Not a Conspiracy Theory: Moving Toward Better Criticism in RPGs

[pemerton]

Scripted might be a better generalized description there
I don't think it really does a good job of explaining traditional play, but that's the gist of it.

I’d say it’s being applied to the kind of game typified by the use of a map and key. Where a questions such as “is there a chest in this room” or “how long is this corridor” or “how many goblins are there” and so on are answered by consulting the map and key, or perhaps slightly less formally, the GM’s prep.



I’d think “scripted” would carry unwanted connotations of railroading and the like. And honestly, map and key seems pretty on the nose.

If I wanted to talk about scripting I would.

When I talk about the use of a map and key to constrain framing and resolution, I'm talking about the use of a map and key to constrain framing and resolution. It doesn't seem that complicated to me: it's a very common feature of RPGing.

The key can include a "script", or a set of descriptions for how things will work. Gygax flags the possibility on p 63 of his DMG:

A party can always flee an encounter if it gainst the first initiative. Whether or not the opponent party will follow in pursuit of the fleeing party depends on the following factors . . . What you, the Dungeon Mster, have stated in your key concerning the party, if applicable. This is first and foremost in ALL cases.​

Tomb of Horrors is a module which includes a fair bit of this sort of scripting in its key.

Scripts can also exist outside of a map and key. The 3E modules Speaker in Dreams and Bastion of Broken Souls both provide examples: stipulated sequences of events, and/or responses to the PCs by NPCs, which in the latter are not part of a key at all, and in the former barely so.

 

[Lanefan]

Ah but which is which!

(That was a joke and I do not assume you actually meant there is a mapping between the two pairs.)

How can there be a mapping without a corresponding keying?

 

[pemerton]

I read it as a criticism related to guessing where things are.

Frankly, if you can't read other people's posts without projecting that's on you.

Upthread I made a prediction: that RPGers who are familiar mostly with D&D will struggle to grasp non-map and key approaches to framing and resolution, such as the Apocalypse World "play loop" that @Campbell outlined upthread.

That is not a criticism of map-and-key resolution. I don't think it's a criticism of any RPGers, either - just a prediction about what they will find hard or easy to do given what they are familiar with.

I have no idea what you are saying about "guessing where things are".

Correct. I know what it literally means, but I was struggling to understand the wider uses, and was vaguely annoyed that it just "magically" appeared as a seemingly viable term. Like you, I also object to the description as "guessing"; it definitely sounds pejorative, which is generally not a built-in implication you want in fair criticism.

Seriously?

I took the terms from Gygax, in his DMG, telling the GM how to prep for play and then adjudicate play. Is Gygax being pejorative about his own RPGing?

When I talk about using maps and keys in Torchbearer, am I being self-hating?

As far as this "guessing" thing, I don't even know what you and @FrogReaver are talking about.

 

[niklinna]

In our own Blades game several of the factions have changed their MOs and their relationship to other factions based on what would make for a more compelling game. The same is true of both the Actual Plays I saw John Harper (the game's author) run.

And quite a few are sitting unused, abandoned and unloved. They must be sobbing into their pillows every night.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A map is a type of visual diagram, typically as if from an aerial view, used to represent architecture, geography, topography etc. If you have a smartphone, it probably has a map app that will give you some examples of a map.

I think the word "key" is one I picked up from either Gygax or Moldvay. I've just looked in my DMG, and see on p 96 Gygax saying:

Before you [the GM] are three maps: a large-scale map which shows the village and surrounding territory . . . a small-scale (1 square to 10' might be in order) map of the ruined monastery . . . and a numbered key for description and encounters; lastly you have the small scale map of the storage chambers and crypts beneath the upper works of the place . . . likewise keyed by numbers for descriptions and encounters.​

So my recollection seems to be correct.

Do you have any idea how insulting this post is? Did you think I literally needed a definition of what the words, "map" and "key" mean?

 

[Lanefan]

Let's take a step back - Do you agree there is an implicit expression of 'guessing game' present in the 'map and key' term?

Personally, not really. I see it as simply referring to a game style where the players are literally or figuratively exploring a map, be it an actual map the GM has drawn or a metaphorical map in the GM's mind.

The term itself isn't the problem in this or numerous other cases; and this one's actually pretty good for describing what it means.

The problem lies more in the highbrow condescending way in which the term is sometimes used, and that's true no matter what the term might be.

 

[pemerton]

Then why don't you just say, "GM Prep"? Map & Key sounds like the entire style literally involves a map and key, when you clearly mean something larger. That term is limiting, and makes the style it proposes to describe feel lesser than it is.

Map and key is an example of GM Prep. It's not the only example.

Another example of GM prep is preparing threats and fronts for AW play. The purpose of that prep, and the resulting way that it is used in play, is very different from map-and-key prep.

(There are other examples too.)

I am using map-and-key to describe the drawing of a map and the writing of an associated key, which is then used to constrain framing and resolution. This is a type of RPGing that I believe was invented by Dave Arneson ( @AbdulAlhazred will correct me if I'm getting the attribution wrong) and is presented very clearly in many RPG rulebooks. The first one I ever owned and used was Moldvay Basic. In some recent posts I've quoted from Gygax's DMG where he also sets out the technique.

 

[JAMUMU]

The problem lies more in the highbrow condescending way in which the term is sometimes used, and that's true no matter what the term might be.

I think that's the problem with trying to use any terminology when criticising ttRPGs. This is a hobby where two life-long friends can come to blows over how to pronounce the name of a particular kind of polearm. That people bristle and get ornery when they read into (rightly or wrongly) the terminology being deployed, as it is by its very nature being deployed in a highbrow way that many reflexively find condescending.

 

[Lanefan]

I am using map-and-key to describe the drawing of a map and the writing of an associated key, which is then used to constrain framing and resolution.

I think I've just realized one issue with your terminology here: the consistent use of the word "constrain" (which really does come across as rather negative) instead of the more neutral "define" or "inform" when speaking of how map-and-key affects framing and resolution.

 

[Hussar]

So I'm not able to examine play honestly?

Well…. There is certainly an element of that in these discussions. An immediate reaction to anything that even whiffs of negativity, intentional or not must immediately be addressed is a good example.

“Guessing” is exactly what map and key adventurers are at their base. That’s not really debatable. Where is the Macguffin in the dungeon? Wander around mostly randomly looking for clues that eventually lead you to it. It might be informed guesswork but it’s still guesswork.

Which is generally not how non-trad plays. You KNOW where the MacGuffin is. You often can tell the table where it is. Getting it isn’t the goal of play. How you get it is.