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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7933310" data-attributes="member: 4937">[USER=177]@Umbran[/USER] : Well, that works fine but its not the distinctions I had in mind.  They are nicely related though.Let's try this:Jest(?): For an RPG, a unique combination of processes of play and rules used by participants that create an event of play.  (Or, the event or series of events created by what you call the Table Rules.)Game: The text or collective texts that proposes to communicate to the recipient(s) how to create a Jest thereby creating a related family of Jests inspired by a shared text, but often differing in the Table Rules.System: The core mechanics of a Game used to resolve propositions of play, and which may be shared by a closely related family of Games that are built off the System, but differing in genre, setting, or concept of play, and some amount of rules specific to the genre, setting and concepts.Table: The participants in a Jest.Social Contract: The usually unstated expectations of the table regarding how the Jest is to be conducted.Fiction: The imagined setting of the Jest which the Table tries to share.Proposition: A proposal by one participant of the Jest to change the Fiction via an in universe action.Rules: The portion of the game that is about how resolve propositions of play (aka 'Crunch'), as opposed to descriptions of setting, guidelines for suggested processes of play, and how the game talks about itself in an effort to get the recipient to think about the game in a particular way (aka 'Flavor').  In casual conversation, often used interchangeably with 'System'.Rulings: How the text is interpreted at the table, together with any rules - written or unwritten - that are added to the text in play (aka 'House Rules'). Seems to be the same as 'Rules as Played'.Processes of Play: The rituals that participants use during the jest to interface with the rules. What the play actually is, as opposed to how it is described by the text, and specifically all the parts of play which must happen for the Jest to transpire, but which are left open ended or unstated by the text and often even by rulings.I'm not a huge fan of 'Jest', but most synonyms of game emphasize the competitive nature of the event, which seems inappropriate to a cooperative form of play.   I welcome clearer suggestions.  I'm also not a huge fan of 'Table Rules' though, since someone that didn't have your definition would tend to think that 'table rules' were simply 'house rules'.  Also, it is a process of play in D&D to map a dungeon and stock it with monsters and treasure and then keep it secret from the other participants until they explore it through play: but, critically, it is not a rule of any sort that you do that.   So I'm not a big fan of confusing what is meant by a 'process of play' by lumping everything together as 'table rules'.</blockquote>

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