The 13th Warrior

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Roleplaying Theory - GNS

I've been doing quite a lot of web-surfing recently looking at Vikings, as background for my upcoming Iron Heroes game, and a theory about roleplaying called GNS.

Along the way I found a problem with my game prep for Iron Heroes, and the possible solution in Ron Edwards' GNS. For an easy introduction to GNS, try Ben Lehman's post "An Introduction to Forge Theory #7". If GNS is new to you, you might want to go read that now, because I'm going to assume you've read it. I'll link to the full theory at the bottom of this post, but don't jump straight there, Ben's summary is enough for starters.

My basic problem is that I was brought up on the increasingly Simulationist RPGs of the 80s and 90s, I even wandered the halls of the odd Narrativist game. I thought that clearly all the troubles we had in our gaming groups could be solved by adopting game systems that more closely simulated the genre we were interested in, so as to avoid game-breaking, powergaming and wimpish play.

At the same time, I felt that I was the only person who could be trusted to run such a game (since my good friend Shan had moved to Melbourne), which meant assuming the burden of both generating comprehensive Simulationist background, and hacking rules to get a better fit to my ideal system (my personal Mission Impossible). In a comment on Ben's blog I put it this way:

My personal preference is Sim, and that explains why I can find it hard to enjoy running a heavy Gamism game, because the way I run it (Gamist) and the way I prep for it (Sim) are in opposition. I find lots of what I prepare doesn't get used, and I rarely want to return to prep for the next session - yet the players loved playing it.

To aggravate matter, game sessions run by others always left me wanting more out of them. The solution seemed to be more preparation and more work up-front, with increasingly less payoff at the end.

I think the solution is that I need to embrace the essential appeal of Gamism, keep enough Simulationist in there to establish an enjoyable theme, and make the point of the Gamism be competition in ways that satisfy my Narrativist bent. In other words, stop layering rules on D&D that ratchet up the Sim level, and look for ways to use Gamism to keep in-game competition where it belongs.

As a concrete example, I've always enjoyed the little bit of Pendragon I've played. In hindsight that was because the game rules encouraged us to play knights that matched the mythic stories of Arthur's knights. If you wanted you could slide towards magic and paganism, or be a virtuous Christian knight, or pursue the ideal of romantic love, or be fairy-touched.

Because the Pendragon system channelled our Gamist tendencies towards building characters that better engaged in the game world, it both fostered Simulationism and created the sort of investment in premise that Narrativism seeks. It is however (IMHO) a game heavily weighted towards Gamism. Character advancement was less about combat effectiveness, and more about engagement with the game world (becoming recognised as a virtuous knight) - although that brought it's own advantages.

So why don't I just start a game of Pendragon? Partly because I am less interested in that theme than I once was, and mostly because of the heavy financial investment my gaming friends have already made in D&D (of all versions). Getting them to play some sort of d20 game is easy enough, having the selected game system poit us in the right direction is harder.

Iron Heroes has some good ideas about making combat the center of attention and making all aspects of a d20 character impact upon it, through stunts and zones. I have some ideas about linking that with some house rules to encourage the sort of play I'm interested in - but I think I need to examine that in more detail before talking about it.

I'm interested in your ideas, so feel free to comment!

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As promised, here are links to the original GNS articles:

GNS and Other Matters of Role-playing Theory

Gamism: Step On Up

Narrativism: Story Now

Simulationism: The Right To Dream

Tags:

• roleplaying
• theories

William Shakespeare in Code

William Shakespeare's 18th Sonnet has been ported to ActionScript 2.0 by Satori Canton. It loses something in the translation, but I'm sure that it meets the original's meaning exactly (at least at a quick glance it seems to).

RPG Class Test

Smart Paladin 81% Combativeness, 26% Sneakiness, 76% Intellect, 55% Spirituality

Valorous! Noble! Or possibly just a self-righteous jerk (but with the brains to keep you alive!)... You are a Smart Paladin! Paladins are holy warriors. They are valorous defenders of the light. Unfortunately, most of them are so ardent in their defense they tend to meet sticky ends faster than you can say "rampaging red dragon." Many people look up to Paladins, while others just consider them stuck up, overbearing, or self-righteous. Fortunately for you, unlike most Paladins, you're pretty smart. Which means that you're more likely to fall into the "admired" category, rather than the "obnoxious" or "dead" categories. Much like the crusades, you manage to combine violence and religion, though unlike the crusades, you add a healthy does of intelligence. You may be a staunch defender of the faith, a valorous champion of the weak, or the stuff that jihads are made of. Which ever one you are, just be happy that you've got the smarts to back it up and make it work.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 90% on Combativeness You scored higher than 34% on Sneakiness You scored higher than 56% on Intellect You scored higher than 63% on Spirituality

Link: The RPG Class Test written by MFlowers on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Online d20 SRDs

Because sometimes it is just better to have it online, here are two great online sources for your SRD goodness:

The Hypertext d20 SRD (v3.5 d20 System Reference Document)

Modern System Reference Document

How to Sing the Blues

I've been a little less creative than I'd like recently - or perhaps it is truer to say my creativity has been harnessed by my new business. So as a sop to that side of myself here is a link to How to Sing the Blues.

It's a whimsical list of necessary atrributes of both a Blues song and the Blues singer. Thankfully, whilst I love listening to the Blues form time to time, I am grossly unqualified as a Blues singer despite not having all of my own teeth (due to good dentistry, unfortunately).

DO read this list if you ever plan to sing the Blues. DON'T read it if you're the teensiest bit legalistic and want to apply it to every Blues singer you have ever heard (some won't pass!).

Project Orion

NuclearSpace.com have posted a Project Orion Gallery that shows the possible alternate history if nuclear powered spaceflight had gone ahead when originally intended. Admittedly, there is a fair degree of Cold War rhetoric in giving the bomb sizes the ships are carrying ... but it is an interesting glimpse of where things might have gone.

More interesting of course is contemplating what President Bush's renewed funding of nuclear spaceflight is like to bring us in the near future. Imagine a spacecraft taking off with virtually no weight limitations, and a much, much cheaper cost per ton of cargo than is currently attainable with chemical boosters.

Personally my bet is that the next big 'dot-com' ('dot-bomb'?) investment phase will be biotech, and the one after that will be space exploitation.