Recreating the Providence of the fiction of my youth

Started by Joshua A.C. Newman, July 02, 2009, 02:25:52 AM

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Joshua A.C. Newman

Actually, yeah, Ron, good point. Frank got me thinking productively. Thanks.
the glyphpress's games are Shock: Social Science Fiction and Under the Bed.

I design books like Dogs in the Vineyard and The Mountain Witch.

Joshua A.C. Newman

Oh, wait. I think I understand what Callan's saying.

Direct contribution to the fiction is, I think, an important part of getting into a flow and achieving viscerality. Figuring out just what it is you have authority over within the realm of the fiction is the purpose of the rules.

QuoteFor myself, that doesn't seem to make sense? You can't have a lack of structure and have a structure to divide up others contributions as constraints?

You can have constraints like "Protagonists can only do what they're capable of" and still have an infinity of things to do within that structure.

Quotealot of people seem to want to talk directly into the SIS, and for example, just say you start using a skeleton infused with tea, rather than throw across the idea "Hey, just imagine me making a tea of myself and pumping it into a skeleton...how cool is that!?" as a validation stage (as mentioned in this thread).

I'm pretty confident that rules can be created that obviate the need for the validation stage you (and that thread) are talking about, because it's within the authority of the player to make shit up within certain bounds. Other players might be able to call when they're creating outside of those bounds, but the player knows where the limits are.

... and thanks. You've just given me an idea that might be worth pursuing: hypothetically, if one player creates something at the edge of their authority, it  needs to hook into something in someone else's authority in order to be true. (If the phenomenon doesn't interact with anything else in the fiction it doesn't matter and might as well not be true from other players' perspectives.) I think I have to chew on that.
the glyphpress's games are Shock: Social Science Fiction and Under the Bed.

I design books like Dogs in the Vineyard and The Mountain Witch.

Ron Edwards

All right folks. I appreciate everyone lots and lots, and Joshua, that's the fuckin' awesome character of the year. You ought to post more about those early experiences of play; I sure never did anything like that back then.

But here's probably a good time to close the thread, 95% sure anyway. If anyone's burning with desire to post again, send me a private message.

Best, Ron