.

2/27/2003 JMendes: An alternative to Simmetry and d20
Hey, :) In this thread, we tossed around a few ideas for different fortune mechanics that would obey a certain set of specs. Walt (wfreitag) came up with an interesting…
In RPG Theory
Participants: JMendes, marknau.

2/27/2003 Daredevil: Casting in Role-Playing
Heya, For quite some time our gaming group has been aware of actively practising casting particular players into particular character roles in the games played by us. The reasoning (for…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Daredevil, Synicism, clehrich, Tim C Koppang, talysman, simon_hibbs, Ron Edwards, Thierry Michel, Walt Freitag, Bankuei, Le Joueur, MoonHunter, yellow_skeleton.

2/26/2003 Dave Panchyk: Play-by-Mail RPGs--development issues
I'm planning to develop a play-by-mail role-playing game that I intend to hand-moderate for a small player base. I'm in the very beginning stages right now, and would like input…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dave Panchyk, Jack Spencer Jr, Andrew Martin, M. J. Young, Mike Holmes.

2/26/2003 Matt Gwinn: Miniatures, props and other visual aids
Over the years I've found that I've used a variety of visual aids in my roleplaying. Maps and miniatures are the most common, but I've gone as far as taking…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Matt Gwinn, clehrich, Jack Spencer Jr, Kester Pelagius, Walt Freitag, cruciel, arxhon, M. J. Young, James Holloway.

2/26/2003 Thierry Michel: Hidden Information
One way to classify games is to use the criterion of what information is accessible to the player. Chess is an example of complete information game (everyone knows exactly all…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Thierry Michel, Drew Stevens, clehrich, Andrew Martin, Mike Holmes, Le Joueur, Ron Edwards, bowlingm.

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Subsequent Topics
In RPG Theory

3/7/2003 M. J. Young: Maps: Necessary or Superfluous?
In the Real Color thread, (if you design a game, especially fantasy, make sure you include a good easily copied map) I've done a lot of fantasy settings,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, contracycle, James Holloway, Jack Spencer Jr, Mike Holmes, Walt Freitag, Sylus Thane, clehrich, Airshipjones, simon_hibbs.

3/7/2003 Rob Donoghue: How many stories in a setting?
Assuming you've got a persistant group of players, how many campaigns are you looking to run in any given setting (defined, for this purpose, as a fixed set of pre-written…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Rob Donoghue, Johannes.

3/7/2003 Johannes: Fortune and narrative suspence
Hi, I'm working on the purpose of fortune mechanics in RPGs. I'm basically trying to address the question "Whý people use fortune in their play?" One of the sub-questions I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Johannes, bowlingm, Ron Edwards, M. J. Young, Jack Spencer Jr, clehrich, Le Joueur, Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes, iago, Gordon C. Landis.

3/8/2003 Sylus Thane: A Polling Question
For all of the Forge members out there a couple of questions. 1. How many of you have actually published a game? If so what was it or they? 2.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Sylus Thane, greyorm, M. J. Young.

3/8/2003 Andy Kitkowski: Using graphical methods to demonstrate how to play...
From the Marvel thread, at the end: Sorry, three layers of quotes to follow: Jonathan Walton wrote: The obvious thing, it seems to me, is to have almost 1/2 of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Andy Kitkowski, quozl, ks13, Torrent, Jack Spencer Jr, Sidhain, Jonathan Walton, Bankuei, Simon Ringwood, szilard, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Jared A. Sorensen, Michael S. Miller.

3/9/2003 Jack Spencer Jr: too much information?
This is an extension of the Is meaningless detail really meaningless? thread and sort of where I'm going with my own thoughts on RPG theory. I'll try to explain.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, clehrich, M. J. Young, contracycle.

3/10/2003 Christoffer Lernö: Stealing ideas: mechanical Fighing simulation anyone?
Hello everyone, I'm back! I'm gonna go a little off-topic. I hope you can forgive that. I have been reluctant to jump back until I knew I had time to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Christoffer Lernö, ThreeGee, talysman, Dr. Velocity.

3/10/2003 Le Joueur: Setting, Information, and Suspense Don't Matter* [long]
We had an epiphany last night. My wife and I were gearing up for yet another one-on-one game and there was some confusion over a discussion of such from the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Le Joueur, Bankuei, Mike Holmes, Sylus Thane, ThreeGee.

3/10/2003 Paka: Overbrewing the Homebrew World
I am most certainly a GM who is a frustrated writer and enjoys creating worlds in order to creatively stretch my toes in the sand. However, I find that the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paka, Jack Spencer Jr, Blake Hutchins, Mike Holmes, M. J. Young, Ron Edwards, Paganini.

3/12/2003 Johannes: Access to the inner world of characters
The inner world (knowledge, desires, fears, moral etc.) of characters plays crucial role in most litterature. In litterature the reader is often given access to these inner worlds by some…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Johannes, Emily Care, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Bankuei, Jack Spencer Jr, M. J. Young, clehrich, Ian Charvill, talysman, Jared A. Sorensen.

3/12/2003 Airshipjones: Show don't tell?
So, how do we reconcile the old writers adage of 'show don't tell' with the basic RPG idea that we are often describing our characters actions? I find that much…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Airshipjones, ThreeGee, Ron Edwards, Nathaniel, Walt Freitag, Le Joueur, Jack Spencer Jr, Johannes, Marco, epweissengruber, clehrich, M. J. Young, Tim C Koppang, efindel, erithromycin, quozl.

3/12/2003 Nathaniel: Intro and Rewards Discussion
Hello all. Name's Nathan. I've read all the articles in the articles section and a good number of the recent posts and figured I'd have at it and post my…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Nathaniel, iago, ThreeGee, M. J. Young, Ron Edwards, Ben Morgan, Walt Freitag, Mike Holmes, szilard.

3/13/2003 Tor Erickson: Robin's Laws?
Okay, I did a search on this one and didn't come up with anything... if this has already been discussed, I apologize: Over in Actual Play Ben Morgan made a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Tor Erickson, Johannes, Le Joueur, Ron Edwards, Walt Freitag, jrs, Emily Care, Mike Holmes, Wulf, Ben Morgan, woodelf, talysman, clehrich, M. J. Young, Thierry Michel.

3/13/2003 Daredevil: Self-Revelation in Role-Playing (or Educational RPGs)
This thread came to my mind after I tied a few danglings threads together. First there was this thread http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=5118 which was actually a follow-up to http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=5031 and then this…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Daredevil, Le Joueur, Ron Edwards, greyorm, Paul Czege, M. J. Young.

3/13/2003 Mike Holmes: Mike's Standard Rant #1: Designers! Know your hobby!
Well, Chris Passeno, recently asked me where Mike's Standard Rant #1 was. I informed him that I had numbered them sorta randomly, and had not gotten around to number one.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mike Holmes, DaR, wyrdlyng, RobMuadib, Jonathan Walton, Rob Donoghue, Sylus Thane, lumpley, Valamir, clehrich, cruciel, Ron Edwards, Walt Freitag, M. J. Young, Kester Pelagius, efindel, Bankuei, Pramas, Stuart DJ Purdie, rdl, Andy Kitkowski, Bruce Baugh, szilard, J. Backman.

3/14/2003 Kester Pelagius: How much would you want to know?
Greetings All, Say someone was working on a minigame that was a melding of Ptolemaic and Medieval cosmology ala Spelljammer, but that this project was not directly based off of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Kester Pelagius, Sylus Thane, Mike Holmes, Bankuei, M. J. Young, Le Joueur, Jack Spencer Jr.

3/15/2003 Dotan Dimet: The Forge dialectic - how do I boil this down?
Hi, The community wherin I operate (organized Israeli gamerdom) has a strong simulationist-illusionist attitude. They've read the books, they believe in The Impossible Thing Before Breakfast, Deep Roleplay and GM-as-Storyteller…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Dotan Dimet, Jack Spencer Jr, Ron Edwards, M. J. Young, Bankuei, Marco, Mike Holmes, Emily Care.

3/16/2003 Jack Spencer Jr: The Social Aspect
I hope to get discussion going on the purely social aspect of RPG and possibly the nature of human interaction in general. Hopefully there'll be a slew of daughter and…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Mark Johnson, M. J. Young, Le Joueur.

3/16/2003 Drew Stevens: Team Author stance? (inspired/stolen from Universalis)
So, I just had a kind of weird idea for a metagame thingy. Basically, as opposed to each player having sole control over one character, give each cahracter a couple…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Drew Stevens, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes.

3/17/2003 ethan_greer: Sorcerer/Donjon dice mechanic
I wasn't sure where to put this, so here it is in RPG Theory... So, Sorcerer and Donjon use variations of the same dice mechanic - each participant rolls a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ethan_greer, Mike Holmes, iago, szilard, M. J. Young, cruciel.

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