In reading several threads about Bangs, I've noticed that people throw out ideas for them that are pretty independent of any specific group or game. I, personally, would find a long list of Bang ideas very useful. I could have a couple of sheets with this list printed out with me during a session and if I'm having brain cramps and just can't seem to come up with an interesting thing off the top of my head, I just look down and "BANG!" there's a Bang. Perhaps someone has already done this? If not, I'd love for this thread to be a list of Bang ideas that someone could just print off and use during an actual gaming session...

I'll make some contributions myself when I get home from work tonight (newborn permitting).

Hi Andrew,

A general list isn't possible because of what a bang is.

Here's the definition of a bang, from the glossary of Ron's essay on:Narrativism:

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Bangs

Introducing events into the game which make a thematically-significant or at least evocative choice necessary for a player. The term is taken from the rules of Sorcerer.
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First, just a note: the term is specific to narrativist play. It doesn't have importance in S or G play. So it's not useful in all forms of role-playing.

Second, the "themetically-significant" part must come from whatever theme has developed in a particular series of game sessions. Bangs are specific to the PCs, setting, and sittuation that you want to produce them for. Because they are specific to the content of the shared fantasy, a general list won't have a lot of usefulness.

On the other hand, a list of rules or tips on how to create bangs would interest me greatly. Could we go for that?

Alan,

I'm not sure I agree with you that a general list couldn't be compiled; although, I would like to see some tips on how the create them too. For example, here's a Bang (at least as I understand the term).

Bob the PC's best buddy finds him and tells him, "Man, I just confronted the guy who is cheating with my wife and we got into with each other. I killed him! I didn't mean for him to hit his head when he fell. You gotta help me cover it up!"

This is a Bang and it's almost completely generic. I can't really think of a game I've ever played in that this couldn't have been dropped in without much alteration. It works in Fantasy, Sci Fi, Modern, etc. It works as long as the PC has a good friend in his backstory or has established one through playing.

Andrew

Yup, that's a good bang... if it ties into one of the themes of the game. If the game is about 'what will you do for your friends?', or 'what is worth breaking the law' or even 'do you know who your friends are?' then this is a good bang.

If the game is about 'what will you sacrifice for power?' or 'what is worth dying for?' or 'at what cost, the Earth?' it will feel out of step. Still important to the PC, still a hard choice, and it still tells us about the character, but it feels out of step, like a jazz solo in a blues jam.

Does that help? That's where I think the "thematically-significant" part of Ron's definition comes in.

James

I think I'm considering more of the "evocative choice" part of the definition. I've rarely played in a game where the Theme or Premise was the major consideration. Sure, theme and premise sometimes came up but it wasn't the driving factor. Given that, any situation that the GM plopped down that was an "evocative choice" added to the game. Perhaps I'm misusing the term "Bang" but from looking around the forums, I don't feel like I've departed from the way I see others using it. I will say that I didn't know that it was a strictly Narrativist tool.

I don't want to be argumentative, but I do want to defend terminology against being diluted. That's why I posted the definition. "Bang" does have a specific meaning within Creative Agenda theory. And the "thematically-significant" element is the key part. If that is not present, it is not a bang.

Now if you want to invite a list of provocative events that don't require thematic significance, please do, but I would ask that you not call them bangs. I'd like to see that term retain its significance.

Techniques do not map 1:1 with Creative Agendas; I'd wait on the author of the term for confirmation, but I'd suggest that Bangs aren't only a Narrativist tool (a Simulationist Bang would have an obvious answer, that which confirms the theme?)

also, a Narrativist game doesn't have to have a single Premise, but *some* sort of focus is needed for a list o' Bangs, frex, "it's a cop game"

the only rule I've come up with for making Bangs is "in-your-face choice", as a newbie to the technique if others have guidelines to share, I'd also be interested

Right. A Bang (in the Sorcerer sense) might be thematically appropriate, but a little-b bang is basically just something that throws the character into action. The latter is generally applicable. (To be honest, I'm not sure how important the distinction is. In a Narrativist game, almost anything you do is intended to address the premise in some fashion.)

here's some little-b bangs off the top of my head -- some doubtlessly reused from elsewhere.

- Phone call in the middle of the night. "I'm pregnant."
- You found a briefcase full of money in a taxi last night.
- That guy you killed on a stormy night twelve years ago was just on the local news.
- "We have the photos. You'd better empty out your piggybank."
- People start asking you what you were doing in Chicago last month. You've never been to Chicago.
- On the way home from a business trip, the gas main in your apartment blows and your IKEA furniture is a flaming wreck on the sidewalk.

Some of these might be a little loose, since the idea of a bang is that you have to do something, anything, right away. I'm just trying to demonstrate that they're everywhere, and the hard part is choosing which one out of your bandolier fits at the right time.

Alan wrote: Bangs

Introducing events into the game which make a thematically-significant or at least evocative choice necessary for a player. The term is taken from the rules of Sorcerer.

kwill wrote: I'd wait on the author of the term for confirmation

Hi Andrew,

I cross posted with you.

Bangs: "Introducing events into the game which make a thematically-significant or at least evocative choice necessary for a player."

I think there's little doubt this means evocative of Premise. I think the case for this is obvious and very strong.

Once again, I ask that you find a different term for an inciting event that does not require thematically-significant choice. How about my suggestions?

If you say no, I'll leave your thread alone and take my objections to a new one if I have more to say.

Gaerik wrote: I think I'm considering more of the "evocative choice" part of the definition. I've rarely played in a game where the Theme or Premise was the major consideration. Sure, theme and premise sometimes came up but it wasn't the driving factor. Given that, any situation that the GM plopped down that was an "evocative choice" added to the game. Perhaps I'm misusing the term "Bang" but from looking around the forums, I don't feel like I've departed from the way I see others using it. I will say that I didn't know that it was a strictly Narrativist tool.

Gentlefolk:

I think, given the amount of honest disagreement among intelligent people even when the definition is posted here, and given that the author of Sorcerer posts, we do need the author to put another two cents in. One of the first questions I had been planning to ask was precisely what constituted a bang. I was 100% sure I knew what an r-map was, and 100% incorrect.

Ron:

Is it part of the definition that a bang must address a theme?
Is a bang specific to narrativist gaming?
Are we making any assumptions that don't fit what a bang is?

-Lisa

Lisa, et.al.
FYI Andrew started a new thread to which Ron has responded.

I've posted my theory of bangs in GNS Theory:

Bangs, Crises, and Inciting Events

Alan wrote: I've posted my theory of bangs in GNS Theory:

Bangs, Crises, and Inciting Events

Thanks to everyone for input. I'll go ahead and declare this thread dead since we've moved the discussion to other threads anyway.