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In RPG Theory

11/26/2001 Paul Czege: the big three you never see
Hey everyone, I was sitting last night reading Hardball, by Chris Matthews, and had an awareness that the fiction and nonfiction I read, and the movies and television programs I…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paul Czege, jburneko, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Blake Hutchins, hardcoremoose, John Wick, joshua neff, Le Joueur, Jack Spencer Jr, Gordon C. Landis, contracycle, Uncle Dark, James V. West, James Holloway, Marco, Ian O'Rourke, Jared A. Sorensen.

11/13/2001 jburneko: An Experiment In The Ordinary
There's an idea I've been mulling over for a while now. It's something that's been brought up before on various game sites but never really addressed in an interesting way.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Epoch, Laurel, Jared A. Sorensen, joshua neff, hardcoremoose, Marco, Ben Morgan, Bankuei, mahoux, Le Joueur.

11/12/2001 Matt Snyder: "Universal group" systems
I have long loathed systems billed as "universal." There are a number of reasons, not the least of which I admit is ignorance about their actual usefulness in play. By…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Matt Snyder, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Ben Morgan, Marco, Laurel.

11/11/2001 erithromycin: Rewarding Players
Experience points. Do players deserve them? Is it better to reward someone for a successful negotiation with a reputation as a rainmaker or an enhancement to his mechanical character? …
In RPG Theory
Participants: erithromycin, Ron Edwards, hardcoremoose, Marco, Bankuei, Jack Spencer Jr, Mike Holmes, Jared A. Sorensen.

11/9/2001 jburneko: Metaplot and Story Creation
The planets must be aligned funky or something. Today seems to be an idea day for me. Anyway, down in the Immersion & Co-Authoring thread Ron reasserted his claim that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, Zak Arntson, Gordon C. Landis, Blake Hutchins, John Wick, Ian O'Rourke, contracycle, Mytholder, Mike Holmes, Paul Czege, Matt, Ben Morgan, Laurel, joshua neff, Nathan.

11/9/2001 Damocles: Imitating other media
It's pretty much a commonplace that new media start out by imitating other media and then start to develop into new and unique directions. Roleplaying games are strange in that…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Damocles, Mike Holmes, Laurel, Ron Edwards, Epoch, unodiablo.

11/9/2001 jburneko: Incharacter Play vs. co-Author
I have a feeling here that I'm going to open up a huge can of worms. You have been warned. In Ron's new review of Little Fears he talks about…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Jared A. Sorensen, lumpley, Ron Edwards, Marco.

11/7/2001 John Wick: A superhero RPG
This is rough stuff. I wrote it at 3 AM last night. I may have had a fever. Anyway, it is what it is. Interested in seeing what you guys…
In RPG Theory
Participants: John Wick, kwill, Mike Holmes, Tim Gray.

11/6/2001 jburneko: Cut-Scenes In RPGs
As I've been watching various TV Shows and Movies I've noticed something that whole exists in those mediums and does not exist in RPGs. That element is that the audience…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Bankuei, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, contracycle, Ian O'Rourke.

11/5/2001 Galfraxas: Suspension Of Reality And Playing Odd Characters
I recently got into an arguement with a friend of mine about RPGs, and how certain things aren't playable as characters, and how people can't suspend reality to a certain…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Galfraxas, 333Chronzon, unodiablo, Mike Holmes, Laurel, Ron Edwards, kwill, Paul Czege, Jared A. Sorensen, James Holloway, Jack Spencer Jr, contracycle, lumpley, gentrification, Jason L Blair, Meguey.

11/5/2001 lumpley: Making Stuff Happen non-Stance
Ron, Cool, I'm there. So let's see, so here's my thing: what happens in the game, happens because everybody agrees it does. Right? Who gets to assert things that happen?…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Ron Edwards, Don Lag, kwill.

11/5/2001 lumpley: Making Stuff Happen Stance
In Further On Stances, Ron says: "The arrow has struck Borax the Very Clean Warrior!" This statement is irrelevant to Stance entirely. NOT ALL ROLE-PLAYING STATEMENTS ARE MADE FROM A…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Ron Edwards, Don Lag.

11/3/2001 Gordon C. Landis: Who do you hook?
First - get your mind out of the gutter! Now . . . In one of the extraordinary Art-Deco Melodrama thread(s) over in the Sorcerror forum, Ron made a statement…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Gordon C. Landis, Ron Edwards, joshua neff, Logan, 333Chronzon.

11/2/2001 Ferry Bazelmans: Your thoughts on fatalistic roleplaying?
In the "scene resolution in lieu of task resolution" thread, I proposed a system in which players are fully aware of the outcome of a given situation and then play…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ferry Bazelmans, unheilig, Paul Czege, Laurel, Ron Edwards, Zak Arntson, Gordon C. Landis, Matt Gwinn.

10/31/2001 James V. West: relationship maps and all that jazz
Friends I'm rather in the dark about a lot of the stuff that's been discussed here at the Forge before I came along. Not to mention the fact that there…
In RPG Theory
Participants: James V. West, Don Lag, Ron Edwards, Laurel, Paul Czege, Jack Spencer Jr.

10/30/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: Bobby G
The Bobby G thread in Actual Play has gotten away from the actual play aspect and moved to theory. Hence this thread. I had to fight the urge to paraphase…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Ron Edwards, Marco, contracycle, Laurel, joshua neff, Mike Holmes, jburneko, Gordon C. Landis, Paul Czege, mahoux.

10/30/2001 kwill: seven deadly sins
the most recent issue of Twilight Time had an article entitled Seven Deadly Sins of Character Motivation (part 1/2) the basic idea is that NPC (or PC) motivation…
In RPG Theory
Participants: kwill, Laurel.

10/30/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: possible future trends?
I debated with myself about whether to post this here or not. I already posted it on RPGnet's forums here. Basically, I foresee games that allow other players to sustain…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Bankuei.

10/26/2001 Bankuei: Game Goals
Inherent to every game is some sort of goal or goals. They may not all be necessary, or may be equally important, but the goals often dictate how the game…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Bankuei, contracycle, Le Joueur, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Jared A. Sorensen, Marco, Daredevil.

10/25/2001 jburneko: Rule Sets
Hello All, So, I've been thinking about rule sets and complexity. Most people talk about systems being either rules-light or rules-heavy which ultimately isn't very useful because we can go…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Mithras, Don Lag, Ron Edwards, Valamir, Mike Holmes.

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In RPG Theory

11/28/2001 Laurel: Romance, Happiness, and Expectation
(building off of Valid Premises thread) Taking as a premise the validity of Gareth's statement "{Romance} has become the default filler of nearly anything made for TV.... as a way…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Laurel, mahoux, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes.

12/6/2001 Firbog: Meta-plots, Railroading and Settings
Since I am new to this forum, and not sure if these have been discussed in the way I am bout to ask questions, I hope that you all will…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Firbog, Matt, Tor Erickson, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, jburneko, Manu, Ben Morgan.

12/8/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: "Hmm, a thread about magic stuff would be cool,"
[quote] Ron Edwards wrote: "Hmm, a thread about magic stuff would be cool," [/quote] Seems like a good idea to me. The previous Three you never see thread got on…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Marco, hardcoremoose, mahoux, contracycle, Ranko, James V. West.

12/10/2001 jburneko: Narrativist Missions
Hello All, I've had one of those weekends where I had a lot of ideas that generated nothing but questions. Some of these ideas and questions are a bit unfocused…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, gentrification, xiombarg, contracycle, Paul Czege, Le Joueur, Marco, Daredevil.

12/16/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: What is an RPG supposed to be?
This is a question, and various answers that I've run into when talking RPG w/ people. Invariably I run into a wall of "an RPG is supposed to be (blank)."…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Armin D. Sykes, Marco, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Mario, Laurel.

12/17/2001 greyorm: It Never Fails
So, I've been a movie-watching buff lately. I've sucked down more special-effects-ridden media than I have in years. Other than coming to the realization that all of John Carpenter's movies…
In RPG Theory
Participants: greyorm, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege, Mike Holmes, contracycle, gentrification, Bankuei, hardcoremoose.

12/20/2001 Joe Murphy (Broin): Fortune in the Middle vs Stunt Rewards
Assuming one is using the Fortune in the Middle approach, is there any way to then offer PCs rewards for well-described actions? In Exalted and Feng Shui, well-described actions get…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Joe Murphy (Broin), Tor Erickson, hardcoremoose, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, Laurel, Zak Arntson, Blake Hutchins, Gordon C. Landis, Paul Czege, Clinton R. Nixon, Garbanzo.

12/21/2001 Paul Czege: when the game played isn't the game in print
On the "Gamism In Action or Why I Hate Arts and Crafts" thread in Actual Play, EpochMike wrote: You can also borrow the "And, two years later" technique. It…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paul Czege, hardcoremoose, contracycle, gentrification, joshua neff, Mike Holmes, unodiablo, Marco, Skippy.

12/24/2001 Paul Czege: more than mechanics alone
Hey everyone, Recently, Scott Knipe sent me to RPG.net to see a thread entitled "Top 5 Free Rpg's" on which GB Steve made some very nice comments about A…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paul Czege, Jared A. Sorensen.

12/26/2001 Jack Spencer Jr: Displacement
[quote] dis plas' ment, [i]n.[/i] 6. in psychiatry, the transference of an emotion to a logically inappropriate object. [/quote] This is a little something that's been gnawing away at me…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Marco, Ron Edwards, Skippy, joshua neff, Paul Czege, Mike Holmes.

12/27/2001 Bankuei: Suspense in mechanics
I was thinking about game design after playing one of my favorite party/not quite board games…Jenga. For those of you unfamiliar with it, you take a stack of wooden blocks…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Bankuei, Mike Holmes, unodiablo, Ron Edwards, Clinton R. Nixon, Laurel, contracycle, Mytholder, Epoch, Garbanzo, Osric, Le Joueur, Paul Czege, joshua neff, Ian O'Rourke, woodelf.

12/28/2001 James V. West: The Fantasy Role-Playing Gamer's Bible
Ok, anyone familiar with this book? Its written by Sean Patrick Fannon, pubished in 1996 by Prima Publishing. THE FANTASY ROLE-PLAYING GAMER'S BIBLE. I bring this up because I bought…
In RPG Theory
Participants: James V. West, Ron Edwards, jburneko, Jack Spencer Jr, greyorm.

12/28/2001 Joe Murphy (Broin): Three-way Plotting in AvP2 (long)
I *think* this is the best forum for this observation. This post will have some spoilers for the AvP2 game. A dear friend gave me a copy of 'Aliens vs…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Joe Murphy (Broin), Mike Holmes, Paul Czege, Bankuei, Epoch.

12/28/2001 Paul Czege: on making the same character over and over
Hey, On the A Connecticut Narrativist in King Arthur's Simulation thread in GNS Model Discussion, Skippy wrote: I have a current player who always plays a mage. ALWAYS....Kelly…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paul Czege, Laurel, Clinton R. Nixon, Mike Holmes, Skippy, Ryan Ary, hardcoremoose, Ron Edwards, contracycle, Joe Murphy (Broin), Uncle Dark, Osric, Logan.

12/29/2001 hardcoremoose: Drawing from Experience
This is a companion to the Historical Inaccuracy thread, in the Game Design Forum above. Research is nify, but what about real life experience? Don't novelists always say "write what…
In RPG Theory
Participants: hardcoremoose, Skippy, Ron Edwards, James V. West, Mike Holmes, Osric.

12/29/2001 hardcoremoose: The Road Goes Ever On...
Hey guys, I'm sure everyone's aware of the phenomenon in which a random gathering of casual gamers occurs, and with little to no planning, they decide to play a game.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: hardcoremoose, James V. West, Joe Murphy (Broin), Jared A. Sorensen, Laurel, Ron Edwards.

12/29/2001 Paganini: Outcomes as Plot Devices
I just read Raven's thread on cinematic results where failure results in a success plus a complication. I agree that *always* succeeding removes real tension from the game. No matter…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paganini.

12/30/2001 contracycle: using R-maps
Hey, I just had a thought about a way to possibly use relationship maps. I'm sitting here with a copy of the L5R GM's survival guide, which includes a breakdown…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, Ben Morgan, Ron Edwards, Gordon C. Landis.

1/3/2002 contracycle: Using Kickers & Bangs
Question: do kickers strinctlyn have to occor BEFORE PLAY BEGINS? Is the kicker necessarily the fist instance of play? I would say not. Working on an experimental scenario, I was…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, Paul Czege, jburneko, Ron Edwards, Ben Morgan, hardcoremoose, Mike Holmes, Daredevil.

1/4/2002 furashgf: Cut-Scenes and Narritivist Technique Inventory
There's a good amount of material on starting up a narritivist centered game on the site and, for example, in Ron's book on starting a narritivist game. SOAP gives you…
In RPG Theory
Participants: furashgf, Ron Edwards.

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