Role-playing game theory

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Role-playing game theory is the study of role-playing games (RPGs) as a social or artistic phenomenon, also known as ludology. RPG theories seek to understand what role-playing games are, how they function, and how the gaming process can be refined in order to improve the play experience and produce better game products.

Contents

Notable theories about tabletop role-playing games include the Threefold model and GNS theory, which developed in conversation with the indie role-playing game forum The Forge in the early 2000s. Notable theories about live action role-playing games include the Meilahti School, the Turku School, and Emancipatory Bleed, which developed in conversation with the Knutepunkt convention in Scandenavia.

Role-playing games

Role-playing games are games in which players assume the role of characters in a fictional setting. [1] Role playing games come in various types and categories:

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs)
Players describe their characters' actions through speech. They determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a system of rules and guidelines, usually involving randomization. [2] [3] :
Live action role-playing games (LARPs)
Players physically portray their characters, interacting with each other while pursuing goals within a fictional setting represented by real-world environments. [4] :
Online Video and Computer Games (OVCGs)
Players play cooperatively online via large networked servers. [5] : 6  Examples include World of Warcraft (Blizzard), Rift (Trion Worlds), and Star Wars: The Old Republic (BioWare).
Collectible strategy game (CSG)
Players play with "collectible material artifacts" such as cards or figurines. [5] : 5  Examples include collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering .

History

Early theories

The first organized critical reflection and academic research on RPGs from their inception in the mid-1970s through the 1980s focused on examining and refuting the early controversies surrounding the hobby at the time. Arguably, the first examination of the field in clinical terms was Shared Fantasies: Role Playing Games as Social Worlds [6] by Gary Fine. Gary Gygax, a co-originator of the hobby with Dave Arneson, published two books on his philosophy of role-playing: Role Playing Mastery: Tips, Tactics and Strategies in 1989 and Master of the Game in 1990.

In 1994–95 Inter*Active (later renamed Interactive Fiction) published a magazine devoted to the study of RPGs. In the first issue Robin Laws called for the creation of a critical theory for role-playing games. [7] By the late 1990s, discussion on the nature of RPGs on rec.games.frp.advocacy had generated several theories of RPGs which spread to other sites and influenced theorists in France and Scandinavia.[ citation needed ]

The Knutepunkt and The Forge

Opposing ideological camps about the nature and function of RPGs emerged in late 1990s Scandinavia. Designers of live action role-playing games in the Nordic LARP tradition began holding a yearly convention called the Knutepunkt that prominently featured RPG theory. The first Knutepunkt was held in Oslo in 1997, and the annual convention is still being organized today. [8] [9]

Around the same time, between 1999 and 2012, an indie role-playing game internet forum called the Forge studied RPG theory with a focus on tabletop games. The Forge's editorial lead, Ron Edwards, developed the GNS Theory of role-playing games. [10]

Ideas from The Forge and Knutepunkt influenced each other over the years. Although the Forge is now defunct, Knutepunkt has continued to grow. Knutepunkt publishes an annual collection of analytical articles on role-playing. [11]

Notable theories

Some RPG theories include:

Threefold Model
Developed at rec.games.frp.advocacy from 1997 to 1998; proposed by Mary Kuhner, and FAQed by John Kim. It hypothesizes that any GM decision will be made for the purpose of game, drama, or simulation. The focus on game, drama, and simulation is why the threefold model is also known as GDS Theory. Thus, player preferences, GMing styles, and even RPG rulesets can be characterised as Game-oriented, Drama-oriented or Simulation-oriented, or more usually as somewhere between the three extremes. This is sometimes called GDS theory. [12] Strictly, GDS theory is concerned with players' social interactions, but it has been extrapolated to direct game design, both in and out of the world of RPGs. A game can be classified according to how strongly it encourages or facilitates players reinforcing behaviors matching each category. Game designers find it useful because it can be used to explain why players play certain games.
GEN Theory
Developed at Gaming Outpost in 2001 largely by Scarlet Jester. It hypothesizes a top and bottom "tier" of play, with the top tier being dominated by "Intent" which is divided into Gamist, Explorative, and Narrative. It was influenced by threefold and GNS theory. [13]
GNS Theory and The Big Model or Forge Theory
Ron Edwards of The Forge developed a variant of the Threefold Model called GNS Theory, then with contributions from other Forge users, developed GNS Theory further into The Big Model between 1999 and 2005. It models roleplaying games as having 4 levels: the social contract, exploration, techniques, and ephemera, with creative agendas governing the link from social contract to technique. In this theory there are 3 kinds of creative agenda: Gamist, Narrativist, and Simulationist (GNS). These theories are detailed in Edwards' articles "GNS and Other Matter of Role Play Theory," "System Does Matter," "Narrativism: Story Now" "Gamism: Step on Up" and "Simulationism: The Right to Dream." [14]
Color Theory
Developed by Fabien Ninoles in 2002, was developed on the French createurs-jdr mailing list. It is an inheritor of SCARF theory and SCAR theory, which then interacted with English language theories. In this theory the goals of system design are thought of as the primary colors of TV light - green for simplicity, blue for realism, and red for consistency. Notions like adaptability, tenacity, brightness, and visibility extend the metaphor. [15]
Channel Theory
Developed by Larry Hols in 2003; hypothesizes that game play is made up of "channels" of various kinds such as "narration," "moral tone" or "fidelity to setting." It developed in part as a criticism of the three style theories. [16]
Wunderkammer-Gesamtkunstwerk (Wu-Ge) Model
Proposed by Lars Konzack of University of Copenhagen as a framework for analysis and design of RPGs, this model examines a role-playing game both as a composite whole (Gesamtkunstwerk) of four art forms: Sub-Creation (setting), Ludus (game system), Performance, and Narrative; and as a "cabinet of curiosities" (Wunderkammer), a metaphor for their capacity to smoothly incorporate any player-suggested concepts into their imaginary space. [17]
The Turku School
Developed in Turku, Finland, especially by Mike Pohjola from 1999 to the present. It advocates immersion ("eläytyminen") as the primary method of role-playing (especially live action role-playing), and artistic exploration as the primary goal. The Immersionist style is thought to be distinct from dramatist, gamist, and simulationist styles, and dramatism and gamism are thought to be clearly inferior styles of role-play, fit only for other mediums besides roleplaying. [18]
The Meilahti School
Developed in Helsinki, Finland, by Jaakko Stenros and Henri Hakkarainen beginning in 2002. It defines role-playing in a way that encompasses many different forms, and shuns normative choices about what the right or best forms are. "A role-playing game is what is created in the interaction between players or between player(s) and gamemaster(s) within a specified diegetic framework." [19]
Design patterns
RPG design patterns, developed by Whitson John Kirk III, is a system of RPG design based on software design patterns, focused on formalizing the mechanics observed in existing pen-and-paper role-playing games in a fashion that is agnostic of mood, genre, or setting. [20]
Emancipatory Bleed
In 2018, Jonaya Kemper coined the term "emancipatory bleed" and developed a theory [21] [22] [23] of how players with marginalized identities can achieve political liberation through embodying imaginary characters in live-action role-playing games. [24] [25] [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamemaster</span> Facilitator role in role-playing games

A gamemaster is a person who acts as a facilitator, organizer, officiant regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. The act performed by a gamemaster is sometimes referred to as "gamemastering" or simply "GM-ing."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live action role-playing game</span> Form of role-playing game where participants act out the roles

A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by real-world environments while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules or determined by consensus among players. Event arrangers called gamemasters decide the setting and rules to be used and facilitate play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Role-playing game</span> Game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNS theory</span> Role-playing game theory

GNS theory is an informal field of study developed by Ron Edwards which attempts to create a unified theory of how role-playing games work. Focused on player behavior, in GNS theory participants in role-playing games organize their interactions around three categories of engagement: Gamism, Narrativism and Simulation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Edwards (game designer)</span> American role-playing game designer

Ronald Edwards is a game designer involved in the indie role-playing game (RPG) community, and a game theorist. He created the Sorcerer role-playing game, the GNS theory of gameplay, and The Big Model. Edwards is also co-founder of The Forge, an online community to support indie RPG design and publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Threefold model</span> Role-playing game model

The threefold model or GDS theory of roleplaying games is an attempt to distinguish three different goals in roleplaying. In its original formation, these are: Drama, simulation, and game. It was the inspiration for subsequent theories, such as the GNS theory, which retained a three-way division but altered other aspects of the model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of role-playing games</span>

The history of role-playing games began when disparate traditions of historical reenactment, improvisational theatre, and parlour games combined with the rulesets of fantasy wargames in the 1970s to give rise to tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Multiple TTRPGs were produced between the 1970s and early 1990s. In the 1990s, TTRPGs faced a decline in popularity. Indie role-playing game design communities arose on the internet in the early 2000s and introduced new ideas. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, TTRPGs experienced renewed popularity due to videoconferencing, the rise of actual play, and online marketplaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Role-playing game terms</span> Words used in a specific sense in the context of role-playing games

Role-playing games (RPGs) have developed specialized terminology. This includes both terminology used within RPGs to describe in-game concepts and terminology used to describe RPGs. Role-playing games also have specialized slang and jargon associated with them.

The Knutepunkt is an annual role-playing game conference held annually in the Nordic countries since 1997. It has been a vital institution in establishing a Nordic role-playing identity, and in establishing the concept of "Nordic larp" as a unique approach. Though the conference started out strictly as a Live action role-playing event, it has since embraced role-playing games in a more general fashion. Today the conference still has an emphasis on larp, but programs devoted to traditional tabletop role-playing as well as newer arrivals such as freeform are common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indie role-playing game</span> Aspect of role-playing game publishing

An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published by individuals or small press publishers, in contrast to games published by large corporations. Indie tabletop role-playing game designers participate in various game distribution networks, development communities, and gaming conventions, both in person and online. Indie game designer committees grant annual awards for excellence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of live action role-playing games</span> Aspect of cultural history

Live action role-playing games, known as LARPs, are a form of role-playing game in which live players/actors assume roles as specific characters and play out a scenario in-character. Technically, many childhood games may be thought of as simple LARPs, as they often involve the assumption of character roles. However, the scope of this article concerns itself mainly with LARPing in a technical sense: the organized live-action role-playing games whose origins are closely related to the invention of tabletop role-playing games in America in the 1970s.

Dragonbane was a large international live action roleplaying game (LARP) project. The game itself took place from July 27 to August 4, 2006 in Älvdalen, Sweden, close to the border with Norway. There were 325 players from several countries. While there was little media coverage in other countries, it received the attention of Scandinavian newspapers and gaming publications.

David Vincent Baker is a designer and theorist of tabletop role-playing games and the owner of indie role-playing games publisher Lumpley Games, which also hosts the archives of The Forge. He and his wife Meguey Baker designed Apocalypse World, the first game in the Powered by the Apocalypse system. Apocalypse World won Game of the Year, Best Support, and Most Innovative game at the 2010 Indie RPG Awards, and was 2011 RPG of the Year at both the Golden Geek Awards and Lucca Comics & Games. Baker also designed Dogs in the Vineyard, which won the 2004 Indie RPG Game of the Year and Innovation Award and was one of three games shortlisted for the 2004 Diana Jones Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Care Boss</span> LARP and tabletop role-playing game designer

Emily Care Boss is an indie roleplaying game designer, theorist and publisher. She was a foundational member of The Forge, an early leader in the indie role-playing game movement and is considered the creator of the American Freeform genre of roleplaying games, which combine indie RPG principles and mechanics with Nordic freeform and American chamber live action role-playing techniques. She has been referred to as the "Dean" of the North American school of structured freeform game design.

A transreality game, sometimes written as trans-reality game, describes a type of video game or a mode of gameplay that combines playing a game in a virtual environment with game-related, physical experiences in the real world and vice versa. In this approach a player evolves and moves seamlessly through various physical and virtual stages, brought together in one unified game space. Alongside the rising trend of gamification, the application of game mechanics to tasks that are not traditionally associated with play, a transreality approach to gaming incorporates mechanics that extend over time and space, effectively playing through a players day-to-day interactions.

Profound Decisions is a company running live action role-playing games in the United Kingdom.

<i>Interactive Fantasy</i> Roleplaying game magazine

Interactive Fantasy is a magazine was published in England by Hogshead Publishing that focused on role-playing games, especially game theory.

Jonaya Kemper is an American game design academic and game writer/designer. Kemper's work includes LARP, tabletop role-playing games, and computer games. Kemper coined the term and developed the theory of "emancipatory bleed."

<i>Honey & Hot Wax</i> Anthology of role-playing games

Honey & Hot Wax is an anthology of live action role-playing games on the theme of sex and sexuality, published by Pelgrane Press in 2020. It includes games by Sharang Biswas (co-editor), Yeonsoo Julian Kim, Julia Bond Ellingboe, Kat Jones, Lucian Kahn (co-editor), Jonaya Kemper, Will Morningstar, Alex Roberts, and Susanne. It also has a foreword by Naomi Clark, academic chair of NYU Game Center and designer of the board game Consentacle, as well as a chapter on consent by Maury Brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic LARP</span> Style of live action role-playing game

Nordic LARP is a style and tradition of live action role-playing games (LARPs) centered in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. New games premiere at the annual Knutepunkt Nordic LARP conference. Gameplay draws upon acting techniques and typically addresses serious and complex historical, political, and/or intellectual themes. For example, Just a Little Lovin' deals with the AIDS pandemic within the LGBTQ community in early 1980s New York City. Games prioritize character development, worldbuilding, and intense emotional experiences, in contrast to American LARP, which prioritizes competition and strategy. Nordic LARP players use the term "bleed" to refer to the experience of continuing to feel emotions from gameplay after the game has ended.

References

  1. ↑ "Role-playing game", Wikipedia, 2022-02-13, retrieved 2022-06-15
  2. ↑ Kim, John. "What is a Role-Playing Game?". Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
  3. ↑ Kim, John. ""Narrative" or "Tabletop" RPGs". Archived from the original on 29 August 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
  4. ↑ (Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique features: (a) The players physically embody their characters, and (b) the game takes place in a physical frame. Embodiment means that the physical actions of the player are regarded as those of the character. LARP participants may dress in the costume of their character and carry appropriate physical props (e.g., an 18th century militia LARP participant may wear a military uniform and carry a musket). Whereas in a RPG played by a group sitting around a table, players describe the actions of their characters (e.g., "I run to stand beside my friend"); in an equivalent situation in a LARP, a player would physically run to the appropriate point within the game space."
  5. 1 2 J. Patrick Williams; Sean Q. Hendricks; W. Keith Winkler (21 March 2006). Gaming as Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity and Experience in Fantasy Games. McFarland. ISBN   978-0-7864-5406-8.
  6. ↑ Shared Fantasies: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds ISBN   0-226-24943-3 / 0-226-24943-3 ISBN   978-0-226-24943-8 University of Chicago Press 1983
  7. ↑ The Hidden Art: Slouching Towards a Critical Framework of RPGs by Robin Laws
  8. ↑ "Knutepunkt". knutepunkt.org. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
  9. ↑ "Knutepunkt - Nordic Larp Wiki". nordiclarp.org. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
  10. ↑ "The Forge :: System Does Matter". www.indie-rpgs.com. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
  11. ↑ "Knutepunkt-books - Nordic Larp Wiki". nordiclarp.org. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
  12. ↑ The Threefold Theory FAQ by John Kim
  13. ↑ Everything You Need to Know about GEN Theory by Scarlet Jester
  14. ↑ The Forge’s article page, with the key articles to GNS Theory/Forge Theory
  15. ↑ Color Theory by Fabien Ninoles
  16. ↑ Channel Theory Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine , by Larry Hols
  17. ↑ Konzack, Lars (14 May 2015). "The Wunderkammer-Gesamtkunstwerk Model: A Framework for Role-Playing Game Analysis and Design". Academia.edu . Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  18. ↑ The Turku School
  19. ↑ "Blast from the Past: Meilahti". Jaakko Stenros. 2010-08-02. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
  20. ↑ Whitson John Kirk III (2009-09-13). RPG Design Patterns.
  21. ↑ Kemper, Jonaya (2018). “Playing to Create Ourselves: Exploring Larp and Visual Autoethnographic Practice as a Tool of Self Liberation for Marginalized Identities.” Master’s Thesis. New York University.
  22. ↑ Kemper, Jonaya. (2017): "The Battle of Primrose Park: Playing for Emancipatory Bleed in Fortune & Felicity Documentation." NordicLarp.org June 21, 2017. Accessed April 9, 2021.
  23. ↑ Kemper, Jonaya. (2020): Wyrding the Self. In Eleanor Saitta, Johanna Koljonen, Jukka Särkijärvi, Anne Serup Grove, Pauliina Männistö, & Mia Makkonen (eds.). What Do We Do When We Play? Helsinki; Solmukohta 2020. Accessed April 9, 2021.
  24. ↑ Steele, Samara Hayley (2021). "'To Larp, or Not to Larp?' Must Embodiment and Code Deployment Reinforce Systemic Injustice across Larp Platforms?". ELMCIP. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  25. ↑ Hollander, Aaron T. (2021). "Blessed Are the Legend-Makers: Experimentation as Edification in Dungeons & Dragons". Political Theology. 22 (4): 316–331. doi:10.1080/1462317X.2021.1890933. S2CID   233956866.
  26. ↑ Toft, Ida; Harrer, Sabine (2020). "Design Bleed: A Standpoint Methodology for Game Design" (PDF). Proceedings of DiGRA 2020: 1–18.
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