Hi everybody!

[Auburney]

How could I overlook this fine little board here for so long?!

High time to introduce myself, some of you may have noticed I posted in another thread already, I know, a little bit of bad form, that… but now here goes ^^

I’m a Viennese roleplayer, born and raised here, but very fluent in the English language due to my studies and travels. As I mentioned in the other thread, I have played and run just about any RPG that has hit the Austrian market since the early 90ies.
That includes pretty much every edition of the “big ones” (D&D, Shadowrun, DSA, Call of Cthulhu…), as well as lots of other games (KULT, MERS, GURPS, WoD…)

I love roleplaying, and this love has recently led me to discover the Forge-games, a.k.a. indie-games or story-games. This is where currently my main interest lies in RPGing, and what I’m focussing on finding players for.

I’ve mostly “had to” run those newer type of games in order to be able to try 'em out, and so have got some experience running systems such as My Life with Master, Riddle of Steel, or Dogs in the Vinyard.

Looking forward to meet people and exchange opinions on here, and if anyone is interested in trying out those indie-games, please feel free to contact me about it.
(It’s looking quite promising already in that other thread that I mentioned, but more people are always better of course )

[Neil]

Hi Auburney! Thanks for joining ad making an introduction post.
I have to admit I’ve read quite a lot of criticism leveled at indie/story games and I’m quite ignorant of what the genre actually entails.

Maybe you could post an introduction to story games over in general when you have the time? RPGs are still pretty new to me and others here and I’m finding myself gradually gravitating towards more rules-lite systems.

Thanks again and welcome!

Enjoy your stay,
Neil.

[Auburney]

Hi Neal, and thanks for the welcome!

I’ll be glad to start up such a thread, but be warned it is kind of a huge broad topic, there, and I could talk about it for hours, as some of my personal friends could assure you

Perhaps the best starting point for such an introduction, then, might be what kind of criticisms you have read of?

There’s lots of criticism to be had, to be sure - the concepts of some of these games tend to polarize the RPG community pretty radically. While some people tend to think these new ideas are pure awesome juice, others tend to regard them as perversions of what RPGing is supposed to be about, and stupid and pointless ones on top of that… there seems to be surprisingly little middle ground on these matters, sometimes…

In the light of that, maybe it would be best if people asked questions and I could try to answer them? Because giving even a broad overview of GNS Theory, Nar-focussed gaming, Story Now play, etc., would quickly approach doctorate thesis levels in length and complexity i’m afraid

For an overview of the underlying game theory and stuff, you can look here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Model

this is a German link:
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollenspieltheorie

… but it’s all very dry in the theory, all those concepts and ideas only really come to life in the games built upon them, imho. Games I’d be more than happy to talk about! So, ask away, tell me what you heard, or what you are interested in finding out about them, and I’ll do my best to shed some light!

(people could ask in this thread, so I can collect some first ideas for starting a separate thread in earnest over in General?)

[H]

Perhaps the best starting point for such an introduction, then, might be what kind of criticisms you have read of?

All right, I’ll play…

Just to get the discussion started:

1. The indie movement rejoices in taking credit for many things that originated in mainstream games.

2. “Storytelling games empower players” is a myth.

3. Storytelling logic makes for less immersive games.

(I actually do like many indie games, but I have a few issues with the underlying philosophy. In any case, this should be quite an interesting discussion.)

[Auburney]

okay, cool!

these are some good ones to get started. I’ll open up that thread as soon as I get some downtime - probably tonight…

meanwhile, keep them coming, if anybody else got any