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In RPG Theory

1/22/2002 Jared A. Sorensen: Time, what is Time?
Okay, the obligatory heavy metal reference is outta the way. How does time factor into RPG design and play? Not like in a Puppetland kinda way...but more of a "what…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jared A. Sorensen, AndyGuest, Joe Murphy (Broin), Zak Arntson.

1/22/2002 Manu: Setting vs. Color
Hey all, I'm a bit confused by this; what exactly is Color, where does setting stops and color starts? Is it a matter of depth of treatment? Any examples of…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Manu, Ron Edwards, james_west, Jared A. Sorensen, Le Joueur.

1/22/2002 Jack Spencer Jr: Elastic Premise
An odd thought occured to me today. I've been trucking on coffee and Starburst hard candies all day, so stay with me. I've been hearing this call for a premise,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Jack Spencer Jr, Garbanzo, A.Neill, contracycle, Ron Edwards.

1/20/2002 Manu: On-screen time as a mechanic
Hey all, Has anyone already toyed with the idea of making the amount of "on screen" time a character gets a metagame characteristic, independent of the character's power level or…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Manu, Joe Murphy (Broin), Tim C Koppang, Ron Edwards.

1/19/2002 Le Joueur: More than Three 'Boxes'
Hi, over in the GNS forum, I mentioned trying to take Simulationism and 'break it out' into more 'boxes.' I am pressed for time so I am going to just…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Le Joueur, Ron Edwards, Logan, jburneko, contracycle, Marco, james_west, Mike Holmes, Gordon C. Landis.

1/18/2002 Gordon C. Landis: Player Illusionism
OK, Logan mentioned (in one of the GNS/Dramatism threads) that Illusionism is usually a GM "tool". I'm putting this here in Theory, even though it involves Actual Play, because it's…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Gordon C. Landis, Ron Edwards, jburneko.

1/16/2002 Bankuei: Purpose of rules
Inspired by the Shared Power thread, I started thinking, in every roleplaying game I've seen(except Rune), the rules were all intended with the idea that the GM is supposed to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Bankuei, hardcoremoose, Ron Edwards, Paganini, Gordon C. Landis, Bailey, joshua neff, John Wick, contracycle, erithromycin, lumpley, James V. West, Paul Czege, Skippy.

1/15/2002 contracycle: Matrix Gaming
Well, I thought that it wasabout time I pushed out another gaming idea I've been tangenmtially working with for a bit. This is the concept of Matrix Games as pioneered…
In RPG Theory
Participants: contracycle, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege, J B Bell.

1/15/2002 Zak Arntson: D/F/K and the Unknown Factor
I've been thinking about mechanics for some time now. I'm trying to come up with a good vocabulary for working out systems in games. This applies only to rpgs with…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Zak Arntson, Bankuei, Garbanzo, Epoch.

1/14/2002 lumpley: Fortune-forward Vs. Fortune-backward
So I've been looking at my games, and others' games, and I've been thinking hard about the old Description-Based vs. Quantified thing, which seems to have lost currency, and about…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Jared A. Sorensen, Paul Czege, Joe Murphy (Broin), Gordon C. Landis, contracycle, Le Joueur, greyorm.

1/11/2002 Joe Murphy (Broin): Character Sheets - Rubbish?
Why are character sheets so ungodly awful? Last year, I had a plan to write a scenario for a games convention. One of the cuter gimmicks for this TransFormers-inspired…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Joe Murphy (Broin), hardcoremoose, contracycle, Mike Holmes, Le Joueur, Ron Edwards.

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.

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.

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.

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.

12/29/2001 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 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.

12/28/2001 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.

12/28/2001 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 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.

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Subsequent Topics
In RPG Theory

1/23/2002 Zak Arntson: Operant Conditioning & RPG System
Okay, my wife has a degree in Psych, so I've got a layman's view of the field. I've often thought about how gambling psychology plays into video games: The most…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Zak Arntson, hardcoremoose, Bankuei, J B Bell, Le Joueur, Laurel, Blake Hutchins, Ron Edwards.

1/24/2002 RobMuadib: Paradigm Shift - The X-Styles - The Truth Is Out There
Morning all, I went to bad last night after reading the Replacing Dramatism thread, and one post in particlar, by Mytholder resonated for me, indeed it spurred a paradigm shift,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: RobMuadib, Mike Holmes.

1/25/2002 RobMuadib: the SGR model - reconciling GDS/GNS (renamed topic).
Hey guys, I revised my document again, which I present for your edification and amusement. Please comment on it. The SGR RPG Theory. ========================================== RPG's are open-ended games in which…
In RPG Theory
Participants: RobMuadib, Valamir, Logan.

1/30/2002 lumpley: Protagonism and Troupe-style play
Hey everybody. First off: Is Protagonism something that a player has, or something that a character has? Next off: Anybody thought about what it might mean to Protagonism to play…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Blake Hutchins, Paul Czege, Bankuei.

2/1/2002 Fabrice G.: Edwardian premises ?
Well i'm a newbie regarding premises. I read a lot about it here on The Forge, but still, it's not that clear to me. This morning i had some ideas…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Fabrice G., Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, Marco.

2/1/2002 jburneko: Is 'Railroading' A Useful Term
Hello All, So, I was having a discussion with one of my players about various play styles and we seem to be constantly bumping heads about the meaning of the…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, J B Bell, Ron Edwards, Le Joueur, furashgf, Marco, xiombarg, amiel, TrizzlWizzl.

2/5/2002 Thededine: The Hell is a 'Kicker'?
Did I miss a newsfile or something? Everyone started talking about Kickers and I have no idea what they are. Help!
In RPG Theory
Participants: Thededine, Jared A. Sorensen, Ron Edwards, Joe Murphy (Broin), Mithras.

2/7/2002 Fabrice G.: Narrativism, player authoring and hooror story
Hi, i plan to do an horror rpg and i have this question: can you have an horror story with a lot of player authoring power ? In my experience,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Fabrice G., Bankuei, J B Bell, Ron Edwards, jburneko, hardcoremoose, amiel, contracycle, lumpley, Paul Czege.

2/7/2002 Marco: Particles of Character Class
This is inspired by a discussion on the Scattershot Forum: Fang described his points in Scattershot as "particles of character class." I sort of disagreed with his definition--an indication to…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Marco, Le Joueur.

2/13/2002 lumpley: Disruptive and/or Stupid IIEE Question
So if roleplaying is like every other shared creative activity I can think of, it's built out of this kind of process: Proposal ] Negotiation, Amendment, Counter-proposal ] Acceptance Like…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Ron Edwards.

2/13/2002 Steve Dustin: In-and-Out of the Box
I've been lurking on these boards for about a week, and have decided to jump in. I don't think I'm quite up-to-speed on the jargon that gets thrown about here…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Steve Dustin, Clinton R. Nixon, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, contracycle, Emily Care.

2/14/2002 Ayrizale: Newbie Question - Relationships - Maps, Modifiers, and Such
Hello, I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question, but I figure that it is as good a place to start as any. I've been…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Ayrizale, Paul Czege, Ron Edwards, Jared A. Sorensen, efindel.

2/14/2002 wyrdlyng: Investigation and Interaction as Role-playing
This crosses over with a post I made at GO inquiring about how to a game which focused primarily on investigation and npc interactions. The short and sweet is how…
In RPG Theory
Participants: wyrdlyng, Ron Edwards, contracycle, Mike Holmes, Mithras, GB Steve.

2/20/2002 lumpley: Currency and Metagame &c vs. a Complete RPG
(There's been talk before about when and whether a game's complete, like Actually Finishing your RPG here.) So I've been designing some games and I've got some questions. I'll…
In RPG Theory
Participants: lumpley, Mike Holmes, contracycle, Ron Edwards, Paul Czege.

2/20/2002 jburneko: Abstract Premises
First off I'm using Premise in the narrow Narrativist Sense. I was thinking about Science Fiction and how it often has rather abstract Premises. One of the things that gets…
In RPG Theory
Participants: jburneko, J B Bell, Ron Edwards, Christopher Kubasik, Seth L. Blumberg, contracycle, joshua neff.

2/21/2002 Joe Murphy (Broin): Narrativism = few stats?
There's a simple subject line for y'all. A game like Sorceror has 4 stats. Donjon Krawl has about half a dozen. Is more than a few stats necessarily a bad…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Joe Murphy (Broin), Mike Holmes, Ron Edwards, Jack Spencer Jr.

2/25/2002 erithromycin: Do unto others...
This was an idea I had, literally moments ago. What if the basis for interaction within a game was your initial interaction with the other party? GM: The room is…
In RPG Theory
Participants: erithromycin, Jared A. Sorensen, Mike Holmes, Valamir.

2/26/2002 Paul Czege: several hundred dollars worth of GM
Hey everyone, Ron's fantastic and complex post in the Sorcerer forum about the zones and categories of a character's interests brings up an interesting side issue. The post reveals…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Paul Czege, Ron Edwards, Mike Holmes, J B Bell, Gordon C. Landis.

2/27/2002 joe_llama: Narrativist Catalyst
There is something I really think all Narrativists should check out. It's an interesting theory of story called Dramatica, freely available at www.dramatica.com . Using my own words will only…
In RPG Theory
Participants: joe_llama, lumpley, Seth L. Blumberg, Blake Hutchins, Valamir, Paul Czege, contracycle.

2/28/2002 Emily Care: Common Sense Guidelines for Group-Concensus Exploration...
Common Sense Guidelines to Group-Consensus Based Exploration of World, Setting, Character, System and Story First, find some folks with whom you are capable of having an enjoyable and productive conversation,…
In RPG Theory
Participants: Emily Care, xiombarg, Ron Edwards, lumpley, jburneko, Paul Czege.

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