Weekly Review February 10th to February 16th

This week has seen some less traditional developments in RPG theory, applying new ideas and approaches.

In Situ Character Creation

Jeff Tidball relates the design strategy of creating characters as part of play with the way fiction tends to introduce and reveal characters over time. In particular he suggests this design strategy is underused and could provide more effective entry into the game. Among his points he argues that stories place characters higher than plot, so separating the discovery of each during the game impoverishes the plot.

Unsurprising Play

Over at I would knife fight a man is a discussion on "phatic" play, play or parts of play that serve a comforting or social purpose without presenting surprises. Over the course of the discussion there have been a variety of angles and views present, from relating unsurprising play and the creative agenda to questions of how to design and play specifically "phatically".


Authoring and Teaching

Paul Czege at the Forge describes a way to look at creative agenda in terms of learning and teaching. He describes gamism as learning from competitively successful teachers. He describes simulationism as learning from knowledgeable or experienced teachers. And narrativism as learning from each other by authoring together. He suggests problems can arise when teaching and authoring become conflated by some players.