[svn] r2046@freebird: fabien | 2005-12-30 13:41:56 -0500
Ajout de la target install.
Retrait de la target update.
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<article>
<articleinfo>
<title>System Color</title>
<subtitle>A typology of RPG mechanics</subtitle>
<abstract>
<para>Role playing game design is an art, <quote>a system of
principles and rules for attaining a desired end</quote>.
However, it's an art in its infancy. Although many models
have been available to describe the experience of role-playing
game, not much have been done regarding mechanics. We have
the DKF description, some designation regarding levels of
design or mechanics elements but mostly nothing about goal of
mechanics, or only in a very abstract form. This article aim
to explore a single aspect of game mechanics, which is to
determine which qualities are necessary or at least desirable
in all role playing games. This, we hope, will be a first
premise to more characterization of mechanics, helping us to
discuss and evaluate different systems, and, with the help of
other tools, finally create a real science of role-playing
game design.</para>
</abstract>
<keywordset>
<keyword>GDS model</keyword>
<keyword>role-playing game</keyword>
<keyword>system design</keyword>
<keyword>simulationism, gamism and narrativism</keyword>
</keywordset>
<author>
<firstname>Fabien</firstname>
<surname>Niñoles</surname>
</author>
<copyright>
<year>2002-2003</year>
<holder>Fabien Niñoles</holder>
</copyright>
<revhistory>
<revision>
<revnumber>0.5r3 :</revnumber>
<date>2003-06-02</date>
<revdescription>
<para>Add a paragraph about the link between Beauty and
colors. Add some keywords to the document. A small
remarks is add about the adaptability section.</para>
</revdescription>
</revision>
<revision>
<revnumber>0.4r4:</revnumber>
<date>2003-01-26</date>
<revdescription>
<para>A lot of minor revisions. Reverse Cyan and Magenta
association. Mixed up colors, sorry! Nostalgic Magenta is
now called Expressive Magenta, and Dream Blue is now
Immersive Blue. I think a lot about adding a new chapter
about this. Also, change the title since this is really a
Typology of mechanics.</para>
</revdescription>
</revision>
<revision>
<revnumber>0.3r2 :</revnumber>
<date>2003-01-10</date>
<revdescription>
<para>Add Brightness description. Move Transparency into
Brightness and add a note about difference Transparent
system and Transparent <emphasis>Color</emphasis>
system.</para>
</revdescription>
</revision>
<revision>
<revnumber>0.2 :</revnumber>
<date>2003-01-10</date>
<revdescription>
<para>First complete release (public).</para>
</revdescription>
</revision>
<revision>
<revnumber>0.1 :</revnumber>
<date>2003-01-01</date>
<revdescription>
<para>Initial release (incomplete).</para>
</revdescription>
</revision>
</revhistory>
</articleinfo>
<section id="intro">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>What's the art of game design? The Webster 1913 defined art
as a system of rules and principles for attaining a desired end.
So, what are those rules, those principles, and more important,
what's this desired end? For this last question, I think you
can have as many answers as there are role players. Although
some people have defined and described carefully the motivations
and goals of players, not much have be done regarding how those
goals can be satisfied.</para>
<para>The goal of this article is to make a new step in this
direction. What I try to do is to answer to a single question:
<quote>What's desirable, if not necessary, in every role
playing game system?</quote> That's a very hard question to
answer since most role playing games have different goals,
different settings, different ways to make the role playing
experience exciting and fun. But strangely, this appeared to be
the easier obstacle encountered on this road. The bigger
obstacle I met were the lack of a common vocabulary among
designers. No designer has the same way of naming things, and
that's true either in French or English. Also, people often
used the same word for talking about very different things. So
to avoid this problem, I chose a very different approach: I
decided to use a color metaphor. Since colors are a bit opaque
to role playing system terminology, which doesn't help at all
for a tool aim to help communication, I had to add some
adjectives to them, just clear enough to hint the new reader
about the possible meaning of such colors.</para>
<para>The first version of this paper will solely be about those
colors of mechanics, as well as a short presentations of
examples. I however plan to add more to it, especially
regarding other aspects of role playing, like the relation
between those colors and the already existing typologies, like
GNS. But for the beginning, we have to define first what
constitutes a role playing game, and especially, what's a role
playing game system.</para>
</section>
<section id="rpgdef">
<title>What's a Role Playing Game?</title>
<para>This section is not about defining in details what's a role
playing game but mostly to propose a common vocabulary about
what constitutes a role playing game, so that we can know what
we are talking about. A typical role playing game can be seen
to be constituted of two parts:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>a description of an imaginary universe called the
<emphasis>setting</emphasis>;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>a set of rules to handle events resolution in the
setting, called the <emphasis>system</emphasis>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Usually, the setting is divided in many more elements, like
the characters we can encounter in this particular universe, the
environment (either social, technological, historical and/or
geographical) in which those characters evolve, examples of
situations those characters can encounter, as well as notes
about the intended atmosphere of this universe. Some or even
all of those elements can be omitted or more or less detailed.
When most elements are omitted, or without specified with much
details, we call this kind of system universal or generic. I
prefer the second appellation because, although most generic
system pretend to be usable in any setting, they are often just
a generalization of one or many settings, sharing some common
elements. Except for this small difference, we will now only
talk about setting and generic setting as a whole, without
addressing more concerns about their internal elements. Is not
that those elements aren't important in designing a good role
playing game, but it's a way to stay on our focus.</para>
<para>Systems are also often divided into multiple parts,
classified in multiple differents ways, etc. Systems often even
contains some elements of setting, like particularity of the
environment. For now, we just want to consider systems as a
whole. We only make one distinction: system elements that
contain no element which can be considered part of the setting
would be called mechanics, and mechanics or system elements that
contains or describe part of the setting (including situational
elements like combat or character description) will be called
rules. This is certainly not enough for a more in-depth
exploration of system composition but it will be sufficient for
our purpose.</para>
<para>Meta-gaming elements are elements often external to a role
playing game. They included things like the location where the
game is set, the current mood of the players, their perception
of the reality, the quality (access, language, medium) of
communication between them, the presence of materials, their
relationship, etc. They are aspects of the gaming experience
which can be seen as out of the current setting but are still
part of the role playing experience. Some systems or even
setting elements can influence or help to make some meta-gaming
elements either less intrusive or more fun and interesting.
They can also adapt to accommodate some less optimal meta-gaming
elements, like the presence of a noisy environment. Meta-gaming
elements can often influenced both (although the designer have
mostly no control over them except written recommendation) and
some role playing games even used them to enhance the role
playing experience.</para>
</section>
<section id="colormodel">
<title>The color model</title>
<para>The color model are composed of the three primary additive
colors: red, green and blue. Just like any colors, some people
prefers some of them more than the others. That's OK, from
taste and colors, one can't discuss. However, we want to make a
small exception to this rule: we will supposed that everyone
will prefer bright colors instead of darker one. Brightness
represent the adherence of a system to a specific color (mix are
allowed). So, since we supposed that any color are at least
desirable, you'll always prefer a brighter mechanic instead of a
darker one, as long as it is of the right color. Take note that
a system that mix all colors will be white and bright. And a
system that have no color at all will be black. Maybe you still
prefer darker colors in real life (like most role players, if
you look at the way most of them are dressed up), but make a
small effort now or use negative vision. Elsewhere, you'll just
fall in the darker side of role playing game, full of munchkins
and rules lawyers. Are you sure you want to go there?</para>
<para>To help to better understand the concept behind each color,
especially when talking to a non-initiate, an adjective is
added to each of them. You are free to used it when you think
is necessary but try to make a link to this page for reference
so people know what you are talking about.</para>
<para>Here is the three primary colors and their definitions:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry id="reddef">
<term>Consistent Red</term>
<listitem>
<para>Consistent Red is the color of system that are
consistent with the setting elements they are supposed to
describe. If your setting describe, or more often
suppose, swords as more lethal than daggers, the system
should respect this and not make daggers equally or more
lethal than swords. A dark red system tend to interfere
with <literal>Suspension of Disbelief</literal>. Break in
Suspension of Disbelief is a phenomena which can be best
described as players rolling their eyes toward you, the
mouth wide open in an expression of incredulity, and
leaving your table to never came back again (and no,
that's not because their lost their way to the
refrigerator). Red was chose because of the its relation
with this <emphasis>stop attitude</emphasis>, as well as
the tendency of very high red system to be a bit bloody in
action. <emphasis>This is not, however, a universal
characteristic!</emphasis></para>
<para>A good example of system with a strong red color is
<trademark>RoleMaster</trademark> with their very detailed
systems for med-fan universe<footnote>
<para>Really, I'm not sure if this is a good example.
Any better suggestions welcome.</para>
</footnote>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="greendef">
<term>Fluid<footnote>
<para>Don't like this name but I want to avoid using
Simple in it, since Green is much more than only
Simplicity. Fluid is currently the only word I can
think.</para>
</footnote> Green</term>
<listitem>
<para>Fluid Green system are easy to learn and have often
low search and resolution time. They can however have a
lot of options to chose from, as long as those options are
clear and easy to handle. Those systems are often perfect
for beginners or people wanting quick pace systems,
without stopping to details. This is two good reasons to
give them the green color, this color being often
associated with beginners and speed.</para>
<para>A good example of a green system is <trademark
class="copyright">The Window</trademark>, a free RPG game
with very simple mechanics.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="bluedef">
<term>Immersive Blue</term>
<listitem>
<para>Immersive Blue rules help to sustain a particular
atmosphere in a game. This atmosphere can be either
dramatic, heroic, epic, scary, peaceful, imaginative, or
all of them at the same time. Just like the Consistent
Red, blue rules are strongly associated with the setting.
Blue was chose because of its association with atmosphere
and emotions.</para>
<para>One of the bluest system that the author know is
<trademark class="copyright">eight</trademark>, a free RPG
where all of the few rules participate to the setting
atmosphere.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>All of the three colors can be mixed together, in different
quantities. This give us 4 more different colors<footnote>
<para>Remember, this is the three
<emphasis>additive</emphasis> primary colors, just like your
television but unlike water painting, which used primary
<emphasis>subtractive</emphasis> colors.</para>
</footnote>:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry id="yellowdef">
<term>Clear-Sight Yellow (Red and Green)</term>
<listitem>
<para>Usually, when you want brighter red, you compromise on
a darker green, and when you want brighter green, you
often compromise with darker red. So this color is quite
rare, and yellow rules are real pearl of wisdom. Yellow
systems are able to give a maximum of consistency and
details from your setting, without removing speed and ease
of play. They promised really good play for those who
like to explore different elements of the setting.</para>
<para>As I said, yellow rules are quite rare. Yellow
systems even more. I failed to see a system where this
color dominate. If you think you have one, please tell
me.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="cyandef">
<term>Dramatic Cyan (Green and Blue)</term>
<listitem>
<para>One of the most popular color in new games presently.
The Cyan systems bring to front a very narrative aspect
with quick pace and easy rules. Consistent is not really
important since GM will just adjust the plot consequently.
This however give somewhat limited play and one should be
careful with the Suspension of Disbelief syndrome which
often augment with those kind of systems.</para>
<para>One popular example of Cyan systems are
<trademark>Nobilis</trademark> and the
<trademark>Storyteller</trademark> system (at least by
intentions).</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="magentadef">
<term>Expressive Magenta (Red and Blue)</term>
<listitem>
<para>A rare combination: Magenta systems tend to immersed
you into details. <emphasis>Many</emphasis> details. You
will be transport in a world where everything, actions or
materials, are described to the finest element. The trap
is that, too often, the lack of green in those systems
lead to a very hard to use and very slow progression of
the action. The players must be patient or the GM a real
expert to be able to handle such systems.</para>
<para>Good examples of those systems included mostly
science-fiction or military oriented settings.
<trademark>Heavy Gear</trademark> can be described as one
of them under certain aspects.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="whitedef">
<term>Pure White (Red, Green and Blue)</term>
<listitem>
<para>White system can be think as the perfect system and
can be easy obtain for a very limited and specific
setting. However, such settings are often very limited in
use and, as we will see later, white system tend to dilute
(we call this a lack of Tenacity) and get darker very
easily.</para>
<para>I have no really good example of such systems. As
said, most white system tend to became darker with usage
and/or a new color quickly dominate.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</section>
<section id="freedom">
<title>Freedom</title>
<para>Since both the red and blue colors have deep root in the
setting, we also want to know how colors are affect by change to
the setting. For this, we defined two different movements or
degrees of freedom for the color:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry id="tenacitydef">
<term>Tenacity</term>
<listitem>
<para>Tenacity represent how much a system retains the same
color when the setting change. This is a researched
quality for generic systems, but also for RPG with a very
diversified setting. Systems that are limited to a few
character types or situations (like only combat) doesn't
need a great Tenacity in their colors.</para>
<para>Example of system with a good Tenacity is
<trademark>GURPS</trademark>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="chameleondef">
<term>Chameleon</term>
<listitem>
<para>Chameleon systems are able to change their colors to
fit better with the new setting. This is a very rare
quality, mostly research for generic system.</para>
<para>The only system I know which try to be chameleon is
<trademark>Multiverser</trademark>, a system with a bias
parameter for fitting with different universes.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>Both degrees of freedom can appear together for a particular
system and react differently. They can also keep their quality
only for a specific range of settings. For example, the D&D
system has a Tenacity mostly in general medieval-fantastic
settings.<footnote>
<para>I think the best way to describe of this components is
talking about inertia and direction changes, but this add a
new level of metaphor so I ended up inventing new terms that will
fit better with the metaphor. What do you think about?</para>
</footnote></para>
<remark>I currently doesn't like this section much. The old idea
behind adaptability is not well enough represent. But for this,
I should probably work a little more with the background
setting.</remark>
</section>
<section id="beauty">
<title>Beauty of the system</title>
<para>The colors aren't the only important qualities of a system.
One very important, if not the most important one, is the fun
factor. We are doing role playing for only one thing: having
fun. However, fun is a very personal thing where everyone have
opinion about. Some people can find one system fun and other
can find them dull. Since fun are <quote>in the eye of the
beholder</quote>, we use another quality related to our painting
metaphor that have the same characteristic: Beauty.</para>
<para>Why some people find something beautiful and not something
else? Well, there is too much factors to enumerate all of them,
but colors can have something to do with it. Someone can prefer
the red color, and another one will prefer a yellow color. Same
thing for mechanics. Some people can prefer Red Mechanics,
other want Yellow mechanics and dislike Blue mechanics. Could
you satisfy all of them? Well, the golden rule in RPG is that
if you dislike a rule, ignored it. It's very easy to ignore a
rule, less easy to change it or replace it. In the color
metaphore, this is equivalent to wearing colorized glasses. If
you have some white light and wear yellow glasses, you'll see
the world in yellow. But if you only have blue light, your
yellow glasses will block it and you'll see nothing. Same thing
for mechanics. White mechanics are good because you can please
everyone by simply using the right filter on everyone. If one
color is lacking, however, whatever the color of your glasses,
you will not be able to create it, except if the mechanics is
sufficiently <link linkend="transparency">Transparent</link>, a
matter we will see later in <xref linkend="brightness"/>.</para>
</section>
<section id="visibility">
<title>The visibility of the rules</title>
<para>Systems are composed of rules, but not all rules are
necessary of the same color. How each rule influence the global
system apparency is called the visibility of the rule.
Visibility represent mostly how often a rule can be used and
what will be their influence on the current game. This is an
important aspect when designing a role playing system. Often,
you can make a tradeoff in a not so much visible aspect of the
system without affecting the whole color. By
<emphasis>hiding</emphasis> such color into less visible aspect,
you can, for example, achieve an overall more reddish system,
without necessary affecting the green brightness.</para>
<para>Visible rules are often the resolution mechanism, combat
rules (in action oriented settings) and PC statistics. Less
visible rules are often the initial creation mechanism (you just
used it once) and evolution mechanics of the character (which
usually only happens at the end of a game).</para>
</section>
<section id="brightness">
<title>Brightness and Transparency</title>
<para>Before going further, a little more clarification is needed.
What is Brightness? How it affects the role playing
experience?</para>
<para>Well, Brightness in this model looks more like a spell of
Light, and is opposite, the spell of Darkness. Dark colors will
not only have a low effect but even make your settings and your
whole role playing experience <emphasis>darker</emphasis>, which
means less fun and less interesting. On the opposite way, a
brighter system will not only let your setting and GM talents
show up, but will enhance your experience, sustaining and even
creating a more fun and entertaining experience.</para>
<para>So one should not think that ignoring a color will do no
harm. All colors are necessary, but some settings and/or GM can
provide their own light to the role playing experience and so
don't need much. So, the point where a rule color switch from
being dark to bright really depends on the quality of the
setting and the talents of the GM. A beginner GM will find a
system very bright that a more experienced GM will find too dark
for him. This is however not a good reason to compare GM with
the color system. How a GM can make a system looks Greener,
Bluer or Redder for the players it's an open question not
address in this article. Same thing about the settings. But
it's clear that the brighter the system, the best it can help
the GM to make a good role playing experience for his players,
and fit the needs of more GM.</para>
<section id="transparency">
<title>Transparency</title>
<para>There is some system which depends a lot on the GM
abilities to bring some brightness to it. We call this
characteristic Transparency. A Transparent system let the GM
take more decisions about the right way to handle differents
situations. They have a very low strictness, often just
providing guidelines on how to interpret some results,
determine difficulty, or even how to resolve differents
situations.</para>
<para>There are two common misconceptions with Transparent
systems. The first is that Transparent System necessary
Green. This is not true at all. By letting the GM abilities
take care of many aspects of the role playing experience,
transparent system are mainly for mature and experienced
players, which is the opposite of some Green qualities.</para>
<para>The other misconception is that Green systems are
Transparent. This misconception is part due to the fact that
Green systems seems to go mostly with the flow that we have
the impression that the system is absent, the game going by
itself. This is a quality of Green systems, not Transparent
one, although that with a good GM, it can be seen this way.
In fact, transparent systems take more easily the color the GM
want and, for this, looks a lot like <link
linkend="chameleondef">Chameleon</link> systems.<footnote>
<para>Transparent system denomination is often in a more
broad context than here. The right definition seems to
vary a lot and so, I prefer to make my own. Generally
speaking, what people seems to call transparent systems
seems to be more a kind of either Bright Green or
Transparent systems in the Colors model. Try to not
confuse people by specifying clearly that you are talking
about Transparent Color systems.</para>
</footnote></para>
<para>Transparency, however, is not necessary a goal desirable
for any RPG system. As we have said, Transparent system can
be very hard on newcomers to RPG. They need some experience
from the GM and also the players to make the role playing
experience fun and interesting. Transparent systems provide
no light by them self, but also no darkness. So, if you're an
experienced GM or aim your game to experienced GM, transparent
system can be great.</para>
<para>Examples of transparent systems include <trademark
class="copyright">The Window</trademark> and <trademark>Hero
Wars</trademark>.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="red">
<title>The red color</title>
<para>Consistent Red elements of a particular system are hard to
define. The first thing to know when trying to set the red part
of a system (or to evaluate the red component of a system) is to
know what's the particular element of the setting which is
currently simulate and how this element must be and behave. For
most setting elements, the creator simply doesn't know.</para>
<para>A common assumption is to considered the setting as an image
of our reality. This assumption is good most of the time except
that there is also many parts, not always explicitly state as
so, that differs from our reality laws. For example, we want
our characters to be greater than normal, to have special
powers, to not die easily and we have this special race which
are incredibly big or small and which could not have survived
within our physical laws or those spaceships that can warp the
universe using an improbability motor. For all of this, as well
as for avoiding useless complication, we normally don't want our
system to be an exact simulation of <emphasis>our</emphasis>
reality. We want it to allow some break with our normal
physical laws and history, without affecting too much the
overall credibility of the setting. Players are usually ready
and even interest to accept such break with the normal rules of
our daily reality, in exchange of some fantasy.</para>
<para>But here an important word was said:
<emphasis>credibility</emphasis>. What's make a system
credible? A credible system act in a predictable way when you
ask it to simulate different setting aspects. If the setting
say that an experienced fighter will be able to resist easily
and with no danger to a peasant, the simulation should represent
this by giving greatest chance to the fighter to win against the
peasant. How much exactly is a matter of perception, but here
again, another important word was said: the system must be
<emphasis>predictable</emphasis>. With a predictable system,
the creator or the GM can adjust the representation of the
setting elements in the system, the way she expects them to
react, which is certainly the best way to have a credible
system.</para>
<para>Another important factor for reddish system is about limits.
The setting often put some limits on the capacity of many of its
elements. A fighter can't lift more than a certain amount of
weight and magic power couldn't change the past for example.
Those limits must be represent in the system. Although those
limits can often be directly imposed by the mechanics used in
the system, another way is to use a limitless mechanics and to
let arbitration imposed such limits. This make things more
complex a little but act like a chameleon mechanism to the
system. So the creator or the GM don't have to change the core
mechanics when the setting change, they just have to change the
few rules that set the limits.</para>
<para>Having a limitless mechanism also give another degree of
freedom to the system. Limitless mechanism act on a more
broader range of settings by definition and so have a better
Tenacity. Finding what's the limits of a system is a very good
way to evaluate both the red component of a system, as well as
its Tenacity. A system that have some setting elements out of
its limits doesn't have a bright red color, and a system that
have limits very close to the setting elements usually doesn't
have a good Tenacity neither. System that can move its limits
however without big modification also have a good Chameleon
freedom.</para>
<para>Finally, an important thing to understand about this color
it is that's not because you put more details that your system
became necessary redder! Details often just add to the
complexity, without giving any real brightness to the red
components. To add brightness to the red color, details must
really sustain a dissimilar assets to the setting elements
linked to it and this asset must be justified in the
setting.</para>
</section>
<section id="green">
<title>The green color</title>
<para>The green color is probably the color which is the more
affected by the <link linkend="visibility">visibility</link>.
Putting a green element on a low visibility aspect of your
setting will probably not affect your gaming experience very
much, but putting a bright green element on a very visible
system can totally change it.</para>
<para>The green color is the only one who addresses only system or
meta-gaming aspects. The setting isn't touch by it, at least
not directly. Its importance however is very high if you want
to let the setting take some place since a dark green system
often take all the place in the game, taking away all the other
elements. The Green color help a lot to not let the system
impede into the role playing experience.</para>
<para>There is many way to make a system greener, some of them
being quite opposed to each other and more a question of
balance. For example, a complex formula can be replace by a
chart for a better access, but too many charts is slower than
using a generic formula. There is also a learning curves that
can change the color aspect: a system can have a very stiff
learning curve (making it very dark green for a beginner) but
once learn and some practice add to it, becoming very quick and
easy to use (bright green). The best is to have both aspect
together (smooth learning curve and fast resolution time) but
it's all a question of tradeoff.</para>
<para>Using character classes, not only make the system greener,
but can also help to aboard the setting. Using derived
attributes instead of summing them in play can also help, as
long as they aren't too much. This method is especially useful
for high visible elements of the system. There can be many
gaming help also like a good index, summary charts for most
visible elements, especially on the player character sheet or
the game master screen. Multiple rolls or too much dice can
also slow down the game, as well as too complex formula or too
many factors. Try to combine them when needed in just one roll
and avoid adding unnecessary randomness. For example, use the
success margin of a <literal>to hit</literal> roll instead of
rolling another dice to determine the level of damage can help
if the margin of success is easy to determine, or in an
opposition roll, let only one opponent roll instead of both: the
result will automatically determine the result of the other
guy.<footnote>
<para>This is good only if that make sense, like in a strength
test. If they are some chance for both opponents to fail
simultaneously, just allowing this kind of rolls could
tarnish the red color of your system.</para>
</footnote></para>
</section>
<section id="blue">
<title>The blue color</title>
<para>This color is clearly the more difficult to talk about.
Blue is the less <link linkend="tenacitydef">tenacious</link>
color and is mostly based on the setting elements. More over,
contrarily to the red color, there is no clear common ground of
setting elements that we can consider to be desirable for most
settings. So, the only way we can speak about the blue color,
is by speaking about genre.</para>
<para>Genre is a very vague term defined as a specific kind of
artistic work. For our concern, we will define genre as a set
of different setting elements share between many settings.
Genre can overlap between them and a setting can have different
genres at the same time. The most common elements addressed by
rules are the following:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry id="risk">
<term>Risk factor</term>
<listitem>
<para>The risk factor is a common concern of many genres.
It measures the importance or consequence of decision by
the players. A very risky setting will put players on
their toes, carefully thinking about any decision. Rare
and scarce resources (like hit points), with very hard
actions difficulties and possibility of botches, increase
this aspect. High risk factor is popular in the horror
genre and some very <emphasis>realistic</emphasis>
setting.</para>
<para>On the other side, a low risk setting will encourage
players to try different things and take risk. Generous
resources or a resolution mechanism allowing impossible
actions to be succeed (like destiny points) are different
ways to achieve such goals. Low risk factor is especially
popular in the so-called epic and heroic genres.</para>
<para>It's not very clear how Fortune mechanics (mechanics
primarily based on random elements) can affect this
aspect. A very high fortune system may allow incredible
success but also incredible fumbles. So, how much an
open-ended dice affect this factor is not clear at all and
can vary.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="destiny">
<term>We are heroes</term>
<listitem>
<para>Heroism is for characters that are kind of chosen by
their Gods. They aren't allow to fail easily nor even to
die. For this, they often have a kind of Destiny points
that can be spent at critical moment to avoid a fatal hit
or succeed a critical action. They can also be more
powerful than most of the other characters, either by
greater statistics, special gifts, or a systematic
advantages against their opponents. Sometime, this
systematic advantage is replace by a systematic
disadvantage towards minor NPC, which are treated as a
single opponent, how many they are. Those advantages
aren't necessary reserved for PC. Important NPC have
often similar advantages and so, constitute greater
adversaries for the PC.</para>
<para>This aspect is part of many genres, including heroism,
action movies, super heroes and often space opera. They
are often link with a low risk factor, although not
necessary.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="temptation">
<term>Temptation of the Dark Side</term>
<listitem>
<para>Temptation is an important part of many fantasy
settings (either medieval, modern or space opera) and
represent the struggle of passion where a character lost
control upon herself. It is usually represented with a
counter that count down (sometime without even the
possibility of reversal) and make the player lost the
control over her character. Each time the player do
something wrong or are in contact with a temptation, the
counter can decrease (may be after a failed test) and the
PC must check if it doesn't fall in the dark side (often
represent by some frenzy). The check usually represent
just a temporary lost of control, but when the counter
goes down to zero, the PC is, must of the time, considered
a NPC, and the player must create a new one.</para>
<para>Temptation can also take another aspect of opposite
values (like Chastity and Lust) going from one side to the
other. Each test failed reinforce the Value on the
victorious side, making each new test either more harder
to resist. It's usually very hard to change the balance of
the pairs of value otherwise.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>This list is very partial and mostly presented here as
examples of blue color rules. A more complete study of genres
and their support in system elements are expected in a future
project, not yet plan however. One important thing to note is
that the system is not the more important part into getting the
right atmosphere to a setting. The GM style and the setting is
often far more important. The blue color is more about how a
system can support such atmospheres but doesn't necessary create
neither guarantee it at all.</para>
<section id="metagaming">
<title>Meta-gaming elements</title>
<para>Meta-gaming elements can be as important to a role-playing
game as the system or even the setting. Why not rules can
used them as well to encourage a better role playing
experience? In the color model, system that encourage some
positive meta-gaming elements are considered bluer. This is
mostly because positive meta-gaming elements often also
encourage to create a better atmosphere for game play.</para>
<para>Although citing every way a system can encourage the usage
of positive meta-gaming elements to sustain a good playing
experience is not the scope of this article, a good example
how this can be achieve is by rewarding (either in direct
action bonus, or gain of some resources like Destiny points or
XP) for good role playing attitude (good description,
character sacrifice that increase the drama, etc.), extra work
on the character background, or log keeping for the group,
etc. Some games even have very specific mechanism for
meta-gaming, like <trademark>Marvel Super Heroes</trademark>'s
Humor Points. One could even encourage other players to
participate into this kind of rewarding by allowing them a
certain amount of points to give each session to other
players.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="gds">
<title>GDS-derived model and colors</title>
<para>The GDS model, also known as <ulink
url="http://www.darkshire.org/~jhkim/rpg/styles/faq_v1/faq1.art">Threefold
model</ulink> was created to address the concern that many role
players have diverse interests in role playing games. How those
aspects are exactly defined or even named vary between people,
and how those aspects must be addressed by role playing games
vary even more, to the point of complete contradiction between
different opinions. However, I will try to see how system can
sustain the different interests expressed in the models, using
the colors. It's clear that, by definition, all colors are
important, but we will try to see why they are, and how much,
relatively to each other, for each group of interests.</para>
<section id="gamist">
<title>Gamist interests</title>
<para>Gamist interests can be seen as mainly defined by challenge
and fair play. Importance is set to being able to have
relatively large set of options to influence the game (and
make the challenges interesting), to be able to have good
knowledge of the situation for fair decision, and some
measurable goals must be set to determine a condition of
victory.</para>
<para>This is probably the most difficult aspect to determine
the right color, but will we go for the <link
linkend="red">Red</link> color. This color is important to
provide a good environment for fair play. If the rules are
incoherent, your players will begin to play by the rules
instead of letting them go in character, to have some chance
of winning. You'll recognized this by sentences like:
<quote>I do this since it gives me a greater bonus</quote>
instead of <quote>I do this since it puts me in a better
position.</quote></para>
<para>The <link linkend="green">Green</link> color is also
important, as long as it doesn't remove dissimilarities of
assets. The player should be able to distinguish between
different options here and there and their decision shouldn't
be simply based on pure luck. Green rules can still lead to a
very good set of options with a lot of complexity in it.
Think about games like chess. Also, green rules allow someone
to more quickly be efficient, so the mental abilities of the
players become more important than it's knowledge of the game
rules, although this can also be taken as an element of
competition that please to some gamist oriented
players.</para>
<para>Finally, the <link linkend="blue">Blue</link> color can
sometime help to give players some goals to reach. This
shouldn't be neglected although, sometime, the goal
of gamers can be in a more <link
linkend="metagaming">meta-gaming</link> level.</para>
</section>
<section id="dramatist">
<title>Dramatist interests</title>
<para>Dramatists interests are mostly toward the story line.
They tend to consider a good story as the most important part
of role playing, with interests directed more toward a good
drama then victory or even verisimilitude. The system must
give them greater control upon the events with, if possible,
mechanics to create good climax and interesting endings, while
sustaining the right atmosphere for the game.</para>
<para>The must important color of dramatist is <link
linkend="blue">Blue</link>. A blue system have a lot of
elements to favor climax and atmosphere. The <link
linkend="green">Green</link> color is also important since it
usually give a little more control in the hand of the GM, and
doesn't impede too much into the flow of the game. Finally,
the <link linkend="red">Red</link> have still an important
part to play to enforce some verisimilitude of the story, as
long as this doesn't contradict with the goals of the
story.</para>
</section>
<section id="simulationnist">
<title>Simulationnist interests</title>
<para>Simulationist interests are also called Explorer interests
and I tend to prefer this latter term. Explorers are mostly
interest in discovering new setting elements, but also, to a
minor extend, some elements of the system or even meta-gaming
aspects (like how players react to RPG situations).</para>
<para>For Simulationists, the <link linkend="red">Red</link>
color is the more important. An inconsistent system will
invalidate the exploration experience, making the situation
sound not very believable. The <link
linkend="blue">Blue</link> color is also very interesting for
this kind of interests, allowing them to better immerse into
the game world, sustaining the experience by itself. Finally,
the <link linkend="green">Green</link> color is seen more like
a default necessity, the system must be fluid enough to not
impede into the exploration experience.</para>
</section>
<section id="gdscolors">
<title>Summary</title>
<para>So, Gamers are mostly Orange (Red, Green and Blue),
Dramatists are Turquoise (Blue, Green, Red), and
Simulationists are Purple (Red, Blue and Green). This is very
near the <link linkend="yellowdef">Clear-Sight Yellow</link>,
<link linkend="cyandef">Dramatic Cyan</link> and <link
linkend="magentadef">Expressive Magenta</link> of the <xref
linkend="colormodel"/>, seen before. Those colors are called
complementary of each other and make me think that the colors
model is complementary to the threefold model about role
playing games and so shouldn't be ignored when designing game.
It make in contrast the fact that's different kind of
interests can be addressed by the same system, although some
tradeoffs are often necessary.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="history">
<title>A SCARy history</title>
<para>The story of the color model begin with a heat discussion
between me and Cédric Lemaire on the createurs-jdr mailing list.
The thread subject was about what's a better system, or what's
can be ameliorate in a given system, regardless of personal
taste. We quickly find that we were talking about different
things using the same words, and so that we need to find a
little bit of vocabulary. After some work, we find up four
qualities upon which we agree that can only be an asset for any
role playing games, with particular definition for each, since
some of this qualities aren't very well defined when applied to
role playing game.</para>
<para>Months passed and I began to follow the English RPG forums
on Game Design. I found a lot of new theories about RPG but
nothing like the four qualities we have ended up on the French
mailing list. I decide to make an attempt to translate them and
call this system SCARF, including a new fifth quality to it, the
Fun factor. SCARF stand for Simplicity, Coherence,
Adaptability, Realism and Fun, and the definition were very
conceived (for example, a better definition of Realism should
have been Consistency between setting and system). The awaited
flame war that follow were bigger than I was expecting and I was
a bit surprise. On a somewhat impulsive reply where it seems
that all this mess where mostly a question of vocabulary, I
ended up to suggest that the SCARy Qualities were replace with
colors. I set Green for Simplicity, Blue for Coherence, and Red
for Realism. Adaptability was declared to be Tenacity.</para>
<para>It ended up that I really like the system. True, this were
more opaque than the precedent, but the color metaphor bring
with it many different aspects, especially the some undiscover
one, like the fact that Adaptability wasn't truly a Quality by
itself, but a Quality over the other Qualities. I promise to
get back with a more develop version of the SCAR color model and
return to the createurs-jdr mailing list. One post and a few
replies later, I quickly added new aspects to the Tenacity
model, dividing it between Tenacity, Chameleon and Transparency.
A remark about <trademark>Légendes</trademark> as a bright green
system once you pass the creation rules made me think about the
Visibility of a rule. Some more thoughts, and reading from the
Forge make me push Transparency was move from the colors freedom
to the Visibility section and finally to Brightness section
(which was mostly create the same day, with the Darkness Spell
metaphor add to it.).</para>
<para>That's all for the moment folks, but I think the color model
doesn't have entirely reveal itself and can still reserved some
good surprises. More works on it is to come soon, I
hope.</para>
</section>
<section id="ack">
<title>Acknowledgements</title>
<para>I would like to thank Cédric Lemaire, with which I develop,
in the context of a very heat flame war, the SCAR model, the
createurs-jdr mailing list members for their first commentary on
this system, John H. Kim, Brian Gleichman and Ron Edwards for
their wonderful works on RPG theory, and the members of the Art
of Game Design RPGnet forum for their inspirational comments that
lead to the colors model.</para>
</section>
</article>
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