A #PbtA #RPGtheory thread!
So you have a whole bunch of stuff in a game's design. Characters, fictional setting, dice, rules, abilities on character sheets, player roles like "player" and "GM"...
So you have a whole bunch of stuff in a game's design. Characters, fictional setting, dice, rules, abilities on character sheets, player roles like "player" and "GM"...
...And you have the moment of play, four friends talking together, live, right now.
It's tempting to say that the design-stuff "constrains" the moment of play, that the moment of play "enacts" the design-stuff. But I think that's backwards.
It's tempting to say that the design-stuff "constrains" the moment of play, that the moment of play "enacts" the design-stuff. But I think that's backwards.
In the moment of play, you reach into the design-stuff and choose what of it you'll bring to bear. Better to say that the moment of play draws on the design-stuff, that the design-stuff is there as a resource for the playgroup to use.
Especially as a designer, I'm always tempted to take the view that game design, like, CAUSES gameplay, but I don't think it's so.
The live interaction of the players, that's what's real. Designing a game means winning the playgroup over to doing things your design's way, again and again, moment to each individual moment.
Now, PbtA games are pretty good at this. Moves are evocative, high-impact, high-color little bundles of game design. They're easy to read, easy to remember, and they're easy for a designer to lay up for those moments when the playgroup is likely to be uncertain in play.
Consequently, at that moment of uncertainty, it's easy for the playgroup to reach out for a move and bring one into the game.
"When someone attacks someone," a playgroup is likely to want some rules to draw on, and moves make it easy to place some rules there for them.
"When someone attacks someone," a playgroup is likely to want some rules to draw on, and moves make it easy to place some rules there for them.
Relatively easy.
So that's #1: design-stuff that's you lay out, waiting and available, to bolster uncertain moments, ease or forestall awkward moments, in the playgroup's unstructured conversation.
(As RPG designers, we should give thanks every day that nature gave us these moments of conversational uncertainty, of potential awkwardness, to fit our game design into. Thank you, nature!)
#2 is design-stuff that gives a particular player a conversational benefit when the playgroup remembers it and brings it into play. PbtA games are pretty good at this too...
...And I want to talk about this in #UnderHollowHills, but my morning's catching up with me. Next time!
...And I want to talk about this in #UnderHollowHills, but my morning's catching up with me. Next time!
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