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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8653579" data-attributes="member: 42582">Kicker is a noun. It refers to an event that occurs in the imagined world. The event is authored by the player, and it must present some dramatic change in that player's character's circumstances - the inciting incident - that propels them into play. The propulsion will normally both be literal (the PC is kicked out of their normal comfortable circumstances) and metaphorical (the PC's orientation or motivation changes, or is challenged, so that they can't just stay the same person they once were). Because we're talking about play of an RPG, for all this to happen and to actually unfold in some fashion, the GM has to be constrained in their authorship: they have to honour, build on, place pressure on and riff off the kicker that the player has authored for their PC.When someone tells me that they started the game with the players writing kickers for their PCs, the preceding paragraph is what I take away from what they said.If someone described starting a game along the lines I've set out, but didn't use any particular label for it, I might say &quot;Cool, you used kickers!&quot; And if they said &quot;What're kickers?&quot; I'd tell them that they worked out the same technique that Ron Edwards did, and that he came up with a name for it. In my experience most people are interested to learn how things they've worked out for themselves fit into the bigger picture of the hobby.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8653579, member: 42582"] [i]Kicker[/i] is a noun. It refers to an event that occurs in the imagined world. The event is authored by the player, and it must present some dramatic change in that player's character's circumstances - the inciting incident - that propels them into play. The propulsion will normally both be literal (the PC is kicked out of their normal comfortable circumstances) and metaphorical (the PC's orientation or motivation changes, or is challenged, so that they can't just stay the same person they once were). Because we're talking about [i]play[/i] of an RPG, for all this to happen and to actually unfold in some fashion, the GM has to be constrained in their authorship: they have to honour, build on, place pressure on and riff off the kicker that the player has authored for their PC. When someone tells me that they started the game with the players writing kickers for their PCs, the preceding paragraph is what I take away from what they said. If someone described starting a game along the lines I've set out, but didn't use any particular label for it, I might say "Cool, you used kickers!" And if they said "What're kickers?" I'd tell them that they worked out the same technique that Ron Edwards did, and that he came up with a name for it. In my experience most people are interested to learn how things they've worked out for themselves fit into the bigger picture of the hobby. [/QUOTE]

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