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Role-playing Game Theory
Role-playing game theory is the study of role-playing games (RPGs) as a social or artistic phenomenon, also known as ludology. RPG theories seek to understand what role-playing games are, how they function, and how the gaming process can be refined in order to improve the play experience and produce better game products. Notable theories about tabletop role-playing games include the Threefold model and GNS theory, which developed in conversation with the indie role-playing game forum The Forge in the early 2000s. Notable theories about live action role-playing games include the Meilahti School, the Turku School, and Emancipatory Bleed, which developed in conversation with the Knutepunkt convention in Scandenavia. Role-playing games Role-playing games are games in which players assume the role of characters in a fictional setting. Role playing games come in various types and categories: ; Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) : Players describe their characters' actions through ...
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Role-playing Game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal role-playing game system, system of rules and guidelines. There are several forms of role-playing games. The original form, sometimes called the tabletop role-playing game (TRPG or TTRPG), is conducted through discussion, whereas in live action role-playing game, live action role-playing (LARP), players physically perform their characters' actions.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique features: (a) The players physically embody their characters, and (b) the g ...
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The Gathering
The Gathering may refer to: Film and television * ''The Gathering'' (1977 film), an American television film directed by Randal Kleiser * The Gathering (1998 film), an American thriller film directed by Danny Carrales * ''The Gathering'' (2003 film), a British thriller/horror film directed by Brian Gilbert * ''The Gathering'' (miniseries), a 2007 American thriller starring Peter Fonda * ''The Gathering'' (audio drama), a 2006 audio drama based on the television programme ''Doctor Who'' * The Gathering, a contest among immortals in the Highlander franchise * '' Babylon 5: The Gathering'', the 1993 pilot movie for ''Babylon 5'' TV episodes * "The Gathering" (''Gargoyles'') * "The Gathering" (''Ghost Whisperer'') * "The Gathering" (''Highlander: The Series''), pilot * "The Gathering" (''Outlander'') * "The Gathering" (''Star Wars: The Clone Wars'') * "The Gathering" (''Torchwood'') Literature * ''The Gathering'' (Armstrong novel), a 2011 novel by Kelley Armstrong * ...
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Gamemaster
A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, storyteller, or master of ceremonies) is a person who acts as a facilitator, organizer, officiant regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. The act performed by a gamemaster is sometimes referred to as "gamemastering" or simply "GM-ing." The role of a GM in a traditional tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) is to weave together the other participants' player-character, player-characters' (PCs) stories, control the Non-player character, non-player characters (NPCs), describe or create environments in which the PCs can interact, and solve any player disputes. This basic role is the same in almost all traditional TTRPGs, with minor differences specific to differing rule sets. However, in some Indie role-playing game, indie role-playing games, the GM role significantly differs from the traditional pattern. For example, in Powered by the Apocalypse systems, the othe ...
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Threefold Model
The threefold model or GDS theory of roleplaying games is an attempt to distinguish three different goals in roleplaying. In its original formation, these are: Drama, simulation, and game. It was the inspiration for subsequent theories, such as the GNS theory, which retained a three-way division but altered other aspects of the model. The model In its most formal sense, the threefold model claims that any single gamemaster (GM) decision (about the resolution of in-game events) can be made in order to further the goals of drama, simulation, or game. By extension, a series of decisions may be described as tending towards one or two of the three goals, to a greater or lesser extent. This can be visualised as an equilateral triangle, with a goal at each vertex, and the points between them representing different weightings of the different goals. As a consequence, a player or GM can characterise their preferred gaming style as a point on this triangle, or (since no real precision i ...
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GNS Theory
GNS theory is an informal field of study developed by Ron Edwards which attempts to create a unified theory of how role-playing games work. Focused on player behavior, in GNS theory participants in role-playing games organize their interactions around three categories of engagement: Gamism, Narrativism and Simulation. The theory focuses on player interaction rather than statistics, encompassing game design beyond role-playing games. Analysis centers on how player behavior fits the above parameters of engagement and how these preferences shape the content and direction of a game. GNS theory is used by game designers to dissect the elements which attract players to certain types of games. History GNS theory was inspired by the threefold model idea, from discussions on the rec.games.frp.advocacy group on Usenet in summer 1997. The Threefold Model defined drama, simulation and game as three paradigms of role-playing. The name "Threefold Model" was coined in a 1997 post by Mary Kuhner ...
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Ron Edwards (game Designer)
Ronald Edwards (born September 4, 1964) is a game designer involved in the indie role-playing game (RPG) community, and a game theorist. He created the ''Sorcerer'' role-playing game, the GNS theory of gameplay, and The Big Model. Edwards is also co-founder of The Forge, an online community to support indie RPG design and publication. Early role-playing Ron Edwards first started playing RPGs in 1978 when he was 14, starting with ''Dungeons & Dragons'', which had been published four years earlier. He also tried other RPGs such as ''Tunnels & Trolls'', ''Runequest'', and his early favorite, ''The Fantasy Trip''. Through high school and university, he continued to play RPGs, and entered an experimental phase in the 1980s and 1990s, playing as many as 200 different RPGs, including '' Champions'', '' Stormbringer'', ''GURPS'', ''Rolemaster'', ''Cyberpunk 2020'', '' Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game'' and '' Over the Edge''. Career Game design While Edwards was a graduate student an ...
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The Forge (RPG Website)
An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published by individuals or small press publishers, in contrast to games published by large corporations. Indie tabletop role-playing game designers participate in various game distribution networks, development communities, and gaming conventions, both in person and online. Indie game designer committees grant annual awards for excellence. In the early 2000s, indie role-playing discussion forums such as The Forge developed innovative design patterns and theories. In 2010, the game Apocalypse World established the popular design framework Powered by the Apocalypse, inspiring hundreds of similar games. Starting in the early 2010s, indie game publishing provided new opportunities for LGBTQ writers to share underrepresented stories. Common examples of indie role-playing games include Apocalypse World and the Powered by the Apocalypse framework, The Quiet Year, Fiasco, Fall of Magic, Blades in the Dark, and Dialect. Definition of ...
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Nordic LARP
Nordic LARP is a style and tradition of live action role-playing games (LARPs) centered in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. New games premiere at the annual Knutepunkt Nordic LARP conference. Gameplay draws upon acting techniques and typically addresses serious and complex historical, political, and/or intellectual themes. For example, ''Just a Little Lovin'' deals with the AIDS pandemic within the LGBTQ community in early 1980s New York City. Games prioritize character development, worldbuilding, and intense emotional experiences, in contrast to American LARP, which prioritizes competition and strategy. Nordic LARP players use the term "bleed" to refer to the experience of continuing to feel emotions from gameplay after the game has ended. Nordic LARP shares similarities with the Chinese style Jubensha. Nordic LARP book ''Nordic LARP'' is the title of a book about the LARP style, edited by Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola. The book won the Diana Jones Award The Diana J ...
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Robin Laws
Robin D. Laws (born October 14, 1964 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist. Career Robin D. Laws has been a professional game designer and an author since the early 1990s. Game designer Robin D. Laws has been playing role-playing games since he was a teenager and has worked as a game designer since the early 1990s. John Nephew of Atlas Games convinced Jonathan Tweet to publish a game which he had been writing about in '' Alarums & Excursions''; Laws corresponded with Tweet about the game in ''A&E'' and when the game was being works on for publication Laws made contributions to the game as well, the result of which was '' Over the Edge'' (1992). Daedalus Games got its start when Laws came to Jose Garcia in 1993 with an idea for a role-playing game based on Hong Kong action cinema; while Garcia liked the idea, his first priority wa ...
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Dave Arneson
David Lance Arneson (; October 1, 1947 – April 7, 2009) was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), ''Dungeons & Dragons'', with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's fundamental early role-playing game (RPG) genre work pioneered now-archetypical devices, such as: cooperative play to develop a storyline instead of individual competitive play to "win"; and adventuring in dungeon, town, and wilderness settings as presented by a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters. Arneson discovered wargaming as a teenager in the 1960s, and he began combining these games with the concept of role-playing. He was a University of Minnesota student when he met Gygax at the Gen Con gaming convention in the late 1960s. In 1971, Arneson created the game and fictional world that became ''Blackmoor (campaign setting), Blackmoor'', writing his own rules and basing the set ...
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