1 The Forge </> 	The Internet Home for Independent Role-Playing Games

     2 About the Forge </about/> | Support The Forge </donate.php> | Articles

     3 </articles/> | Reviews </reviews/> | Resource Library </resources/> |

     4 Forums </>

     5  

     6 

     7 

     8   The Provisional Glossary

     9 

    10 by Ron Edwards <sorcerer@sorcerer-rpg.com

    11 <mailto:sorcerer@sorcerer-rpg.com>>

    12 Copyright 2004 Adept Press

    13 

    14 Many thanks to Vincent Baker, Emily Care Boss, Steve Samson, Julie

    15 Stauffer, and Ralph Mazza for their help with the first draft for this

    16 project.

    17 

    18 As the title implies, this is a provisional version of what I hope will

    19 become a standing Glossary for the Forge. Everyone is invited to comment

    20 according to the following guidelines:

    21 

    22     *

    23 

    24       We can debate endlessly about the exact perfect phrasing for a

    25       definition, but let's not. Please take into account that at least

    26       a hundred other people have just as much justification for their

    27       favored phrasings as you do for yours. If you propose an alternate

    28       phrasing, please do so by backing up your point with thread

    29       references.

    30 

    31     *

    32 

    33       The purpose for the Glossary is solely to provide help to people

    34       as they enter into discussions at the Forge. It is not supposed to

    35       be the primary teaching instrument for any concept, nor is it a

    36       belief system that must be accepted or agreed with in order to

    37       participate.

    38 

    39 The main reason this whole thing has taken so long is that I do not see

    40 an easy way to separate a Forge Glossary authored by myself from a

    41 presentation/essay about my particular take on issues discussed at the

    42 Forge. It is flatly impossible for me to please everyone by representing

    43 all of their individual takes on these issues ? some of you may find

    44 terms that I've pegged as controversial as perfectly clear; others may

    45 find terms that I don't peg controversial as being so. So I say these

    46 two things:

    47 

    48     *

    49 

    50       Yes, I wrote this document. So yes, it reflects a lot of my values

    51       and the framework for role-playing that at present I think makes

    52       the most sense.

    53 

    54     *

    55 

    56       My goal, as I stated above, is utility for others, especially

    57       those who haven't been involved in debating these issues for

    58       years. So bear that in mind ? it's not supposed to represent your

    59       sophisticated understanding of controversial nuances. Evaluate it

    60       from the eyes of someone who needs it.

    61 

    62 So if you think that my personal take on the issues has clouded the goal

    63 for any particular term, then say so and try to back up your argument

    64 with clear logic. I'm willing to make changes on this basis, but not on

    65 the basis that you ?feel? a newcomer will be confused.

    66 

    67 I haven't included the actual links to the indicated threads, mainly

    68 because that would delay this posting by at least a week, and it's time

    69 to get it off the ground. They'll get added in the next iteration. I

    70 figure maybe a month of discussion about this version is a good plan. If

    71 you can think of other relevant threads (remember: helpfulness), then

    72 suggest them. I'm also interested in getting links to articles by others

    73 for specific terms (e.g. M.J./s 'Applied Design/, etc); the question is,

    74 which terms.

    75 

    76 Finally, some of the terms are desperately in need of discussion and

    77 revision: ?Metagame? as a character component really sucks; and I'm

    78 proposing ?Positioning? instead. In fact, ?metagame mechanics? seems to

    79 be a broken term as well (an older thread convinced me). And a few

    80 others. I'm certainly happy to see what people think of these, but

    81 again, please do the reading and reflection necessary before you bomb in

    82 with your reactions.

    83 

    84 

    85     Part One: the Big Model

    86 

    87 The following key concepts and how they inter-relate form a foundation

    88 for nearly all of the other terms, which provide examples, refinements,

    89 or sub-sets for them.

    90 

    91 The key concepts are:

    92 

    93 *The Big Model, Social Contract, Exploration, Shared Imagined Space,

    94 Creative Agenda, Techniques, Ephemera, Lumpley Principle, and Coherence*

    95 

    96 Most of the other terms on the list only take on their meaning when

    97 considered in the framework of these concepts and their interactions.

    98 

    99 Big model pic (PDF) <http://indie-rpgs.com/_articles/bigmodelpic.pdf>

   100 

   101 Big model, the

   102 

   103     A description of role-playing procedures as embedded in the social

   104     interactions and creative priorities of the participants. Each

   105     internal "box," "layer," or "skin" of the model is considered to be

   106     an expression of the box(es) containing it. See the discussion in

   107     /Narrativism: Story Now/ and /The big model - this is it/.

   108 

   109 Coherence

   110 

   111     The degree to which one or a combination of Creative Agendas are

   112     accepted and reinforced among members of a role-playing group.

   113     Coherence may also be applied to game design, but only indirectly,

   114     in terms of whether it does or does not facilitate such a shared

   115     agenda.

   116 

   117 Creative Agenda (CA)

   118 

   119     The aesthetic priorities and any matters of imaginative interest

   120     regarding role-playing. Three distinct Creative Agendas are

   121     currently recognized: Step On Up (Gamist), The Right to Dream

   122     (Simulationist), and Story Now (Narrativist). This definition

   123     replaces all uses of "Premise" in /GNS and other matters of

   124     role-playing theory/ aside from the specific Creative Agenda of

   125     Narrativist play. Creative Agenda is expressed using all Components

   126     of Exploration, but most especially System.

   127 

   128 Ephemera

   129 

   130     Moment-to-moment or sentence-to-sentence actions and statements

   131     during play. Combinations of Ephemera often construct Techniques.

   132     Changes in Stance represent one example of an Ephemeral aspect of play.

   133 

   134 Exploration

   135 

   136     The imagination of fictional events, established through

   137     communicating among one another. Exploration includes five

   138     Components: Character, Setting, Situation, System, and Color. See

   139     also Shared Imagined Space (a near or total synonym).

   140 

   141 Lumpley Principle, the

   142 

   143     "System (including but not limited to 'the rules') is defined as the

   144     means by which the group agrees to imagined events during play." The

   145     author of the principle is Vincent Baker, see Vincent?s standard

   146     rant: power, credibility, and assent and Player power abuse.

   147 

   148 Social Contract

   149 

   150     All interactions and relationships among the role-playing group,

   151     including emotional connections, logistic arrangements, and

   152     expectations. All role-playing is a subset of the Social Contract.

   153 

   154 Techniques

   155 

   156     Specific procedures of play which, when employed together, are

   157     sufficient to introduce fictional characters, places, or events into

   158     the Shared Imagined Space. Many different Techniques may be used, in

   159     different games, to establish the same sorts of events. A given

   160     Technique is composed of a group of Ephemera which are employed

   161     together. Taken in their entirety for a given instance of

   162     role-playing, Techniques comprise System.

   163 

   164 

   165     Part Two: the terms list

   166 

   167 I've tried to avoid outright tautology (B says "see A," A says "see B"),

   168 but if you encounter a term that uses lots of other terms in the

   169 definition, then you know you're pretty deep down in the key concept

   170 framework.

   171 

   172 Abashed

   173 

   174     Game design which displays features of one or more Creative Agenda

   175     that, in their applications, are operationally contradictory. It is

   176     a minor form of design Incoherence. However, an Abashed design is

   177     easily correctable by ignoring or altering isolated portions of the

   178     rules (minor Drift) during play. See /Abashed Vanillaism/ and /my

   179     review/ of Little Fears.

   180 

   181 Actor Stance

   182 

   183     The person playing a character determines the character's decisions

   184     and actions using only knowledge and perceptions that the character

   185     would have. This stance does not necessarily include identifying

   186     with the character and feeling what he or she "feels," nor does it

   187     require in-character dialogue. See Stance.

   188 

   189 Address Premise, to

   190 

   191     To establish, develop, and resolve a Premise during play, with

   192     emphasis on the decisions made by the protagonist characters. See

   193     also Premise, Protagonism, and Story Now.

   194 

   195 Author Stance

   196 

   197     The person playing a character determines the character's decisions

   198     and actions based on the person's priorities, independently of the

   199     character?s knowledge and perceptions. Author Stance may or may not

   200     include a retroactive "motivation" of the character to perform the

   201     actions. When it lacks this feature, it is called Pawn Stance.

   202 

   203 Authority

   204 

   205     The privilege given to a person, process, or written material to

   206     establish anything into the Shared Imaginary Space. A controversial

   207     topic; see also Credibility.

   208 

   209 Balance

   210 

   211     This term is undefined. Used without clarification by the user, it

   212     typically diminishes the value of discussions about role-playing.

   213     See the discussion in /Gamism: Step On Up/.

   214 

   215 Balance of Power

   216 

   217     How the "buck stops here" authority regarding resolution in play is

   218     distributed among members of a role-playing group. A feature of

   219     Social Contract, related to Credibility and GM-tasks, which directly

   220     affects System. This term was first applied to role-playing

   221     interactions by Hunter Logan.

   222 

   223 Bang

   224 

   225     The Technique of introducing events into the game which make a

   226     thematically-significant or at least evocative choice necessary for

   227     a player. The term is taken from the rules of Sorcerer. See also

   228     Kicker.

   229 

   230 Beeg Horseshoe Theory, the

   231 

   232     A proposed visual model for the relationship among the three

   233     Creative Agendas around a flat circle, with an "open space" for

   234     Simulationist play, because it may not exist. First proposed by

   235     Jared Sorensen as a criticism of Simulationist play (or

   236     pseudo-play), then re-proposed by Mike Holmes in an effort to

   237     validate Simulationist play. A controversial topic; see /The Beeg

   238     Horseshoe Theory/, /Beeg Horseshoe Theory revisited/, and /The Roots

   239     of Sim II/.

   240 

   241 Big Model, the

   242 

   243     /This is a key concept/. See the first section.

   244 

   245 Black Curtain

   246 

   247     The effects of a variety of Techniques a GM may employ to keep his

   248     use of Force hidden from the other participants in the game, such

   249     that they are at least somewhat under the impression that their

   250     characters' significant decisions are under their control. See

   251     Illusionism, Force, and the discussion in /Narrativism: Story Now/.

   252 

   253 Blood Opera

   254 

   255     Play in which character generation focuses on potentially

   256     irreconcilable differences among at least some of the characters,

   257     and in which scenario generation is designed to put as much pressure

   258     on these differences (and therefore on unexpected alliances as

   259     possible). Notable for high mortality rates among characters. An

   260     example of Situation. Term coined by Ralph Mazza, Jake Norwood, and

   261     Ron Edwards.

   262 

   263 Bob

   264 

   265     The Technique of withholding response or otherwise mandating a

   266     "rest" in the action of play. Term coined in /Sex & Sorcery/.

   267 

   268 Breaking the game

   269 

   270     A dysfunctional Technique of Hard Core Gamist play, characterized by

   271     rendering other participants' efforts ineffective without recourse.

   272 

   273 Calvinball

   274 

   275     A potentially-dysfunctional Technique of Hard Core Gamist play,

   276     characterized by making up the rules of a game as it is played,

   277     especially in the immediate context of advantaging oneself and

   278     disadvantaging one's opponents. "Tagged you! Tags mean you're out!"

   279     "It's Tuesday! Tagging doesn't work on Tuesdays!" Most so-called

   280     "rules-lawyering" is actually Calvinballing. The term is taken from

   281     the comic strip /Calvin & Hobbes/; see also /The Unofficial Official

   282     Rules of Calvinball/.

   283 

   284 Challenge

   285 

   286     The Situation, i.e., adversity or imposed risk to player-characters

   287     of any kind, in the context of Gamist play. It's the imaginative

   288     arena for the Creative Agenda of Step On Up. See the Gamble and the

   289     Crunch.

   290 

   291 Character

   292 

   293     A fictional person or entity which may perform actions in the

   294     imaginary situation. One of the Components of Exploration.

   295 

   296 Character Components

   297 

   298     The System-specific features of a role-playing character. All are

   299     present for all characters, even if one or more is not explicitly

   300     part of the textual rules. See Effectiveness, Positioning, and

   301     Resource; also see Currency.

   302 

   303 Coherence

   304 

   305     /This is a key concept/. See the first section.

   306 

   307 Color

   308 

   309     Imagined details about any or all of System, Character, Setting, or

   310     Situation, added in such a way that does not change aspects of

   311     action or resolution in the imagined scene. One of the Components of

   312     Exploration.

   313 

   314 Competition

   315 

   316     Conflicts of interest such that goals achieved by one person bring a

   317     disadvantage to one or more others. Competition may operate

   318     independently (a) among people engaged in role-playing or (b) among

   319     imaginary characters. An example of a Dial during play. Competition

   320     may or may not be associated with Gamist play, but when it is

   321     present among people, Gamist play is very likely to be occurring.

   322     See /Gamism: Step On Up/.

   323 

   324 Components of Exploration

   325 

   326     In combination, the necessary parts of the imaginary content of a

   327     role-playing situation. Separately, they include Character, Setting,

   328     Situation, System, Color; see Exploration.

   329 

   330 Conflict resolution

   331 

   332     A Technique in which the mechanisms of play focus on conflicts of

   333     interest, rather than on the component tasks within that conflict.

   334     When using this Technique, inanimate objects are conceived to have

   335     "interests" at odds with the character, if necessary. Contrast with

   336     Task resolution.

   337 

   338 Congruence

   339 

   340     Play in which two or more different Creative Agendas may be

   341     expressed in such a way that they neither interfere with one another

   342     nor are easily distinguished through observation. The term was

   343     coined by Walt Freitag in /GNS and "Congruency"/. A controversial

   344     topic.

   345 

   346 Creative agenda (CA)

   347 

   348     /This is a key concept/. See the first section.

   349 

   350 Credibility

   351 

   352     The degree to which a given statement is adopted into the imaginary

   353     events of play, with or without reference to rules. A feature of the

   354     Lumpley Principle. Credibility may be applied to the statement

   355     (imaginary event) itself or to the person who supplies it; see also

   356     Authority.

   357 

   358 Cross

   359 

   360     The Technique of introducing effects from previous scenes into

   361     current scenes, although the scenes do not contain the same

   362     player-characters. Term coined in /Sex & Sorcery/.

   363 

   364 Crunch, the

   365 

   366     An application or type of Challenge, based on high predictability

   367     relative to risk. A feature of Gamist play.

   368 

   369 Currency

   370 

   371     The exchange rate within and among Character Components. Currency

   372     may or may not be explicit (e.g. "character points"), but it is a

   373     universal feature of System, specifically as it relates to Character.

   374 

   375 Death spiral

   376 

   377     The effects of a mechanic which not only has negative effects on a

   378     character, but also diminishes the Effectiveness of the ability to

   379     resist the re-application of the mechanic.

   380 

   381 Deprotagonize (Paul Czege)

   382 

   383     To limit or devalue another person's opportunity to establish their

   384     character as a protagonist during Narrativist play. Note that this

   385     is specific to Paul's use of Protagonism strictly in the limited

   386     Narrativist context.

   387 

   388 Design

   389 

   390     This term is used in two distinct ways. (1) Referring to actual

   391     play, it is the sum of interactions among Techniques. (2) Referring

   392     to text, it is the written version of such interactions with the

   393     implication of author intent.

   394 

   395 DFK

   396 

   397     Short for Drama, Fortune, and Karma, referring to the Resolution

   398     mechanics of a given System, which may include any combination or

   399     blending of the three. Terms originally presented in the game

   400     /Everway/; altered in current usage.

   401 

   402 Dial

   403 

   404     A feature of System by which a given aspect of the imaginary

   405     material may be increased or decreased, in terms of Effectiveness,

   406     Color, or Points-of-Contact. Depending on the system, dials may be

   407     "spun" before play (in which case their value is expected to be

   408     fixed) or during play. The term was first presented in /Champions

   409     Millenium/.

   410 

   411 Diceless

   412 

   413     Usually but not always referring to the absence of Fortune-based

   414     resolution during play. Alternatively, refers to relying on Drama

   415     Techniques for Resolution. See /GNS and other matters of

   416     role-playing theory/ as well as /Dice and diceless: one designer?s

   417     radical opinion/. A controversial topic.

   418 

   419 Dickweed character

   420 

   421     A character defined and played according to conflicts of interest

   422     with the other characters; potentially a primary source of

   423     adversity. The presence of a dickweed character does not require or

   424     imply inter-player competition.

   425 

   426 Director Stance

   427 

   428     The person playing a character determines aspects of the environment

   429     relative to the character in some fashion, entirely separately from

   430     the character's knowledge or ability to influence events. Therefore

   431     the player has not only determined the character's actions, but the

   432     context, timing, and spatial circumstances of those actions, or even

   433     features of the world separate from the characters. Director Stance

   434     is often confused with narration of an in-game event, but the two

   435     concepts are not necessarily related.

   436 

   437 Drama

   438 

   439     Resolving imaginary events based on stated outcomes without

   440     reference to numerical values or (in some cases) statements that

   441     have been previously established (e.g. written on a character

   442     sheet). See also DFK and Resolution.

   443 

   444 Dramatism

   445 

   446     One of the three styles of role-playing identified by Mary Kuhner in

   447     the Threefold Model, but not recognized as a distinct Creative

   448     Agenda in the Big Model.

   449 

   450 Drift

   451 

   452     Changing from one Creative Agenda to another, or from the lack of

   453     shared Creative Agenda to a specific one, during play, typically

   454     through changing the System. In observational terms, often marked by

   455     openly deciding to ignore or alter the use of a given rule.

   456 

   457 Dysfunction

   458 

   459     Simply, role-playing which is not fun. Most Forge discussions

   460     presume that un-fun role-playing is worse than no role-playing.

   461 

   462 Effectiveness

   463 

   464     A Character Component: quantities or terms which are directly used

   465     to determine the success or extent of a character?s actions during

   466     play.

   467 

   468 Egri, Lajos

   469 

   470     The author of /The Art of Dramatic Writing/ (1946); see Premise.

   471 

   472 El Dorado

   473 

   474     A term for the unrealizable ideal of consistently addressing Premise

   475     through explicitly Simulationist play. This term is often

   476     mis-interpreted as Simulationist-Narrativist hybrid play or any

   477     number of other concepts. Coined by Paul Czege; see /Simulationism

   478     and Narrativism under the same roof/ and /El Dorado/.

   479 

   480 Ephemera

   481 

   482     /This is a key concept/. See the first section.

   483 

   484 Exploration

   485 

   486     /This is a key concept/. See the first section..

   487 

   488 Fantasy Heartbreaker

   489 

   490     A published role-playing game which retains specific aesthetic

   491     assumptions from pre-3rd edition versions of Dungeons & Dragons. See

   492     /Fantasy Heartbreakers/ and /More Fantasy Heartbreakers/.

   493 

   494 Five elements of Exploration

   495 

   496     See "Components of Exploration."

   497 

   498 Force

   499 

   500     The Technique of control over characters' thematically-significant

   501     decisions by anyone who is not the character's player. When Force is

   502     applied in a manner which disrupts the Social Contract, the result

   503     is Railroading. Originally called "GM-oomph" (Ron Edwards), then

   504     "GM-Force" (Mike Holmes).

   505 

   506 Fortune

   507 

   508     A method of resolution employing unpredictable non-behavioral

   509     elements, usually based on physical objects such as dice, cards, or

   510     similar. See also DFK and Resolution.

   511 

   512 Fortune-at-the-End (FatE)

   513 

   514     Employing a Fortune Resolution technique (dice, cards, etc)

   515     /following/ the full descriptions of actions, physical placement,

   516     and communication among characters. See "Fortune in the Middle" and

   517     associated links.

   518 

   519 Fortune-in-the-Middle (FitM)

   520 

   521     Employing a Fortune Resolution technique (dice, cards, etc) prior to

   522     fully describing the specific actions of, physical placement of, and

   523     communication among characters. The Fortune outcome is employed in

   524     establishing these elements retroactively. This technique may be

   525     employed with the dice/etc as the ultimate authority of success or

   526     failure (e.g. /Sorcerer/) or with the dice/etc outcome being

   527     potentially adjusted by a metagame mechanic (e.g. /HeroQuest/). See

   528     /my review/ of Hero Wars, see also discussions in the /Alyria forum/.

   529 

   530 Gamble, the

   531 

   532     An application or type of Challenge, based on high risk relative to

   533     predictability. A feature of Gamist play.

   534 

   535 Gamism (Gamist play)

   536 

   537     One of the three currently-recognized Creative Agendas. The term was

   538     first proposed by Mary Kuhner for the Threefold Model; its usage is

   539     very similar in the Big Model. See Step On Up.

   540 

   541 Generalist

   542 

   543     A role-playing game design which is non-specific for Setting.

   544     Typically such games correspond to the Purist-for-System parameters.

   545     See /Simulationism: the Right to Dream/.

   546 

   547 Genre

   548 

   549     This term is undefined, in practice, and requires clarification by

   550     its user to be meaningful. Arguably its content is accounted for

   551     upon identifying the Components of Exploration in a role-playing

   552     situation. See /GNS and related matters of role-playing theory/ for

   553     the complete discussion.

   554 

   555 Genre Expectations

   556 

   557     A Technique of establishing the Components of Exploration through a

   558     pre-play discussion among the participants, usually with references

   559     to previous sources, articulating what is to be customized or

   560     conformed to; highly integrated with thematic elements. The term was

   561     employed regarding role-playing by Fang Langford.

   562 

   563 GM (Game Master)

   564 

   565     Traditionally, a designated person given responsibility for some or

   566     all of the GMing Tasks. Since the actual tasks and authority over

   567     them varies widely across role-playing, this term has many different

   568     meanings. See GMing Tasks. The phrase "/the/ GM" implies that the

   569     GMing-tasks are concentrated in the hands of one person.

   570 

   571 GM-Force

   572 

   573     See Force.

   574 

   575 GM-ful play

   576 

   577     The Technique of distributing GMing Tasks across all the members of

   578     a role-playing group, up to and including re-distributing them

   579     during play, as opposed to concentrating them in one person. Coined

   580     by Emily Care Boss. See /An approach for mechanics and innovation/.

   581 

   582 GM-oomph

   583 

   584     See Force.

   585 

   586 GMing-Tasks

   587 

   588     A family of tasks which are necessary to establish the Components of

   589     Exploration as play proceeds. They all concern Credibility regarding

   590     Scene Framing, IIEE, and Resolution. Significantly, not all

   591     instances of role-playing include the same GMing tasks or organize

   592     them in the same way; using the term "GM" or "GMing" is often

   593     problematic as different people organize and negotiate GMing tasks

   594     differently. See /Narrativism: Story Now/ for a list of GMing tasks.

   595 

   596 Gnarliburr

   597 

   598     A character which cannot engage in relevant interaction with other

   599     characters and lacks identification-value for participants. Term

   600     introduced by David Kwill and the CLAWS society; see /Suspension of

   601     reality and playing odd characters/.

   602 

   603 GNS

   604 

   605     Abbreviation for Gamism, Narrativism, and Simulationism. When used

   606     as a single term, synonymous with Creative Agenda. Formerly referred

   607     to as "G/N/S."

   608 

   609 Handling Time

   610 

   611     The real time required to process, calculate, and interpret a

   612     resolution Technique once its procedures have been applied. See also

   613     Search Time.

   614 

   615 Hard Core

   616 

   617     Gamist play with minimal or even absent Exploration and high levels

   618     of inter-player competition; see Breaking the game, Calvinball,

   619     Powergaming, and Turnin'.

   620 

   621 High-Concept Simulationism

   622 

   623     Play which strongly emphasizes an embedded theme and possibly a

   624     fixed storyline. Contrast with Purist for System. See

   625     /Simulationism: the Right to Dream/.

   626 

   627 Hybrid

   628 

   629     Play which combines two or more Creative Agendas. Observed

   630     functional hybrids to date include only two rather than all three,

   631     and one of the agendas is apparently primary or dominant, with the

   632     other playing a supportive role. See /my review/ of /The Riddle of

   633     Steel/.

   634 

   635 IIEE

   636 

   637     Intent, Initiation, Execution, and Effect - how actions and events

   638     in the imaginary game-world are resolved in terms of (1) real-world

   639     announcement and (2) imaginary order of occurrence. See /The four

   640     steps of action/ and /What is IIEC?/ A necessary feature of System

   641     during play, usually represented by several Techniques and many

   642     Ephemera.

   643 

   644 Illusionism

   645 

   646     A family of Techniques in which a GM, usually in the interests of

   647     story creation, story creation, exerts Force over player-character

   648     decisions, in which he or she has authority over

   649     resolution-outcomes, and in which the players do not necessarily

   650     recognize these features. See /Illusionism: a new look and a new

   651     approach/ and /Illusionism and GNS/. Term coined by Paul Elliott.

   652 

   653 Immersion

   654 

   655     This term has no single definition. Some uses, among others,

   656     include: (a) undivided attention to the Shared Imagined Space, (b)

   657     the absence of overtly stating features of Social Contract and

   658     Creative Agenda, (c) strong identification with one?s imaginary

   659     character. See /Why immersion is a tar baby 'and 'Immersive Story/

   660     by John Kim.

   661 

   662 Impossible Thing Before Breakfast, the

   663 

   664     "The GM is the author of the story and the players direct the

   665     actions of the protagonists." Widely repeated across many

   666     role-playing texts. Neither sub-clause in the sentence is possible

   667     in the presence of the other. See /Narrativism: Story Now/.

   668 

   669 In-character (IC)

   670 

   671     An Ephemera. A style of narration using first-person point of view

   672     to describe character dialogue or actions. Neither IC or

   673     Out-of-Character (OOC) should be confused with Stance.

   674 

   675 Incoherence

   676 

   677     Play which includes incompatible combinations of Creative Agendas

   678     among participants. Incoherent play is considered to contribute to

   679     Dysfunctional play, but does not define it. Incoherence may be

   680     applied indirectly to game rules. Abashedness represents a minor,

   681     correctable form of Incoherence.

   682 

   683 Infamous Five, the

   684 

   685     A series of threads and sub-threads examining all the major topics

   686     of the Forge in relation to one another, and which helped to shape

   687     the community of the site. See /The Infamous Five/ for a complete

   688     listing of links.

   689 

   690 Instance of play

   691 

   692     Sufficient time spent on role-playing necessary to identify all

   693     features of System in operation. According to the Big Model, once

   694     these features are identified and evaluated in terms of a given

   695     group?s Social Contract, then Creative Agenda (or its absence) may

   696     also be identified. In practice, an Instance of play is rarely

   697     shorter than a full session, and may be much longer.

   698 

   699 Intuitive continuity

   700 

   701     A method of preparing role-playing sessions in which the GM uses the

   702     players? interests and actions during initial play to construct the

   703     back-story of the scenario retroactively. The term was first

   704     presented in the game /Underworld/.

   705 

   706 Karma

   707 

   708     Resolution based on comparison of Effectiveness values alone. See

   709     DFK and Resolution.

   710 

   711 Kicker

   712 

   713     Player-authored Situation incorporated into the character-creation

   714     System; a formal version of Positioning. The term was first

   715     presented in the game /Sorcerer/.

   716 

   717 Layering

   718 

   719     The relationship between the initial numbers derived for a character

   720     (e.g. attributes) to the numbers eventually used most commonly in

   721     play (Effectiveness values; e.g. combat to-hit values). The more

   722     steps of derivation, the more the character creation system is said

   723     to be layered.

   724 

   725 Line, the

   726 

   727     Techniques which reinforce the limits for content that is not

   728     permitted to be included in the Explorative content of play, for a

   729     particular group. See also the Veil. The term was introduced in /Sex

   730     & Sorcery/.

   731 

   732 Lumpley Principle, the

   733 

   734     /This is a key concept/. See the first section.

   735 

   736 Mechanics

   737 

   738     Individual and specific features of System; Mechanics in text form

   739     are "rules."

   740 

   741 Metagame (a Character Component)

   742 

   743     See Positioning.

   744 

   745 Metagame (general)

   746 

   747     All aspects of play that concern non-Explorative matters or

   748     priorities; in terms of the Big Model, the levels of Social Contract

   749     and Creative Agenda.

   750 

   751 Metagame mechanics

   752 

   753     Techniques which do not require justification using in-game cause,

   754     in many cases including Author and Director Stances. In terms of the

   755     Big Model, System is being conducted solely in terms of the Social

   756     Contract, without Exploration as the medium. As it stands, this term

   757     is misleading and is under discussion for renaming; see

   758     Meta-metagame for links.

   759 

   760 Meta-metagame

   761 

   762     Synonymous with Metagame as the latter term is currently defined,

   763     but contradictory to "metagame mechanic," which is currently under

   764     revision. See /Purpose of rules/ and /Metagame & mechanics/.

   765 

   766 Metaplot

   767 

   768     This term is used in several different ways. (1) A sequence of

   769     large-scale changes in setting and actions of NPCs which stimulate

   770     conflicts, especially when planned to occur well in advance of play;

   771     (2) a version of #1 generated through publications and expected to

   772     be implemented by customers in their games, usually through the

   773     agency of the GM; #2 or #3 which override players? degree of choice

   774     regarding their characters? role, which is to say, which require

   775     significant use of Force, usually by the GM.

   776 

   777 Munchkin

   778 

   779     A derogatory term used in several different ways, including by

   780     non-Gamists vs. Gamists in general, by Hard Core or heavy-Step

   781     Gamists vs. Wimps, and by high-Exploration Gamists vs. Hard Core

   782     play. See /Gamism: Step On Up/.

   783 

   784 Narration

   785 

   786     A type of Ephemera. What is said by a game participant to alter or

   787     add to the Shared Imaginary Space. How narration is distributed

   788     among participants varies widely; to be fully accepted, narration

   789     requires Credibility.

   790 

   791 Narrativism (Narrativist play)

   792 

   793     One of the three currently-recognized Creative Agendas. See Story Now.

   794 

   795 No Myth

   796 

   797     Intuitive Continuity which includes all Setting features (i.e. more

   798     than just Situation). An extreme version of the general principle

   799     that the Shared Imagined Space is established by people

   800     communicating with one another. Term coined by Fang Langford.

   801 

   802 Omni-play

   803 

   804     A controversial term coined by Mike Holmes. Play in which two or

   805     more distinctive and separate Creative Agendas are included;

   806     conceivably a functional form of Incoherent play. See also

   807     Congruence and Hybrid, as well as /The Omni-player/.

   808 

   809 One-step-removed

   810 

   811     Character Exploration which utilizes an intermediary persona for

   812     different characters in episodic, unrelated settings and situations,

   813     as in /Amazing Engine/, /Tales from the Crypt/, /Hong Kong Action

   814     Theater/, and /Extreme Vengeance/. Term coined by John Marron.

   815 

   816 Ouija-board role-playing

   817 

   818     A form of Illusionism practiced among all the participants upon one

   819     another to conceal both Step On Up and Story Now priorities from one

   820     another. Term coined by Ron Edwards; see /Narrativism: Story Now/.

   821 

   822 Out-of-character (OOC)

   823 

   824     An Ephemera. A style of narration describing character actions or

   825     dialogue in the third person. Neither OOC nor In-character (IC)

   826     narration should be confused with any of the three Stances, nor with

   827     any particular Creative Agenda.

   828 

   829 Participationism

   830 

   831     The Technique of using Force without the Black Curtain. Term coined

   832     by Mike Holmes.

   833 

   834 Pastiche

   835 

   836     An artistic production which relies on invoking pre-existing

   837     productions' features for its primary effect; at worst, a simple

   838     imitation, but at best, potentially a strong secondary comment on

   839     the original text. Often associated with "fanfic" or other forms of

   840     homage.

   841 

   842 Pawn Stance

   843 

   844     A subset of Author Stance which lacks the retroactive "motivation"

   845     of the character to perform the actions. Often but wrongly

   846     identified with Gamist play. See Stance.

   847 

   848 Paying to Suck

   849 

   850     A feature of System in which buying an ability for a character with

   851     some sort of Currency nets him with an low chance of success that is

   852     even worse than an unskilled attempt. Widely considered undesirable.

   853     Term?s origin uncertain; Ron Edwards first heard it employed by Rick

   854     Ford.

   855 

   856 Pervy

   857 

   858     Game-play in which the Creative Agenda relies on highly-specific

   859     Techniques and Ephemera, often applied multiple times per imaginary

   860     event during play. More generally covered by the concept of Points

   861     of Contact, which concerns the degree to which System is Explored.

   862     See /Vanilla Narrativism/ and /Points of Contact/.

   863 

   864 Player

   865 

   866     A problematic term. (a) Any participant in a role-playing

   867     experience, including the one or ones who carry out GM-tasks; or (b)

   868     a participant who does not, or temporarily does not, carry out any

   869     GM-tasks, and therefore concentrates primarily on the actions of a

   870     single character.

   871 

   872 Points of Contact

   873 

   874     The steps of rules-consultation, either in the text or internally,

   875     per unit of established imaginary content. This is not the same as

   876     the long-standing debate between Rules-light and Rules-heavy

   877     systems; either low or high Points of Contact systems can rely on

   878     strict rules. See /Vanilla and Pervy/, /Pervy in my head/, /Cannot

   879     stand cutesie-poo terms/, /Pervy Sim/, /points of contact,

   880     accessibility/.

   881 

   882 Positioning

   883 

   884     A Character Component. Behavioral, social, and contextual statements

   885     about a character. Formerly (and confusingly) called Metagame. See

   886     also Currency.

   887 

   888 Powergaming

   889 

   890     A potentially dysfunctional technique of Hard Core Gamist play,

   891     characterized by maximizing character impact on the game-world or

   892     player impact on the dialogue of play by whatever means available.

   893 

   894 Premise (adapted from Egri)

   895 

   896     A generalizable, problematic aspect of human interactions. Early in

   897     the process of creating or experiencing a story, a Premise is best

   898     understood as a proposition or perhaps an ideological challenge to

   899     the world represented by the protagonist's passions. Later in the

   900     process, resolving the conflicts of the story transforms Premise

   901     into a theme - a judgmental statement about how to act, behave, or

   902     believe. In role-playing, "protagonist" typically indicates a

   903     character mainly controlled by one person. A defining feature of

   904     Story Now.

   905 

   906 Prima Donna

   907 

   908     A Narrativist player who engages in Premise-addressing, but will not

   909     share screen time or Premise-significant decision-making time with

   910     other participants. An extremely dysfunctional subset of Narrativist

   911     play.

   912 

   913 Protagonism

   914 

   915     A problematic term with two possible meanings. (1) A characteristic

   916     of the main characters of stories, regardless of who produced the

   917     stories in whatever way. (2) A characteristic set of behaviors among

   918     people during role-playing, associated with Narrativist play, with a

   919     necessary unnamed equivalent in Gamist play and possibly another in

   920     Simulationist play. In the latter sense, coined by Paul Czege.

   921 

   922 Purist for System

   923 

   924     A category of design which emphasizes applying a set of simulated

   925     physical and other in-game causes to a wide variety of possible

   926     settings, characters, and situations. See /Simulationism: the Right

   927     to Dream/.

   928 

   929 Railroading

   930 

   931     Control of a player-character's decisions, or opportunities for

   932     decisions, by another person (not the player of the character) in

   933     any way which breaks the Social Contract for that group, in the eyes

   934     of the character's player. The term describes an interpretation of a

   935     social and creative outcome rather than any specific Technique.

   936 

   937 Realism

   938 

   939     This term is undefined and must be locally specified in order to

   940     make sense in a discussion of role-playing.

   941 

   942 Relationship map

   943 

   944     A Technique for play-preparation which primarily, although not

   945     exclusively, outlines the ties of sexual contact and kinship among

   946     characters. Typically these ties are not immediately known to the

   947     protagonist characters. The term was first presented in /The

   948     Sorcerer?s Soul/. Compare to the group-based and more general

   949     Technique of Storymapping.

   950 

   951 Resolution

   952 

   953     Establishing fictional events into the time-sequence of the Shared

   954     Imaginary Space. Includes DFK, IIEE, and narration, among other

   955     things. A necessary feature of System.

   956 

   957 Resource

   958 

   959     A Character Component. An available quantity upon which

   960     Effectiveness or Positioning mechanics may draw, or which are

   961     reduced to reflect harm to the character. Arguably applicable to

   962     non-character components of play as well.

   963 

   964 Reward System

   965 

   966     (a) The personal and social gratification derived from role-playing,

   967     a feature of Creative Agenda. (b) In-game changes, usually to a

   968     player-character, a feature of System and Character. (c) As a subset

   969     to (b), improvement to one or more of the character?s Components.

   970     Typically, the term refers to how (a) is facilitated by (b).

   971 

   972 Right to Dream, the

   973 

   974     Commitment to the imagined events of play, specifically their

   975     in-game causes and pre-established thematic elements. One of the

   976     three currently-recognized Creative Agendas. As a top priority for

   977     role-playing, the defining feature of Simulationist play. See

   978     /Simulationism: the Right to Dream/.

   979 

   980 Roads to Rome

   981 

   982     A technique of scenario preparation in which the GM has prepared a

   983     climactic scene and maneuvers or otherwise determines that character

   984     activity leads to this scene.

   985 

   986 Roles, "role levels

   987 

   988     "(1) The player's social role in terms of his character - the mom,

   989     the jokester, the organizer, the placator, etc. (2) The character's

   990     thematic or operational role relative to the other characters - the

   991     leader, the brick, the betrayer, the ingenue, etc. (3) The

   992     character's in-game occupation or social role - the pilot, the

   993     mercenary, the alien wanderer, etc. (4) The character's specific

   994     Effectiveness values - armor rating, weapon attributes, specific

   995     skills and their values, available funds, etc. See /The class issue/.

   996 

   997 Rules

   998 

   999     Textual instruction about (a) anything and everything concerning

  1000     role-playing this particular game, or (b) specifically Techniques

  1001     and Ephemera. Used in this sense, Rules are distinct from the System

  1002     actually employed during play, although it may be used as a

  1003     reference or justification for it.

  1004 

  1005 Scene Framing

  1006 

  1007     A GM-task in which many possible Techniques are used to establish

  1008     when a sequence of imaginary events begins and ends, what characters

  1009     are involved, and where it takes place. Analogous to a "cut" in film

  1010     editing which skips fictional time and/or changes location. A

  1011     necessary feature of System.

  1012 

  1013 Screen Time

  1014 

  1015     The extent of attention afforded to a given player's Explorative

  1016     contributions from the other participants, with special emphasis on

  1017     that participant?s access to applying the System. A type of Ephemera.

  1018 

  1019 Search Time

  1020 

  1021     The real time required to determine necessary values or information

  1022     prior to applying a resolution Technique. See also Handling Time.

  1023 

  1024 Setting

  1025 

  1026     Elements described about a fictitious game world including period,

  1027     locations, cultures, historical events, and characters, usually at a

  1028     large scale relative to the presence of the player-characters. A

  1029     Component of Exploration.

  1030 

  1031 Shared Imagined Space (SIS, Shared Imagination)

  1032 

  1033     The fictional content of play as it is established among

  1034     participants through role-playing interactions. See also Transcript

  1035     (which is a summary of the SIS after play) and Exploration (a near

  1036     or total synonym).

  1037 

  1038 Skewer

  1039 

  1040     A description of a given person?s preferred way to role-play,

  1041     "piercing" down from Social Contract through all the layers of the

  1042     Big Model. Most player-classification lists (/Strike Force/,

  1043     /Champions 4th edition/, /Robin?s Laws/) present Skewers. Term

  1044     coined by Ron Edwards.

  1045 

  1046 Simulationism (Simulationist play)

  1047 

  1048     One of the three currently-recognized Creative Agendas. See The

  1049     Right to Dream.

  1050 

  1051 Simulationist-by-habit

  1052 

  1053     A form of Synecdoche which defines "role-playing" according to

  1054     certain historically-widespread Simulationist approaches to play.

  1055     The system's job is to provide the physics of the game-world" is a

  1056     good example. Term coined by Jesse Burneko.

  1057 

  1058 Situation

  1059 

  1060     Dynamic interaction between specific characters and small-scale

  1061     setting elements; Situations are divided into scenes. A component of

  1062     Exploration, considered to be the "central node" linking Character

  1063     and Setting, and which changes according to System. See also Kicker,

  1064     Bang, and Challenge.

  1065 

  1066 Social Context

  1067 

  1068     How role-playing as an activity relates to one's social life in

  1069     general. See /Social Context/ and /What does role-playing gaming

  1070     accomplish?/.

  1071 

  1072 Social Contract

  1073 

  1074     /This is a key concept/. See the first section.

  1075 

  1076 Stakes

  1077 

  1078     What stands to be lost and/or gained during Gamist play; the term

  1079     may be applied at either or both Step on Up (participants) or

  1080     Challenge (characters) levels of play.

  1081 

  1082 Stance

  1083 

  1084     The cognitive position of a person to a fictional character.

  1085     Differences among Stances should not be confused with IC vs. OOC

  1086     narration. Originally coined in the RFGA on-line discussions; see

  1087     /John Kim?s website/ for archives. Current usage modified in /GNS

  1088     and other matters of role-playing theory/. See Author, Actor, and

  1089     Director Stance.

  1090 

  1091 Step On Up

  1092 

  1093     Social assessment of personal strategy and guts among the

  1094     participants in the face of risk. One of the three

  1095     currently-recognized Creative Agendas. As a top priority of

  1096     role-playing, the defining feature of Gamist play.

  1097 

  1098 Story

  1099 

  1100     An imaginary series of events which includes at least one

  1101     protagonist, at least one conflict, and events which may be

  1102     construed as a resolution of the conflict. A Story is a subset of

  1103     Transcript distinguished by its thematic content. Role-playing may

  1104     produce a Story regardless of which Creative Agenda is employed.

  1105 

  1106 Story Now

  1107 

  1108     Commitment to Addressing (producing, heightening, and resolving)

  1109     Premise through play itself. The epiphenomenal outcome for the

  1110     Transcript from such play is almost always a story. One of the three

  1111     currently-recognized Creative Agendas. As a top priority of

  1112     role-playing, the defining feature of Narrativist play.

  1113 

  1114 Storymap

  1115 

  1116     A technique of scenario preparation in which all participants

  1117     present situations, locales, problems, and characters, after which

  1118     most of the participants choose characters to play individually.

  1119     First presented in /Legends of Alyria/.

  1120 

  1121 Switch

  1122 

  1123     A customizable aspect of System which allows participants to allow

  1124     it to be present or absent during play, often for the whole of that

  1125     particular group?s play. A Dial with two settings (on/off). Also

  1126     called a toggle. The term was first presented in /Champions Millenium/.

  1127 

  1128 Synecdoche

  1129 

  1130     Taking a part for the whole, or vice versa. A common problem in

  1131     discussing Creative Agenda; see /GNS and other matters of

  1132     role-playing theory/.

  1133 

  1134 System

  1135