Lucifer’s Lexicon: On RPG Concepts and Terms~
No Ambrose Bierces were harmed in the making of this post.
The bones of this post actually date back to the launch of this blog in May of 2010 though the content is much older. I had a few conflicting ideas about the blog in those days as it was inspired by the loss of my friend Tom (a genius) and the sense of dismay it sparked to know that there would be no more talks about games, life, or onion soup with him, and to know that a person like that was gone from the world. Worse, all the conversations we had had about gaming were now only the version in my memory – and of the two of us, he liked and got along with people much better than I do.
Call of Cthulhu Immersive Sandbox Campaign Recap and Reflection ~ 1
The campaign has grown from one investigation with a single investigator to five independent investigations (or branches) and nine investigators, so far…
RPG Conversations and Metaphor
The role of word, gesture, and tone in the exchange of information is the essential ingredient in any RPG – even the very limited ones in choose your own adventure books and computer-based versions. Take it away and the RPG can no more happen than a game of Crazy Eights can take place without cards.
RPG’s are a Conversation?
Are RPGs a conversation, really? The short answer is yes, but in the many years (over 30) that I have been having conversations about this conversation, the topic has been able to race off in a lot of different directions. While that has been good for my personal experience in thinking about the abstract and concrete aspects of the topic, it has also demonstrated that the whole idea can be slippery and, of course, even small parts of it can strike some gamers as being useless. What I have found is that coming to terms with this idea not only helps with playing RPGs for enjoyment, it helps with understanding what they are, why a game works well in some contexts but not others, what is and is not worthy of your time as a participant, how to match games and interests, and even for playing them for other purposes, such as education. Not bad for a throwaway line like, “RPGs are a conversation,” right?
On Immersion and Engagement in RPG Play
To help explore the topic of what can be meant in general, and what we specifically mean in a given example when we wax eloquent about immersion, I like to separate things into two defined experiences, that of immersion, and that of engagement. Immersion can suffice on its own, but as usual, the more things a word applies to the more ways it can subtly interfere with communication.
Casting Shadows 