Is there a dictionary of indie game design terms or Intro Textbook around anywhere? I'm kind of confused about terms such as "stances" and "illusionist" and would like to get caught up to speed.

Thanks in advance,

alex

Click on the articles link at the top of the page, and read The Provisional Glossary.

thanks,

James

There's also a Design Theory Wiki somewhere, but I'm not sure the URL. John Kim's website is also great for theory stuff.

timfire wrote:
There's also a Design Theory Wiki somewhere, but I'm not sure the URL. John Kim's website is also great for theory stuff.

To make it even easier, The Provisional Glossary.

Thank you!

Hmm.....could somebody give me an example of a dial? What about a dial which moves during play?

That's simple: let's say we have this fantasy adventure game with a "Magic dial". Here's how it goes:

At the beginning of the game the players agree what kind of game they want to play:
High magic: every character has a caster level equal to level/2, with spell lists listed with the character class. Magic items are common.
Low magic: only spellcasting characters have caster levels. Magic items are rare.
No magic: Nobody has spells, but spellcasting characters have Alchemy and Ritual at their caster level. Magic items are one-time only.
Note: the 9th level spell "Break Magic" lowers the Magic dial by one each time it's cast. Should any of the Nine Gates of Hades be opened, the Magic dial is heightened by one due to magic leaking into the world.

So that's a basic invented example of a dial. The game in question is intentionally a banal D&D rip-off, but the principle is sound. Note that the same dial can be moved through play (casting a suitable spell, opening gates to Hades) and pre-play agreement. This dial also has the typical dial phenomenon of changing the rules system somehow depending on the dial position.

Classical examples of dials are in Hero System, octaNe, Trollbabe and D&D, to mention a few. D&D? Yeah, there's a number of options in the Dungeon Master's guide that are far from "optional", like the way training is handled. It's equally reasonable to require training time or to hand-wave it, so that's a classical dial.