- Hemmelighedsfulde rollespil – hemmeligheder i rollespil, kirjoittajana Morten Greis Petersen, luokittelee rooleja, joita pelaajien salaisuuksilla ja erilaisilla tietotasoilla voi roolipeleissä olla. Näkökulma olettaa, että joku on etukäteen päättänyt salaisuuden roolin pelissä; pelkkä salaisuus, joka ehkä on tärkeä, ehkä ei, ei luokitteluun mahdu. https://rollespil.blog/2022/12/02/hemmelighedsfulde-rollespil-hemmeligheder-i-rollespil/
- A player’s hanbook, kirjoittajana Chris McDowall, antaa perusohjeita luolailuun. Pätevää ohjeistusta sotapelaamiseen ja uudentyyliseen vanhaan liiton pelaamiseen. https://www.bastionland.com/2018/08/a-players-handbook.html
- Recomposing Lovecraft: Genre Emulation as Autopoiesis in the First Edition of Call of Cthulhu, kirjoittajana Christian Mehrstam, näyttää miten Kutunluun kutsu saa sisältöään useista tyylilajeista: fantasia, kauhu, pulp, kolonialistiset tarinat. Yhteys Reaganin ajan USA:han on myös näkyvissä. http://ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IJRP-12-Full-Issue-Recomposing-Lovecraft-Genre-Emulation-as-Autopoiesis-in-the-First-Edition-of-Call-of-Cthulhu-Christian-Mehrstam.pdf
theory
Theory review #87
- DM habitus: the social dispositions of game mastering in Dungeons & dragons by Steven Dashiell takes a look at the roles of dungeon master, without considering differences in editions or between methods of play, in terms of habitus of Bourdieu. This results in seeing the dungeon master as a storyteller and with general power over all the parts of the game, though restricted by the fictional world and other participants. https://jarps.net/journal/article/view/37
- Nordic erotic larp: designing for sexual playfulness by Hanne Grasmo and Jaakko Stenros reviews erotic Nordic larps from several different directions and within the last ten years. https://ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IJRP-12-Full-Issue.pdf
- Co to jest za RPG? Blightburg by Mansfeld reviews the main distinctive features of Blightburg. https://commonfortress.com/2020/12/14/co-to-jest-za-rpg-blightburg/
- NoD #124 — War stories by Eero Tuovinen suggests why war stories from wargamey play might be more interesting in general than people telling about their characters in games that lack such context. https://www.arkenstonepublishing.net/isabout/2022/11/27/nod-124-war-stories/
- A mind game in game – Creating ludic unreliability to challenge players’ inference of the designer’s intention. by Kemchanin Pornpipatsakul summarizes an article that discusses deceptive (mostly digital) game design. https://www.tuni.fi/playlab/a-mind-game-in-game-creating-ludic-unreliability-to-challenge-players-inference-of-the-designers-intention/
Teori-indblik #86
- D&D 5th: Spelljammers kedelige begyndelse av Morten Greis Petersen analyserer et Spelljammer-scenarie og fortæller hvorfor det er ikke godt i det hele. https://rollespil.blog/2022/11/25/dd-5th-spelljammers-kedelige-begyndelse/
Teoriakatsaus #85
- Playing ignorant, kirjoittajana Sandra Snan, käsittelee tapauksia joissa pelaajan ja hahmon tietomäärä poikkeavat toisistaan. https://idiomdrottning.org/character-knowledge
- Being the enemy, kirjoittajana Sandra Snan, tarttuu Luolien ja lohikäärmeiden (engl. D&D) rasismiongelmaan. https://idiomdrottning.org/being-the-enemy
- Discovery of self through roleplay, kirjoittajana Essi Hautala, tiivistää artikkelin roolipelaamisen käytöstä sukupuoliasioiden tutkimiseen transihmisten parissa. https://www.tuni.fi/playlab/discovery-of-self-through-roleplay/
- White dwarf: issue #58, kirjoittajana James Maliszewski, näyttää että mahdollisuutta purkaa tai kiertää ansoja on pidetty toivottavana jo melko pitkään. https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2022/11/white-dwarf-issue-58.html
- Backseat gaming: An alternate way into the gaming community, kirjoittajana Nelli, tiivistää artikkelin joka tutkii minkälaista palautetta tyttöystävänäkökulmasta tietokonepelejä arvosteleva saa ja mitä aiheita koskien. https://www.tuni.fi/playlab/backseat-gaming-an-alternate-way-into-the-gaming-community/
- An analysis of the literature surrounding the intersection of role-playing games, race and identity, kirjoittajana Marissa M. Baker, on kirjallisuuskatsaus rodusta ja roolipeleistä, myös tietokoneroolipeleistä. http://ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IJRP-12-Full-Issue-An-Analysis-of-the-Literature-Surrounding-the-Intersection-of-Role-playing-Games-Race-and-Identity-Marissa-Baker.pdf
- A scholarly character sheet to frame learning activities and improve engagement, kirjoittajana Pascal Martinolli, esittää tiedonhakutaito-opetuksessa käytetyn hahmolomakkeen. http://ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IJRP-12-Full-Issue-A-Scholarly-Character-Sheet-to-Frame-Learning-Activities-and-Improve-Engagement-Pascal-Martinolli.pdf
Theory review #84
- Diving into complexity: developing probabilistic decentralized thinking through role-playing activities by Mitchel Resnick and Uri Wilensky describes playful activities which demonstrate emergent complexity, with roleplaying being there only in the most vague of terms. https://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/starpeople-final.pdf
- The good and bad of random by Sandra Snan lists exactly those from a blorb perspective. https://idiomdrottning.org/random
- Diegetic mechanics by Sandra Snan defines the term with examples. https://idiomdrottning.org/diegetic-mechanics
- Dark sun 4th edition: episode 1 intro-kamp by Morten Greis Petersen explains how he experiences D&D 4 as a cooperative board game. https://rollespil.blog/2022/11/09/dark-sun-4th-edition-episode-1-intro-kamp/
- Analog role-playing game studies: a Brazilian overview by Tadeu Rodrigues Iuama and Luiz Falcão gives a short history of analog roleplaying in Brazil and some hints at the kinds of roleplaying research going on there. http://ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IJRP-12-Full-Issue-Analog-Role-Playing-Game-Studies-A-Brazilian-Overview-Tadeu-Rodrigues-Iuama-and-Luiz-Falcao.pdf
Teori-innblikk #83
- Belønning og straf av Morten Greis Petersen ser på erfaringsreglar i gammel D&D, AD&D og The shadow of yesterday og funderer på kva de gjer. https://rollespil.blog/2007/03/21/bel%c3%b8nning-og-straf/
- How primary teachers use games to support their teaching of mathematics av James Russo, Leich A. Bragg og Toby Russo stilte spørsmål til lærarar om bruk av spel i matematikkundervisning. Lærarane blei valgt med snøballmetoden. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1297981
- Coming out of the dungeon: Mathematics and role-playing games av Kris H. Green ser på matematisk modellering i tradisjonelle rollespel frå synsvinklar av spelarar, spelleiarar og spelutviklarar. https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/math_facpub/19/
Teoriakatsaus #82
- Night’s black agents – (S)entries del 2, kirjoittajana Morter Greis Petersen, näyttää peliraportin keinoin miten peliä pelinjohdetaan. Pisteiden käyttöä ja vaikeutta Morten säätelee toivotun jännityksen ja rytmityksen perusteella. https://rollespil.blog/2022/10/24/nights-black-agents-sentries-del-2/
- The relevance of role play to the learning of mathematics in the primary classroom, kirjoittajana Helen J. Williams, esittelee esimerkkien kautta roolileikin käyttöä päiväkoti- ja ala-asteopetuksessa. Opetus on tutkivaa ja matematiikan rooli on selkeä myös lapsille. https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/studentTheses/the-relevance-of-role-play-to-the-learning-of-mathematics-in-the-
- Monday lab 3: Boiling pitch, keskustelijoina Ron Edwards, Ray, Herman, Ángel, Santiago ja Moreno, käsittelee pelejä, joissa on mukana yhteistä maailmanluontia tai tilanteen asettamista, ja ilmiötä jossa luodaan asioita yhdessä mutta ei päästä pelaamaan. https://adeptplay.com/seminar-hearts-minds/monday-lab-3-boiling-pitch
Theory review #81
- LOKI 2022 Ropecon1 is discussion of Tivoli and Legendoja ja lohikäärmeitä that touches on inclusivity and challenging one’s emotional problems in games, as well as the practicalities of game authoring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-HLB8y9aiw
Teori-innblikk # 80
- D&D, Vietnam, and the dungeon av jedavis gjetter at huler i D&D var inspirert av Vietnam-krigsføring. https://wanderinggamist.blogspot.com/2016/10/d-vietnam-and-dungeon.html
- RPG focal points: characters vs maps av Johnstone diskuterer kart og dramatisk koordinasjon som måter å organisere spillinnhold. https://chthonstone.blogspot.com/2022/02/rpg-focal-points-characters-vs-maps.html
Midgardcon 2022
The con as a whole felt a lot nicer now that I knew some people by name or face and had even played with some. I got to meet new folk and some previous acquitances, too. I played in a Tjuvradd playtest and Fabula, and ran Burning wheel and Coup under Maure.
Tjuvradd
A game by Karl Otto Kristoffsen with formal boardgame elements centred around outlaws who do stuff in the night, while the suffers during the day. Under playtesting and with mechanical and thematic issues, so I will not comment much.
The key question seems to be: what role should free play and the boardgamey half have, and how to integrate those in a meaningful manner?
Fabula
Tomas H.V. Mørkrid is publishing the second edition of the game, much darker and more adult than the first edition. The method of the game is special:
- High identification between player and character, also on level of body language and manner of speaking; if you want to should, at least pretend shouting, and if your viking is rowing, do rowing motions, and if you are asked what you do and you hesitate, so does your character
- Scenes set by players and the game master: sometimes the game master asks the players to set scenes with a certain framework, while sometimes the game master sets scenes themselves, and sometimes these are mixed up. We always had one scene framed per player in these cases, maybe between GM-framed scenes.
- The scenes are cut ruthlessly short to keep the pace up.
- Player skill in making good decisions counts a lot for character success and survival, though sometimes the scene setting makes it impossible to do the things one would have wanted to do.
- The strong identification and player skill association tends to lead to feelings that you are playing yourself in that role or that the character’s success is yours and there was assumptions of the same and at least playful encouragement to this direction by the game master.
- Tomas seems to associate good roleplaying with getting into character and being sufficiently on the same wavelength to have long scenes of talking, but also with having your character survive and thrive (make good decisions).
Burning wheel
I run a brennandi viking one-shot at Midgardcon yesterday. The characters had some blood opera potential and some inner conflicts. Four players; the two elder ones took to it like fish in the water and noticed and played the inner conflicts, too. One of the younger ones bounced off hard, the other was involved but it hard to say. The younger ones chose to or had to leave midways, after which the game really gathered speed.
Conclusion: these kinds of introspective characters with inner conflicts are risky in con play.
On the other hand, just straightforward blood opera is kinda boring and meaningless to me now; that I can do with any game, while BW has an edge in communicating inner conflicts to players via BITs and also a plethore of social skills to make the situations nuanced in that way.
Coup under Maure castle
Four players, one with good knowledge of OSR, three new to the method of play. The first was mostly fairly careful and kept themselves to the rear, and in the end managed to escape with some 100 gp worth treasure, too.
The group first provoked some skeletons, handily defeated half of them, but then the skeletons had a series of critical hits and good rolls, from which only one character managed to escape. The fight was entirely voluntary and was more of a learning experience than anything well thought-out, but though the group had initiative and could have escaped, they chose to fight instead. There was no treasure in sight either.
The second expedition with mostly new characters was more measured; the group managed to avoid obvious dangers and fights, found out things about the adventure location, and then provoked a group of koukos, baboon-like creatures of evil with special powers. they escaped, but started planning at a distance of a couple of rooms. Slam door shut, escape again to leave non-hostile dungeons denizens between them and the foes. These are easily routed by the koukos, at which point the group, now strengthened by armed hirelings, makes their stand (though they could have escaped again). It does not end well, and one wizard manages a mishap with shroomy consequences, leading to a TPK of the remaining characters. One turns into a kouko, but does not manage to keep any shred of their identity.
The players had stared at the map and figured out a likely hidden room, but did not know how to get in. Too bad the koukos got them at this point; their play had been pretty good before this last episode.