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In RPG Theory

9/19/2003 Sir Thomas: Percentiles and Player-Defined Skills?
I was wondering if anyone here can give any guidance: I love percentiles, and I'm thinking of a system using Unknown Armies' "flip-flops" as narrativist tools, where the player has…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Sir Thomas, Lxndr, Ron Edwards, mrteapot, AnyaTheBlue, gobi, M. J. Young, Mike Holmes, SumDood.

9/18/2003 ZeOtter: Setting vs Mechanics
I have been reading post here on the Forge for a little while now. I noticed that 99% of the posts in this area of the forums talk about mechanics.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ZeOtter, Ben Morgan, contracycle, Windthin, Mike Holmes, quozl, M. J. Young, Jack Spencer Jr, Marco, xechnao, Valamir, Ben Lehman, damion.

9/18/2003 M. J. Young: Questioning Jack Spencer Jr.'s View of Solo Play
It came up again in Non-electric Interactive Written Solo Entertainment, and it's been discussed before: is it still role playing if you're doing it alone, such as with Choose…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, Jack Spencer Jr, Walt Freitag, Marco, Mike Holmes, cruciel, Ben Lehman, Gordon C. Landis, pete_darby, AnyaTheBlue, ejh, Ron Edwards.

9/18/2003 M. J. Young: Creating the Other
Over on the thread Characters as Therapy (Split) I was pretty satisfied with the consensus, until Joachim recalled somethingHere's another way of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, cruciel, jdagna, bcook1971, Mike Holmes.

9/17/2003 bcook1971: Talking To Myself
I just finished writing a lengthy running example that tied together most of the significant points of my combat system. I found the experience to be quite cathartic. I'm reminded…
In RPG Theory
Participants: bcook1971, Lxndr, Mike Holmes, Marco, pete_darby, MongoosePaul.

9/17/2003 John Kim: Immersion and Story
This is a reply to Mike Holmes, split from another take on "the character doesn't exist". Since this isn't talking about whether characters exist (an argument which has…
In RPG Theory
Participants: John Kim, David Chunn, gentrification, RaconteurX, Ron Edwards, contracycle, Jack Spencer Jr, Mike Holmes.

9/16/2003 Jonathan Walton: When Can We Stop Making "Games"?
I find myself increasingly frustrated, not by the expectations of those outside of the gaming community, but by the expectations that gamers and designers have set for themselves. To me,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Matt Snyder, ethan_greer, Ben Morgan, pete_darby, Jack Spencer Jr, jdagna, Lxndr, Ron Edwards, Walt Freitag, M. J. Young, deadpanbob, Marco, taalyn, ejh, Mike Holmes, ross_winn, John Kim, Valamir, xechnao, damion, simon_hibbs.

9/16/2003 Jonathan Walton: Plato on Polysided Dice
Don't know exactly how I'd go about using this, but I thought I'd pass this neat bit of info onto those who might be ignorant (as I was until this…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Matt Snyder, ethan_greer, Andrew Martin, mrteapot, CplFerro, mjk.

9/15/2003 deadpanbob: GM/World as Character
All: I've done a search on the forums, but my search-kwon-do as they say, is meek. Can anyone point me to games that have included the idea of the GM…
In RPG Theory
Participants: deadpanbob, Bob McNamee, M. J. Young, Christopher Kubasik, Lxndr, Jonathan Walton, Andrew Martin, simon_hibbs, pete_darby, gobi, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards.

9/12/2003 anonymouse: Piece: Ablative Luck.
Was watching Once Upon a Time in Mexico... Got to thinking that a game could have some kind of "luck armor". Heroes get a boatload, mooks probably only have a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: anonymouse, gobi, ethan_greer, mrteapot.

9/12/2003 talysman: another take on "the character doesn't exist"
I've been catching up on the various threads about this whole issue of "do the characters (and presumably, game world) have any kind of existence aside from what the players…
In RPG Theory
Participants: talysman, pete_darby, Marco, Gordon C. Landis, John Kim, Cemendur, Valamir, Hunter Logan, M. J. Young, Alan, Eric J-D, contracycle, simon_hibbs, Christopher Weeks, AgentFresh, Walt Freitag, cruciel, Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes, Jack Spencer Jr, Ron Edwards.

9/12/2003 M. J. Young: Man Against Himself: Personality Mechanics
There have been several threads about personality mechanics recently, but I suddenly had a thought about these that might be worth addressing. I think it was Personality Mechanics that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, Trevis Martin, Mike Holmes, Dauntless, John Kim.

9/11/2003 MachMoth: Time Paradoxes, just a paradigm?
Well, I decided to go ahead and start work on my Generations Project. I figure my idea is different enough from Pendragon to make it worth my effort. The working…
In RPG Theory
Participants: MachMoth, jdagna, M. J. Young.

9/11/2003 Wayne: Non-electric Interactive Written Solo Entertainment
What is next in interactive written solo entertainment of the non-electrical kind? 1. First there were Books 2. then Choose Your Own Story 3. then Choose Your Own Adventure 4.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Wayne, Dr. Velocity, Valamir, Jack Spencer Jr, ejh, Christopher Weeks, Lxndr, M. J. Young, pete_darby, Walt Freitag, Gordon C. Landis.

9/10/2003 cruciel: Characters as Therapy (split)
Over in Vincent's Character and Our Weird Gamer Friends thread Clinton raised the idea that a character is in some way an expression of an issue you need to work…
In RPG Theory
Participants: cruciel, M. J. Young, Clinton R. Nixon, Daredevil.

9/10/2003 M. J. Young: My Character Would
In Who Cares? before Ron declared it finished,It may just be the groups that I play with, but I only encounter "my character" when people are objecting…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, Gordon C. Landis, Cemendur, erithromycin, jdagna, cruciel, Lxndr, MachMoth, Jack Aidley, pete_darby, Christopher Kubasik, Valamir, John Kim.

9/10/2003 lumpley: Character and Our Weird Gamer Friends
At the risk of bringing the Forge's fearsome analytical powers to bear on, y'know, us: Read this thread: Who cares? and this one: And now, Plato. Know what I think?…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, MachMoth, Christopher Kubasik, Gordon C. Landis, Clinton R. Nixon, Christopher Weeks, pete_darby, cruciel, C. Edwards, Ron Edwards, Wormwood, Ben Lehman, M. J. Young, Jack Spencer Jr.

9/9/2003 Christopher Kubasik: And now, Plato
The dead man wrote: "And a third kind of possession and madness comes from the Muses. This takes hold upon a gentle and pure soul, arouses it and inspires it…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Christopher Kubasik, Cemendur, pete_darby, Ron Edwards, Valamir, John Kim, Gordon C. Landis, Matt Snyder, ejh, Walt Freitag, cruciel, Mike Holmes, Jack Spencer Jr.

9/8/2003 Christopher Weeks: Who cares?
In a current thread: but what I care is secondary to what the character cares Sorry. Characters are pencil scribblings on a piece of paper. No RPG character…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Christopher Weeks, Jack Spencer Jr, Marco, Valamir, Ron Edwards, John Kim, ejh, MachMoth, kalyptein, Mike Holmes, M. J. Young, contracycle, Gordon C. Landis, jdagna, erithromycin, pete_darby, cruciel, lumpley.

9/8/2003 Aelios: Money is Currency?
I appologize if this has been discussed before; if so could somebody please show me where? Last night I was searching through all my RPG books looking for different ways…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Aelios, Jack Spencer Jr, bigsimon, Ron Edwards, gentrification, M. J. Young, contracycle, Walt Freitag, MachMoth.

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In RPG Theory

9/19/2003 b_bankhead: Yes Virginia they are mostly for reading....
[quote="Ron Edwards"]I was confronted with it in [i]very[/i] committed, no-bones-about-it form recently, during a discussion at GAMA. [/quote] Although I don't agree with it as a creative goal, as a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: b_bankhead, Ron Edwards, Valamir, Mike Holmes, Christopher Weeks.

9/19/2003 deadpanbob: Reward vs. Punishment....
All: Okay, here's a question I have: It seems much better to me for a game to reward players for play behavior appropriate to the game than to punish them…
In RPG Theory
Participants: deadpanbob, Mike Holmes, Bob McNamee, Sparky, Silmenume, Christopher Weeks, jdagna, contracycle.

9/23/2003 lumpley: I finally got IIEE!
Occasionally my job requires me to sit quietly under very boring and technical circumstances. I was doing that the other day and BAM! So you have some people talking about…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Ron Edwards, kalyptein, ethan_greer, pete_darby, cruciel, LordSmerf.

9/23/2003 Christopher Kubasik: People We Like to Game with Are People Like Us
I haven't seen anyone do this before, so I apolgize if I'm breaking a Forge convention. The discussion of "women" and settings and the uselessness (in my view) of talking…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Christopher Kubasik, AnyaTheBlue, Eric J., John Kim, bcook1971.

9/24/2003 LordSmerf: The Evolution of Gaming Preference
After an extended hiatus, i was drawn back to the Forge by this discussion on redundant characters. Other than the fact that i saw, at least to some degree, a…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, bcook1971, Ben Lehman, Jack Spencer Jr, John Kim, pete_darby, Ron Edwards, Mark Johnson, contracycle, samdowning, b_bankhead, Marco, M. J. Young.

9/24/2003 pete_darby: No Myth PC's
A random paragraph from the article I'm working on for Matt, but I couldn't resist popping it in front of you guys: be warned, ths contains an idea that I'd…
In RPG Theory
Participants: pete_darby, Lxndr, Bob McNamee, Mike Holmes, Andrew Norris, Buddha Nature, deadpanbob, Walt Freitag.

9/25/2003 GenericAnimeBoy: Computer RP Software
It seems to me looking at computerized RPGs that many of them have static gameplay which revolves either around action and leveling up or around the development of a preprogrammed,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: GenericAnimeBoy, Mark Johnson, anonymouse, xechnao, Ron Edwards, Andrew Norris.

9/25/2003 M. J. Young: Setting as an element of System
This is a spinoff from Front-loaded relationship-driven Nar/Sim overlap, in a way--that's what led me to think this way, and it's relevant to the discussion there. I had been…
In RPG Theory
Participants: M. J. Young, pete_darby, Ron Edwards, damion, Windthin.

9/25/2003 LordSmerf: "Radical" Ideas from Non-gamers
In the When can we stop making "games" thread it was mentioned that often, ideas that people who have spent time gaming find radical, seem rather logical to people who…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Christopher Kubasik, Jonathan Walton, AnyaTheBlue, bcook1971, Andrew Martin, samdowning, Bankuei, Palaskar, LeftWingPenguin, Ron Edwards, M. J. Young.

9/26/2003 Jonathan Walton: What Magic Is
I was reading some Forge threads, looking at various magic systems that people were working on, when something struck me: Magic is really just a player-empowerment tool, resisting the GM's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Christopher Weeks, John Kim, Valamir, bcook1971, C. Edwards, damion, Windthin, M. J. Young, contracycle, Jack Aidley, Marco, Walt Freitag, mjk, Comte, simon_hibbs.

9/27/2003 Mark Johnson: Anti-games
I propose a subclass of RPG texts, the anti-game. Whereas most game texts exist predominantly in service to actual game play, anti-game text exists predominantly to make some other point…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Mark Johnson, Jack Spencer Jr, Jonathan Walton, gobi, Ron Edwards, xiombarg, GB Steve, ejh, Michael S. Miller, Comte, simon_hibbs, Ben Lehman, contracycle, pete_darby.

9/29/2003 ejh: Scott McCloud's Four Tribes
I got to hear comic artist Scott McCloud speak earlier this week and as an aside, in response to a question somebody asked, he threw out a fourfold classification of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: ejh, Jonathan Walton, xiombarg, Ben Lehman, Windthin, SumDood, Jasper, Trevis Martin, Alan, John Kim.

9/29/2003 Ben Lehman: Humor in RPGs / Comedy RPGs
(Not certain if this should be in RPG Theory or GNS... It relates to RPG theory, but also to GNS...) Something which I have harped on for a while in…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ben Lehman, AnyaTheBlue, xiombarg, Ron Edwards, jdagna, Gordon C. Landis, M. J. Young.

9/30/2003 Drifter Bob: realism in RPG's
I recently wrote the first half of a two part article about realism in Role Playing Games for Swords Edge Magazine. I'd be interested in any reactions or response people…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Drifter Bob, Ben Lehman, mjk, deadpanbob, JimmyB, Trevis Martin, Andrew Martin, Ian Charvill, simon_hibbs, Jack Aidley, Walt Freitag, Rob Donoghue, xechnao, M. J. Young, Marco, contracycle, Jack Spencer Jr, Mike Holmes, Christopher Weeks, Ron Edwards.

9/30/2003 Heather Manley: Adults in Wonderland: Mutable Settings
Consider the original Alice in Wonderland (the book, not the cartoon or movie) and Through the Looking Glass. Especially because of the implied "It was all just a dream!" aspect,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Heather Manley, JimmyB, contracycle, simon_hibbs, Michael S. Miller, Shreyas Sampat, LordSmerf, Mike Holmes.

9/30/2003 Rob Donoghue: Genre Question: Techno Thrillers
Ok, so I'm finding myself at a point in my game where I've realized that I think my players are looking for a techno thriller, a genre I'm almost completely…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Rob Donoghue, xechnao, jdagna, Jack Spencer Jr, Dev, contracycle, Marco.

9/30/2003 Tomas HVM: There is only players in RPG
I've had this recurring idea on RPG's, a new theoretical stance, and it's a very fruitful one: There is only players in a roleplaying game. The so called "games master"…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Tomas HVM, Minx, Gordon C. Landis, MachMoth, Marco, John Kim, Mark Johnson, Ron Edwards, contracycle, Jack Aidley, Valamir, pete_darby, Paganini, Walt Freitag, Mike Holmes, Sparky, M. J. Young.

10/1/2003 LordSmerf: Who we play with
After some consideration over the weekend, i have decided that it is worth discussing the following point which was briefly mentioned in my Evolution of Preferences thread. The question is…
In RPG Theory
Participants: LordSmerf, Mike Holmes, bcook1971, jdagna, M. J. Young.

10/2/2003 bcook1971: Get What You Play For!
I invite you to use this sheet to dial up and flip on your RPG play preferences. It may even help to articulate preference across your group and lead to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: bcook1971, Mike Holmes, Gordon C. Landis, John Kim.

10/2/2003 SumDood: Blast and Burn Damage Tracking
My system divides possible hit locations into many body parts, all listed on the character sheet with different armor and damage resistance values. One of the major difficulties I've had…
In RPG Theory
Participants: SumDood, Mike Holmes, Valamir, M. J. Young, Christopher Weeks, LordSmerf, contracycle, bcook1971.

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