Previous Topics

5/14/2003 Jonathan Walton: Nobilis: The League of Extraordinary Americans
So, after seeing the trailer for "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" during one of the early showings of X2, I decided to finally pick up the infamous graphic novel by…
In Actual Play
Participants: Jonathan Walton, clehrich, sdemory.

4/20/2003 Jonathan Walton: Ever-After: Currency & Advancement
Hey folks, Still trying to bang out the final details of my game Ever-After (formerly called Storypunk, formerly called Quixote & Coyote). In this thread, I'd like some specific help…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Jack Spencer Jr, deadpanbob, Piers Brown, Shreyas Sampat, Valamir, Mike Holmes.

4/18/2003 Jonathan Walton: John Harper's "Universe Alice"
Hot damn! Give that man Ron's money! :) Tell me that he's got larger version at 300dpi that you guys could use as a wraparound cover for the Second Edition.…
In Universalis
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Jared A. Sorensen, Mike Holmes, greyorm, Bob McNamee, C. Edwards, John Harper, Valamir, Bankuei.

4/16/2003 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk: Specific Help with Icons?
In the spirit of the recent discussion of the Indie Design forum, I'm bringing my design of Storypunk back to these boards, after keeping it off the forums for a…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, talysman, C. Edwards, anonymouse, Shreyas Sampat, deadpanbob, Valamir, Thomas Tamblyn, SrGrvsaLot, Ron Edwards, Spooky Fanboy, Mike Holmes.

4/11/2003 Jonathan Walton: Vespertine: Little Fears II??
Hey folks, It was cool to read Slant's last thread on older kids in Little Fears, because that's exactly what I wrote about as part of the 24 Hour Game…
In Key 20 Publishing
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Jason L Blair, Spooky Fanboy, Little_Rat.

4/8/2003 Jonathan Walton: Mythmakers: A Game for Talysman
So John Laviolette (aka Talysman the Ur-Beatle), Shreyas Sampat, and I have this deal going from one of the Forge Birthday Forum Threads. Shreyas is going to do a game…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, anonymouse, Spooky Fanboy, deadpanbob, talysman, Shreyas Sampat.

4/1/2003 Jonathan Walton: Microfiction-Style Roleplaying
Hopefully, most of you are familiar with the relatively recent writing form known as "microfiction." I don't mean the stuff that's just really brief short stories, but the stuff that's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Jack Spencer Jr, Stuart DJ Purdie, szilard, Bob McNamee, ScottM, talysman, Mike Holmes, Paganini, Ron Edwards, ThreeGee.

3/29/2003 Jonathan Walton: In Search of a Metagame
So, mechanically, Storypunk is almost finished (though some playtesting still needs to happen, and then I have to sit down and write the damn thing), and I was discussing a…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Jack Spencer Jr, Spooky Fanboy, szilard, RobMuadib, deadpanbob.

3/29/2003 Jonathan Walton: Narratology & Roleplaying
I was in the college library doing some research for Storypunk when I stumbled across the academic discipline of narratology. I suppose I was vaguely aware that it existed, but…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Johannes, Clinton R. Nixon.

3/26/2003 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk: Character Sheet & Advancement
Check out the new Storypunk character sheet: http://1001.indie-rpgs.com/sp.pdf Characters are quantified in 3 ways: 1. Name 2. Themes 3. Permanent Themes & Duties ("I am...") Name goes on the far…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton.

3/16/2003 Jonathan Walton: Binding in Non-Standard Locations
This may be a question I should send to specific printers, but I was wondering if any of you folks who are experienced in printing could help me out here.…
In Publishing
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Mark Johnson, Chris Passeno, Piratecat, Adam, JonAcheson.

3/12/2003 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk Playtest: Dark Fairy Tales
Hey, My recent Con playtest of Storypunk is described on the following thread in the Indie Design Forum, since I want people to comment about how I could use this…
In Actual Play
Participants: Jonathan Walton.

3/9/2003 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk: The Whole Shebang?
Okay, I think I'm finally moving towards pulling all this together into one cohesive form. If you want to look at the steps leading up to this (where Storypunk's been…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes, Shreyas Sampat, Mark Johnson.

2/28/2003 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk: The Universalis Mod Version
I was working on getting Storypunk ready for the playtest I'm running in two weeks (at a local Con), when I decided I need some kind of currency for handling…
In Universalis
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes, Shreyas Sampat.

2/21/2003 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk and Transparency
So I was writing the introductory "What is a Roleplaying Game?" section of Storypunk in my head today. It started out by talking about different types of social contracts: those…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Ron Edwards.

2/20/2003 Jonathan Walton: Initial Thoughts on Paladin
Hey Clinton et all, Just bought Paladin a couple days ago, planning to use it to run an Engel game at an upcoming con. Anyway, I absolutely love the concepts…
In CRN Games
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Clinton R. Nixon, iago, Paul Czege, Ben Morgan.

2/9/2003 Jonathan Walton: New Forge Apparel
Hey Clinton, As much as I like the original designs, is it going to be possible to get Forge gear with the new logo on it? I like the mug…
In Site Discussion
Participants: Jonathan Walton.

2/9/2003 Jonathan Walton: Storypunk - Reviving the One Party System
This is a attempt at distilling a long-running project that started out as something called "Quixote & Coyote" and ended up as something called "Storypunk." The original threads are linked…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, ADGBoss, Spooky Fanboy.

1/19/2003 Jonathan Walton: The GM is Dead: Scripted Roleplaying
Okay, I'm going to try to come at this concept from a completely new direction. The plan is to make a game that combines Clue, Diplomacy, traditional roleplaying, freeform improvization,…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, jllama, ADGBoss, RN3G8 4E.

1/3/2003 Jonathan Walton: Vespertine: Sin & Teenagers
Originally, this game concept was called "Vesperteen," a pun on the word "vespertine" (meaning "having to do with night"). However, I soon discovered that very few people were familiar with…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, szilard, Paul Czege, ethan_greer, Andrew Martin, Drew Stevens, talysman, Shreyas Sampat.

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Subsequent Topics

5/24/2003 Jonathan Walton: Player-Character Distinctions
Wanted to bring this up, since many people seem to have very strong feelings about this subject that are baffling to me. Some comments were made recently that brought this…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, clehrich, Alan, Jeffrey Miller, jdagna, Jack Spencer Jr, M. J. Young, Reprisal, Kester Pelagius, Mike Holmes, Thierry Michel, Jack Aidley, simon_hibbs.

7/16/2003 Jonathan Walton: Cool & Clever?
[quote="On the Nobilis List, R. Sean Borgstrom"]Why do the rules exist? Today I think it is "to get the players to feel cool and clever on a regular basis."[/quote] Wow.…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Christopher Kubasik, contracycle, WDFlores, Alan, pete_darby, Shreyas Sampat, Jared A. Sorensen, adaen, Ben Lehman, Marco, Jeffrey Miller, SFEley, Ian Charvill.

7/27/2003 Jonathan Walton: Ever-After: Back on the Front Burner
Been working on the playtest version of Argonauts, but Ever-After keeps jumping to my frontal lobes and demanding attention. If you want info on the project's development so far check…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, permacultureguerilla, Mike Holmes, Shreyas Sampat, MathiasJack.

8/9/2003 Jonathan Walton: New Logo (suggestions welcome)
This is the kind of thing I would put in my own forum if I had one. But I don't. Yet. http://www.godmachine.org/1002.jpg This came to me a couple days ago.…
In Publishing
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Matt Snyder, C. Edwards, Shreyas Sampat, ethan_greer, Lxndr, Jack Spencer Jr, iago, Paul Czege.

8/15/2003 Jonathan Walton: The Limits of Roleplaying: Solitaire
Reflecting on a bunch of the stuff that was brought up in this thread, I was especially drawn to the idea that roleplaying necessarily involved "shared imaginative space." This goes…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, M. J. Young, Mark Johnson, ejh, Tim Alexander, Jack Spencer Jr, simon_hibbs, RARodger, Noon.

8/22/2003 Jonathan Walton: Engel Arkana Rules in English!
You heard right! http://www.feder-galerie.de/Extras/ArkanaRulesUS.zip I'm not sure whether Feder & Schwert actually counts as an indie company, but everything seems to be controlled by Oliver & Oliver (though they hire…
In Publishing
Participants: Jonathan Walton.

8/25/2003 Jonathan Walton: Vesperteen Development
As I'm working on Vesperteen (my Little Fears sequel) off-and-on, I decided to start a new thread where I can post updates and get feedback. Hopefully Jason won't mind me…
In Key 20 Publishing
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Little_Rat, Neylana.

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.

9/16/2003 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.

9/26/2003 Jonathan Walton: Defining Roleplaying (According to GNS)
With Ron's recent statements in the Clarifying Simulationism thread, I actually think we're damn close to defining roleplaying, at least according to GNS and the general theory precepts that most…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Valamir, Ron Edwards, AnyaTheBlue, Gordon C. Landis, pete_darby, M. J. Young, lumpley.

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.

9/30/2003 Jonathan Walton: [Ever-After] Gets a Facelift
It was after reading through Michael S. Millar's new game, "Discernment," which shares many similarities with Ever-After, that I brought the game off the back-burner and began to stir it…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Michael S. Miller, Mike Holmes, Simon W.

10/9/2003 Jonathan Walton: [Ever-After/Facedance] a PDF of the basics
Ever-After finally has a full system description. Possibly a new name as well, since I'm trying out "Facedance" as a more accurate description of the current version. For those unfamiliar…
In Indie Game Design
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Mike Holmes.

10/15/2003 Jonathan Walton: Needed: "What is Roleplaying?" Quotes
Hey folks, I'm thinking of writing a new column for PRGnet called "What is Roleplaying?" that examines what we do from a variety of viewpoints (social, aesthetic, philosophical, historical, etc).…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, John Kim, AnyaTheBlue, Tomas HVM, redivider, M. J. Young.

10/29/2003 Jonathan Walton: Sports RPGs: A Match Made in Heaven?
[quote="Marco"]So yeah, a good fantasy ("mmm...rich sports hero") doesn't necessiarily make for a good troop-style game.[/quote] I beg to differ. This has been on my mind for years now. Roleplaying…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, quozl, Lxndr, Marco, Matt Snyder, Mike Holmes, Valamir, Comte, Jack Spencer Jr, Dev, Ben Lehman, Andrew Norris, Michael S. Miller.

11/17/2003 Jonathan Walton: But a Model of What?
It's the new game that's thrilling millions! "De-Contextualize the (GNS) Model!" Starting with Ron's model for the social interactions that produce roleplaying, recently clarified in this thread, agile minds attempt…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Christopher Kubasik, Paganini, Andrew Martin, Tomas HVM, Ron Edwards, Matt Snyder, The GM, pete_darby, Valamir, Mike Holmes, Ben Lehman, contracycle, M. J. Young.

12/7/2003 Jonathan Walton: Creative Agenda only retroactive?
Hey guys, Need a clarification for this paper on aesthetic theory in roleplaying. Creative Agenda is something that can only be retrospectively said to exist, correct? Isn't that part of…
In GNS Model Discussion
Participants: Jonathan Walton, Mark Johnson, Silmenume, Alan, Christopher Kubasik, Ron Edwards, John Kim, M. J. Young, Andrew Martin, Eero Tuovinen.

1/24/2004 Jonathan Walton: "Bounded" Roleplaying
This is split off from: Towards Mythic Storytelling and Mythic Role-play. The topic is: -- restricting player choice as a way of supporting an aesthetic -- formal, required structural elements…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, neelk, gobi, ks13, C. Edwards, M. J. Young, clehrich, Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Harlequin, Doctor Xero.

1/25/2004 Jonathan Walton: My New RPGnet Column
Hey folks, Just wanted to plug my new RPGnet column, which is pretty heavily theory-based. There was this misunderstanding earlier where draft versions of my articles got published over the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jonathan Walton, clehrich, Umberhulk, neelk, pete_darby, Doctor Xero, Jack Spencer Jr.

1/26/2004 Jonathan Walton: OberCon 2004 (Feb 27-29: Oberlin, Ohio)
Hey Forge-heads, The local gaming club here, along with great support from the college, is sponsoring our second annual OberCon, here in Oberlin, OH (about 20 minutes from Cleveland). Some…
In Conventions
Participants: Jonathan Walton.

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