Robert Fisher
Just thinking out loud
The threefold model
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(...a work in progress...)
Jonathan Tweet identified three ways that events in a role playing game are resolved:
- Karma: a fixed value decides the results
- Fortune: chance decides the results
- Drama: the GM decides the results based on demands of the "plot"
The rec.games.frp.advocacy newsgroup was the source of the Threefold Model. It recognizes three paradigms of role playing:
- Game
- Simulation
- Drama
The GNS theory of Ron Edward follows the Threefold Model by defining three types of role players:
- Gamists: who play for competition & challenge
- Narrativists: who play for story & characterization
- Simulationists: who play to explore & experience
In my early days, I was heavily simulationist. These days, I think I tend to be more gamist, but I think I'm pretty close to the center of the triangle.
When GMing, I tend to resolve events this way:
- Is their a chance for failure? (i.e. Is failure either certain or impossible?)
- If their was a chance, what is it?
- If I still have multiple, roughly equally likely outcomes, which makes for a better story?
last updated 1 year ago #
