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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9052935" data-attributes="member: 42582">From <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/2/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/narr_essay.html" target="_blank">here</a>:When a person engages in role-playing, or prepares to do so, he or she relies on imagining and utilizing the following: Character, System, Setting, Situation, and Color. <ul style="margin-left: 20px"> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Character: a fictional person or entity.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">System: a means by which in-game events are determined to occur.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Setting: where the character is, in the broadest sense (including history as well as location).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Situation: a problem or circumstance faced by the character.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Color: any details or illustrations or nuances that provide atmosphere.</li> </ul> At the most basic level, these are what the role-playing experience is "about," but to be more precise, these are the things which must be imagined by the real people. In this sense, saying "system" means "imagining events to be occurring." . . . The best term for the imagination in action, or perhaps for the attention given the imagined elements, is Exploration. Initially, it is an individual concern, although it will move into the social, communicative realm, and the commitment to imagine the listed elements becomes an issue of its own. . . . Exploration means "shared imaginings." The sharing has to be explicit and agreed upon, usually through the spoken word although any form of communication counts. The imaginings have to be the subject that is shared, which is why me reading aloud to my wife does not constitute Exploration. We are independently imagining based on the spoken word, but neither she nor I is telling the other what we imagine from that point. Exploration means that such communication is occurring. The five elements of Exploration are interdependent: Character + Setting make Situation, System permits Situation to "move," and Color affects all the others. This concept applies only to the imaginary causes among the elements; the real people's actual priority or cause among these things, in social and creative terms, varies widely.To say that "system matters" is, I think, to say one, or both, of two things:(1) The way a group of RPGers arrange the five elements of exploration in their RPGing makes a meaningful difference to the play experience. In this thread I've given examples of this, by looking at different ways that setting, character and situation can be related within "story now" RPGing. (2) The means by which in-game events are determined to occur - or to put it another way, the means during play by which shared imaginings are established - has a profound impact on the RPG experience. (This second meaning is what is meant in <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/system_does_matter.html" target="_blank">this fairly well-known essay</a>.)I think (2) is so obvious that it barely needs defending. I mean, here's one way of establishing shared imaginings during RPG: one (authoritative) participants tells the others what to imagine. Here's another way: two participants suggest mutually excusive possibilities, and dice off to determine which it is that everyone is required to imagine. It seems self-evident that these are different RPG experiences.My posts in this thread have mostly addressed GMing techniques useful for "story now" RPGing in a system-agnostic way. But there is certainly scope to talk about what features of systems will or won't support "story now" play.</blockquote>

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