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Dead Theory Necromancy

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I. Introduction GNS theory is dead, but this post on the history of the Forge contains an interesting tidbit: As originally conceived, the rec.games.frp.advocacy threefold was based on the traditional RPG division of responsibilities between players and referees, and was proposed as a means of examining specific decisions on the part of a referee. It recognised three distinct criteria which a referee could use to make a call one way or another: Gamism , whereby the referee makes the call which they consider makes for the best gaming challenge for the players, Dramatism , whereby the referee makes the call which they consider makes for the best dramatic story, and Simulationism , whereby the referee tries to avoid metaplot considerations and come up with the ruling which makes logical sense based on the IC assumptions of the game world. An important point of the original model is that it assumed that people are not, by and large, consistent on this point; sometimes they’d favour syste
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The Congas System

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This might be the dumbest idea I’ve ever had. Are you tired of three-to-five-letter acronyms such as “TTRPG,” “FKR,” and “PbtA” that are cumbersome to say out loud and convey little to no information about what they actually mean? Say hello to congas!  Congas is a new and fun way to talk about con versation ga mes, or congas for short! A conga is any game where the core mechanic is developing a fictional scenario through conversation. (And yes, before you ask, solo games count too — you’re having a conversation with the prompts the game is giving you!) Congas, as a system of talking about congas, only has three rules: You may only use a single, evocative, plain-language word to describe a genre of congas. Examples : Adventure congas, freeform congas, tactical congas. (Compound words or phrases like “soap opera conga” are permissible if they are sufficiently evocative.) You cannot  elaborate as to what a genre of congas is or means. Your one evocative word is the only means by which you
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Ruins & Rogues vs. Maze Rats

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So after years of trying to design my perfect game, I finally have it in my hands... And what do you know, it turns out it's very similar to Maze Rats . Hell, its name is even made up of synonyms for "Maze" and "Rats." I didn't consciously set out to write a Maze Rats hack. This is just where I ended up. But why did I end up here, and if what I wanted was so similar to Maze Rats, why did I make a new game instead of just playing Maze Rats? I don't see many people talking about the actual rules of Maze Rats, I mostly see them talking about the tables, so this should be an interesting exercise. Similarities Before we analyze differences, let's take a look at what these games have in common. Both games use "control-panel" layout and fit their core rules on a two-page spread. Both games only use six-sided dice. Both games have quick character creation based on rolling PCs randomly. Both games use side initiative: on your side's turn, you ca
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Modeling personality for fiction

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Neurotic, extraverted, open to experience, agreeable, conscientious. What follows is an over-simplified model of human personality based on these influences: This article on a study that identified four basic personality types: role-model, reserved, average, and self-centered. You can click the link for more, but I was attracted to this theory because it seems to be among the only theories that a scientist would call… you know, science. This video  by LocalScriptMan on how the Enneagram is useful for writers if you cut all the B.S. and focus on the core idea that everyone has one of nine fundamental desires. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs … which seems to me to consist of more or less the same desires identified by the Enneagram, just in a different order. This is not intended to be a model of personality for real human beings. Please try not to make one of those viral personality quizzes out of this. The point of this exercise is to help me quickly generate ideas for interesting fiction
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Meltingmoor: Design Preview

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  I. The world is not right. Where once there stood proud kingdoms, there is now nothing but ice and snow. Where once the nobility protected us, now they slaughter us in droves. And more and more, our children are born with parts not altogether human… Meltingmoor is my work-in-progress adventure game about mutant treasure hunters exploring a once-frozen, now-thawing gothic frontier in the aftermath of a failed revolution. I am currently playtesting the core rules and working on additional content such as magic items and GM advice. II. I think I’ve managed to design a combat system that is lighter, faster, and clearer than that of  Into the Odd without sacrificing the random chaos of dice rolls, the players’ ability to make interesting decisions, or the resource-management element of dungeoncrawling. The lightbulb went off when I realized that I don’t need to track hit points for every individual PC. One HP or “Morale” value for the entire party does the job just fine. If it hits 0, one
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Why I love games

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I. We talk about freedom and agency a lot when it comes to games, but what do we really mean by that? Total freedom is boring. If you are the god of this imaginary world, if you can make anything and everything happen, nothing can surprise you. So we impose limits. You exist in this sort of world, you have access these resources, you have these abilities. So far, few would accuse you of impinging upon player freedom. So where is the line? I would posit the line is here: You work for someone else. Or, another character (such as a villain) forces your hand; you have no choice but to respond to their actions. I think when you cross that line, you're playing a different sort of game. Maybe you're more interested in narrative and drama. That's okay! But it's not what  I  love about games. II. Agency and freedom are misnomers, I think. I love games that put the players  in charge ,  in control ,  in command  of a specific character or organization in a specific situation. How
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Why do I keep coming back to the OSR?

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The map of the planes presented in 5E’s core books. I. I’ve written about how I drifted into the OSR before. To quote a previous post , “I was frustrated with what I saw as a low signal-to-noise ratio in D&D 5E's implied setting. In particular, I never much liked that morality was baked into the physics of the world (what with alignment and the Planescape cosmology), and I hated feeling like I had to have a place on my world map for every godd*mn player-race in the book.” In retrospect, I think these surface-level frustrations were symptoms of a deeper conflict between my aesthetic sensibilities and those of modern D&D. (The thing about aesthetic sensibilities is that they’re subconscious, which makes it difficult for artists to understand the real reasons behind their creative decisions. This post is essentially about me making my subconscious process a little more conscious.) II. Part of this comes out of my more recent attempt to prep a game for Quest . I was really exci
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