Voros
Doomed Investigator
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2017
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I'm starting a new thread from our rather derailed RPG Lexicon thread as a place to post on my occasional readings on role-playing game 'theory.'
I may slowly repost some of the links and readings from that other thread so it is all in one place (hopefully) minus the derailing and bickering. I thought that there was some good ideas and discussion (especially TristramEvans amusing but insightful diagrams of player types and stances) there before things went south. By posting here in Design and Development we may get fewer responses (if any) but perhaps they will be more constructive.
My goal is to look beyond the tired Three-Fold-Model/GNS knife fight and other distractions, so if you want to discuss how much you hate Forgites or how D&D is neo-colonial please take it to another thread.
In pursuit of fresh ideas I've been reading broader game theory, including video game and larp theory. As rpgs are really a strange hybrid form, growing out of wargames and political/psychological role-playing, it only makes sense to approach them from a variety of angles. Larp theories strength to me from my reading is that it seems less prescriptive and taxonomic than what has passed as 'rpg theory' (i.e. it isn't thinly disguised ax grinding about 'inferior' and 'superior' forms of play).
Also it draws on a wide range of other fields that overlap with rpgs in fruitful ways: sociology, psychology, theatre. Larp also naturally focuses on the role-playing aspects of rpgs in a way that is rare because it seems to me that many are still embarrassed discussing that important but actually little discussed aspect of the form.
Speaking of which, the impetus for this thread was this piece on Role-playing, theatre and improvisation by Sara Lynne Bowman. I think she does a good job of summarizing some of the relevant ideas from Johnstone's Impro in relation to rpgs and manages to discuss the much abused term immersion in a productive way.
I read parts of Impro when I was in school but picked it back up as an ebook and plan on a reread sometime soon.
I may slowly repost some of the links and readings from that other thread so it is all in one place (hopefully) minus the derailing and bickering. I thought that there was some good ideas and discussion (especially TristramEvans amusing but insightful diagrams of player types and stances) there before things went south. By posting here in Design and Development we may get fewer responses (if any) but perhaps they will be more constructive.
My goal is to look beyond the tired Three-Fold-Model/GNS knife fight and other distractions, so if you want to discuss how much you hate Forgites or how D&D is neo-colonial please take it to another thread.
In pursuit of fresh ideas I've been reading broader game theory, including video game and larp theory. As rpgs are really a strange hybrid form, growing out of wargames and political/psychological role-playing, it only makes sense to approach them from a variety of angles. Larp theories strength to me from my reading is that it seems less prescriptive and taxonomic than what has passed as 'rpg theory' (i.e. it isn't thinly disguised ax grinding about 'inferior' and 'superior' forms of play).
Also it draws on a wide range of other fields that overlap with rpgs in fruitful ways: sociology, psychology, theatre. Larp also naturally focuses on the role-playing aspects of rpgs in a way that is rare because it seems to me that many are still embarrassed discussing that important but actually little discussed aspect of the form.
Speaking of which, the impetus for this thread was this piece on Role-playing, theatre and improvisation by Sara Lynne Bowman. I think she does a good job of summarizing some of the relevant ideas from Johnstone's Impro in relation to rpgs and manages to discuss the much abused term immersion in a productive way.
I read parts of Impro when I was in school but picked it back up as an ebook and plan on a reread sometime soon.
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