Fair Game
links and stuff
local
Tell Meg
Tell Emily
about Meg
about Emily
our games:
1001 Nights
Shooting the Moon
Breaking the Ice
Photogallery
Photoarchive
Complete Index of Entries
Search for a Post or Comment
RSS Feed: Entries
RSS Feed: Comments
View or Delete your cookie
Newest Posts:
A quick, close read of Dogs
Brainstormer
It is Alive
Scenes from my Zen garden
Transformative Fiction
Newest Comments:
Brand Robins in A quick, close read of Dogs
Emily in A quick, close read of Dogs
Mo in A quick, close read of Dogs
Emily in A quick, close read of Dogs
Brand Robins in A quick, close read of Dogs
Emily in Brainstormer
away
the indie rpgs un-store
Cafe Game Exchange
![[Valid RSS]](images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
R.A. Mosley's RPG Theory Lenses
Designer Games Lens
Arthaus roleplaying Lens
Primetime Adventures Lineup
communities:
The Forge
RPG Talk
Story Games
GameCraft
RPG Net
interviews:
Have Games Will Travel
The Sons of Kryos
Primeval Press
abstracts:
The RPG Theory Review
RPG Theory Wiki
Publishing Roleplaying Games
blogs:
Ben
Brand
Clinton
Joshua A.C.
Joshua B.R.
Julia
Matt S.
Matt W.
Mo
Thomas
Thor
Vincent
group blogs:
The 20' by 20' Room
Attacks of Opportunity
Esoteric Murmurs
Treasure Tables
ritual
Ritual and Gaming/Game Design
Ritual Discourse in Role-Playing Games
The Magic of the Fire Circle
The Fire-ritual: Heaven's Gate
rpg theory Roleplaying Theory Hardcore
John Kim's RPG Theory page
game design and psychology
Intro to Forge Theory #1
Intro to Forge Theory #2
Intro to Forge Theory #3
Intro to Forge Theory #4
Intro to Forge Theory #5
Deep in the Game
freeform
Freeform rp
Jeep-Form play
Swedish Freeform and the Forge
Freeform Role Playing Game Homepage
New Directions in Australian Role Playing Pt. 1
New Directions in Australian Role Playing Pt. 2
2006-08-22
: Finding our games by Meguey
1001 Nights is for sale through my game company, Night Sky Games.
Breaking the Ice and Shooting the Moon are for sale through Emily's game company, Black and Green Games.
2006-02-05
: Initials and Handshake by Emily
Hi there,
Welcome to Fair Game! What's your name and what initials do you use for marginalia comments? Anything else you might like to share?
2006-05-13
: Movie list by Meguey
Here's where I want to jot down movies I want to see. Comments and *short* reviews, no spoliers please, are welcome. Feel free to reccomend movies, too, with your review.
2009-06-17
: A quick, close read of Dogs
posted by Emily
Over on anyway:
Vincent wrote: Contrast Dogs in the Vineyard, where if you don't say in detail what your character does, the other player asks you and waits patiently for you to answer, because she needs to know. She can't decide what to do with her dice without knowing. Dogs in the Vineyard's IIEE has teeth, it's self-enforcing.
I responded: Why does the other player wait? Why can't they ignore what you say?
What about what you narrate dictates different things about what dice they will use?
What happens in the fiction if you mumble through your roll, what happens in the mechanics?
How are all the stages of iiee made integral in Dogs?
This could use a close read.*
Take a moment in Dogs. Brother Ephraim is having his Initiatory scene. He's trying to prove that "his grandpappy taught him to be a good shot".
I'm playing Ephram, Vincent is playing Brother Zeke, the Dog who is testing him. Zeke just tossed a nickel into the air for Ephraim to shoot.
Three parts to a close read:
What the people do
What the mechanics do
What happens in the fiction.
(yes, this should sound familiar, but it's not.)
Because what it really is is:
1) what the people think, do and feel
2) what the mechanics inspire, shape or block in the people's experience
3) and what happens in the fiction because of all that.
Here are the events:
1) Vincent says, "Brother Zeke throws the coin up in the air for Ephraim to shoot."
--he puts forward dice to roll.
I narrate Ephraim remembering his grandfather teaching him how to shoot, feeling the rhythm, watching the motion of the target in the air. I feel hopeful that Ephraim can do this.
--I grab dice including dice for my relationship with my Grandfather.
Vincent thinks about what this narration means for how the conflict will run. He says, "okay, the moment slows and we see the nickel spinning end over end in slow motion. Whatever happens here, happens between the toss and the shot."
Meg and I feel and say. "Way cool!"
--We roll. We narrate more. We continue to roll, raise and see. At the end, Ephraim shoots well.
2) Traits are consulted and involved in the play. The dice get rolled, then pushed forward and so on. The traits "relationship with grandfather", and "grandpappy's rifle" inspire a mini-flashback scene. The action "tosses a nickel" inspires a slo-mo moment of tense anticipation. A new trait is gained.
3) Zeke tosses the nickel, Ephraim remembers his grandpa and shoots it nicely out of the air.
I'm going to keep thinking about my questions for Vincent. And I'm curious to see what he says.
He is doing this too, or analogous things, over at anyway in later threads.
*Thanks to Ep who thought of this, inspired by how folks give fiction close reads!
2009-06-09
: Brainstormer
posted by Emily
Looking for a quick idea for a game or campaign? Spin something up with Andrew Bosley's:
Brainstormer
(link via Story Game's current stuff to watch this month thread)
2009-05-26
: It is Alive
posted by Emily
Time to talk about our blog-fellow today. You may recall Vincent's Hungry, Desperate and Alone. Damned if I can find a link to the thing, though oddly there is a description on RPG.net, and a link to buy it on DriveThruRPG? The internet. What a dusty closet it is.
But there is news! Victor Gijsberg read it way back, and loved it I suppose. Which is cool, the game deserves some love in my book. We played it a couple times--you play vampires in their relationships with their victims. We usually flinch from that, and go for bags of blood in the refridgerator or a slumped body in a dark alley. Oh, except for Twilight. Gah. Let's not go there. But in Hungry Desperate and Alone the desperation that would lead a human to see the Vampire's need as love, the hunger that would pull a bloodsucker into relationship with a human in order to survive, and the isolation that all this engenders are front and center.
Oh, I guess we did kind of go there after all.
Greg Costikyan reviewed the game Victor's come up with since then. I'm glad to see the girl is still kicking.
2009-05-18
: Scenes from my Zen garden
posted by Emily
Well, it's more of a moving meditation. But most mornings I take a walk with our dog Lou. It's so lovely watching the slow changes that happen with the seasons. Here are some of the sights right now. Enjoy!
Trilliums and newly unfurling ferns, by the road.
Tiny blueberry flowers, and brilliant quince bloom under a blue, blue spring sky.
2009-05-14
: Transformative Fiction
posted by Emily
Listening to a local NPR station today, I heard the Director of the Population Media Center of Vermont interviewed. He talked about the issues the organization is addressing (detrimental environmental effects of the population of humans on the planet), the excessive impact that developed countries, well, specifically the US has due to our superconsumption, but also the impact that populations have worldwide: world population increases in the developing world will have impact similar to several times what the US does on its own. Environmental harm is also compounded by social inequity in these areas, and health issues go hand in hand.
To address this, they have done study which shows that empowering individuals to be able to make choices to have fewer children are by far and away the most successful ways to reduce population growth and improve people's lives. So they've developed a very interesting secret weapon to help encourage this: Soap Operas.
Soap Operas for Social Change to Prevent HIV/AIDS
The characters in the soap operas are easy to identify with. They go through experiences that are like those of the viewers in important ways. And the Institute has found that the dramas change people's attitudes and behaviours.
It's got a good goal, and it's well-meaning, so I support it. But I realize that if this was pro-religious, I'd feel much more skeptical. Propaganda is such an ugly word, but this does show the power of fiction to shape how we see the world. Good to remember, good to be inspired by, and good to be careful of.
2009-05-08
: What is a Scenario--Slaaraphenland and The Hunt
posted by Emily
So many, many different ways to play games.
In Denmark, there is something called scenario play. A style of role-playing, it has many branches: semi-live, ensemble, their new wave influenced by Forge inspired indie games, and more. While in Denmark, I got to play some of these games and they were fantastic. Some are being translated into English as we speak. So I thought I'd start sketching out what goes into them. Here's a stab at some specifics.
Some characteristics of Danish scenario play:
- Prescripted events
- Descriptions of characters more important that stats
- Player choice more important than rolls
- Use of non-traditional framing (flashbacks)
- Emphasis on free play over resolution
I will leave it Frederik Jensen (who wrote about the Danish role playing tradition on Story Games) and others to say precisely where the games I'm describing here fall. But I'm starting with two that seem to exemplify some of the basic difference between their tabletop traditions and ours (USwise), before making a mad dash into even more wild and unknown territory as their semi-live or freeform. These two games are Slaaraphenland and The Hunt, which are both part of the the Empire Anthology, a broad-ranging, epic of a game.
The Empire Anthology
In Denmark, a group of writers got the idea to write a series of short games in the Warhammer Fantasy Empire universe. Called Imperiet: the Warhammer Empire Anthology, there are 10 games in the series, each taking somewhere around 90 minutes to play. They vary in tone from ironic and whimsical, to dark and psychological. Drawing inspiration from the world, each takes place in a specific town or region on the gorgeous map of the Empire (shown above). Each game involves a story of the peasants and warriors of that land.
That's where it really begins to diverge. They do use the Warhammer system, but in ways that would be very surprising to players here in the US. The games empower the GM and players to work together to create a story that is about very personal aspects of the characters: how they clash, their hopes, fears, joys and dark despairs. There is combat and conflict, but the games are instead about family loyalty and temptation. Rolls may be made occassionally, but they are pivot points, used to crank up the tension in inter-character scenes, not the culmination and majority of play.
Now, do forgive me, I am assuming I understand how folks here would play the game. But then, read what these takes on it are like, and you can decide.
The Hunt
The Hunt centers around a family that live in the Drakwald forest. Their village, empoverished and depleted of its men due to the war on Chaos, has been attacked. Three brothers hunt down a Beast that has robbed the village of a precious cow. We follow the brothers in their hunt, and interspersed are scenes from their past. We see their father, a fierce and loving warrior, stride off for battle in the war. We see his return; him now a broken man, and the brothers fighting for his approval and the love of a village maiden. The hunt continues, and the story of the brothers' choices and lives unfold.
The structure that makes this happen is the materials of the scenario, which are the bulk of the game. The characters and their conflicts are described. The scenes are written out. The exact form theproblems encountered by the brothers take is up to the GM, but strong suggestions are given, along with guidance on the issues to highlight in the character interactions. (The fear of the youngest brother, the lechery of the father, etc.)The action of the hunt is given meaning and context by the flashbacks. The whole lives of the characters are communicated.
A character sheet exists for each character, which is consulted when tests are needed in play. The rolls made are preceded by the playing out of the interactions among the brothers. Moments when dice are rolled are chosen judiciously: they demarcate moments of rising tension in the story. Providing risk and suspense, which has been heightened by the play in character.
Slaaraphenland
Slaaraphenland, is yet another tale of an impoverished village and the choices it's inhabitants make. Here you play four boys, friends, not brothers, who have heard the tales of Slaaraphenland, a Rock Candy Mountain-like fantasy land full of good things to eat and all you could desire. Stories say you can find it if you travel into the woods, so the boys head off into the dark beneath the trees.
Each has their own reason for going: one, the town preacher, to impress the ladies of the town, one, the greedy scholar, to get all he can for himself, another to not be left out and one to be able to carry through on the tall tales he's told. He lies to the rest, saying he has a map, which they follow blind. The boys travel, encountering other villagers and inhabitants of the forest. And meeting various temptations: to steal an apple from the old lady's tree? To break into a hunter's hut and eat their stewing dinner? To kill and eat a tiny, precious lamb? Sex with mysterious, bounteous ladies in the woods?
As they fall prey to temptation, they fall deeper and deeper into the spell of Slaaraphenland. Things become brighter around them, more dreamlike and fanciful. The player also feels the effect. With each choice to tread into temptation, the player must eat one slice of a rich, Danish cake. The cake is cut into 6 pieces. With the last piece eaten, the character can never return from Slaaraphenland, but stays there forever.
Each player has been given a character--made up of a short narrative description only--who has reason to seek out Slaaraphenland, and also to taste the fruits of temptation they find. But the choice is completely in the hands of the players. The GM reads or describes the scenario: the situation of the village, the legend of Slaaraphenland, the meetings in the woods, the land itself. But at each step, the game is about choosing which temptations to fall for (Markus Montola, for example, when playing held firm at breaking and entering a poor villager's hut, yet leapt delightedly into the hunt for the lamb).
The cake is unusual, as far as I know. Even in Denmark! Though there have been some indie games that have used food (Open Boat comes to mind). Here it leant a very interesting (dis)incentive to the players. We all left the table groaning from the leaden weight of the cake in our bellies. But it also added a feeling of verisimilitude for the players. We took the temptation ourselves, feeling the taste of the cake as we described our characters biting into the fluffy pancakes or nicely seasoned soup. Just think: we described what the food tasted like, and it mattered!
These are just a few of the sights and sounds of Danish role playing. More to come.
2009-04-23
: Denmark and Norway
posted by Emily
I'm back from a trip out Scandinavia way. These are two beautiful countries. Denmark, mild in climate with a pastoral landscape; Norway, the rugged cold northern country, bound by mountains and still-frozen lakes. Truly troll country. I learned that the Danes love their bicycles, made practical by the even landscape of their clean green cities like Copenhagen. And the Norwegians love ritual, as show by their use of us GMs in the opening ritual of the convention: we lead group of torch-wielding players in ritual movements, creating a festive if incendiary atmosphere. It was fantastic to get to catch up with friends I'd met in Finland, and to meet so many more wonderful and insightful folks.
The reason for my trip was to attend two role playing game conventions. The first, Fastaval, is a 25 year old event that is a hotbed of Nordic freeform. They encourage innovation and refinement of the games offered by a jurying the games, and awarding prizes for communication (formidlung), best story, best roles and best overall game. The effect is palpable. The games run are often sophisticated and always fun--or rather engaging. Many times their topic is not what one could consider "fun". A game about Torture, which I did not get to play but I understand handles this topic sensitively and affectingly, won the prize for Best Narrative. There is a project, Gnavpotveksler (tr. "the grumpy converter" named after a cartoon character) underway to translate the winners and more. This is an excellent prospect. If you'd like to get involved go visit the Gnavpotveksler Project Wiki.
The second convention, Knutepunkt, or Nodal Point, is a theory conference held each year in one of the various Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. They solicit papers annually and publish a book in conjunction with the con. This year's Larp, the Universe and Everything, is a gorgeous object, written by a truly international group, including authors from as far afield as Byelorussia, the US and Brazil. Many past books are also available online.
I'm tremendously grateful to the Danish National Association of Role Playing for making my trip possible! And I'm honored by the player's choice award at Fastaval for Under my Skin. Such wonderful players in that game and in all I saw. I'll also share more about the games I took part in and the sights of lovely Copenhagen and Oslo.
2009-03-20
: Happy First of Spring!
posted by Meguey
We celebrated the first of Spring with creamed eggs on toast, chocolate bunnies and sunshine!
2009-03-19
: RPGirl Zine project
posted by Emily
Back in 2007, Meg and some other folks started something pretty great. The RPG = Role Playing Girl book project reached out to women gamers to showcase their voices in the role playing game world. Stealing from the blog:
Meg wrote:
Role-playing, as a hobby with books and tools and industry support, has been around my whole life. I got my first taste of organized pretend and written down characters at age 7, when I made my first D&D character. I've always played in groups of girls and boys, men and women. To me, the notion that women are a minority in the world of role-playing was an odd one, but I look around me now, and it's pretty clear. The top names and top games are made by and marketed to, primarily, men. Here's the weird bit, though: I keep finding more and more and more women gamers.
It seems like a natural progression, to us. Women gamers talk, play games, design games, hang out together, sell games, discuss games, think about being women in a strongly male hobby - and write a book about it.
And although it still holds true that the top known names are male--more and more I am seeing right now that there is a very strong presence of women in gaming. Going to cons, there are women browsing booths and playing games. Women there in their own right, there because they love it, not just because they have been dragged along by an enthusiastic (male) significant other. We have many games written and published by women, and there are many more doing significant work in the field who could use more recognition.
So, there are some projects in the works this year to spotlight and showcase this reality of women in gaming. One of them is a zine based on the idea of the RPGirl book. It will have a group of essays, community pages to announce events and services that women are organizing and providing in the gaming world. And some neat touches like recipes good for game day that come from the pen of a top-selling cook book author in our ranks. There is a new blog for this project:
RPGirl Zine 2009
We'd love to have more contributions from women who love gaming, who have something to say or who'd like to do some professional networking. Pass this along to others, and drop me a line at emilycare - at - gm@il if you want to get involved.
2009-03-17
: Hot Strings
posted by Emily
A few years ago, my uncle Jamie began a business selling guitars. Acoustic guitars. Going into his shop was like entering a museum of craftwork. From simple classical guitars, with their wide necks and nylon strings good for the complicated fingering of flamenco music or Bach. To Gypsy Jazz guitars, with their lilting sound made famous by Django Reinhardt, the French gypsy child who grew up to become an internationally regarded guitarist, despite the loss of movement in two of the fingers on his left hand due to injury in a fire during his youth. Walking among the redwood and birch of the instruments, the inlay of mother of pearl and ebony was a treat for the eye as much as listening to the music these instruments made was to the ear.
The shop is gone now. Unfortunately, another victim of the downturn in the economy. But the guitars live on, and my uncle continues selling and even making them in his studio. Training a new generation of luthiers to continue the craft and artistry of bringing these instruments into being. My aunt just sent me a link to a video of him playing one. Click and get a taste:
Jamie playing a Crafter TR-06