Weekly Review May 21st to May 27th

This week has seen a rise in RPG theory discussion and related topics.

A Little More Push and Pull

In response to Vincent Baker's discussion about the relationship between push and pull and where resolution happens, Bradley "Brand" Robins puts down his thoughts on how push and pull work with resolution. Among other things, he talks about how resolution can happen at various different stages where we may not normally associate it. In the chain of Intent, Initiation, Execution, and Effect, he suggests that resolution can happen not only at any step, but at all the steps in the same game. And at each juncture there may be room for push and pull to work, based on the present social situation.

From another direction, Nathan Paoletta relates push and pull with the audience / participant dichotomy. He suggests that the involvement stemming from push and pull may include a change between participant and audience within the game.

Play What You Own?

Vincent Baker, presents a long awaited discussion of character ownership. He states that from the level of system, looking over RPGs as a whole, character ownership is an illusion. Even though it may be a design goal or an intrinsic part of a specific game, it is simply not necessary for a game to be a RPG.

Influencing Play

Thomas Robertson discusses the differences between designing with rules versus guidelines. Rules, he suggests, cause specific behaviors to emerge during play. Guidelines on the other hand help mold the behaviors that do arise into the desired look and feel of play.

Teaching RPGs

Jessica Hammer describes her experiences teaching RPGs in a high school classroom setting. She notes the successes and difficulties. She also asks how games can be designed to make them more accessible and more easily learned in this situation.