by Will Hindmarch | Jun 9, 2008 | Fantasy, RPGs, Story, Will's Thesis
In my previous post, I looked at my first real session of play of D&D’s 4th Edition. At the end of that post, I put up a graph comparing the good times being had by us, the players, versus the supposed dramatic arc of the story unfolding through play. This...
by Will Hindmarch | Jun 3, 2008 | Accessories, Fantasy, Miniatures, RPGs, Story, Will's Thesis
Like a lot of people eager to get an early taste of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (D&D 4E), I picked up the adventure/quick-start kit Keep on the Shadowfell. Like a lot of people, I checked in on other people’s progress in the adventure by perusing...
by Will Hindmarch | Mar 25, 2008 | Board Games, RPGs, Story, Will's Thesis
Let’s take a closer look at how gameplay webs and dramatic elevation work in practice—and how these things relate to that classic icon of RPG adventure architecture: the dungeon. Scenes or encounters arranged to one side of an instigating event (fig 1.1)...
by Will Hindmarch | Mar 25, 2008 | Board Games, RPGs, Story, Will's Thesis
Let’s take a closer look at how gameplay webs and dramatic elevation work in practice—and how these things relate to that classic icon of RPG adventure architecture: the dungeon. Scenes or encounters arranged to one side of an instigating event (fig 1.1)...
by Will Hindmarch | Jan 30, 2008 | Board Games, Musing, RPGs, Story, Will's Thesis
Part of the point of my still-evolving thesis (first mentioned in my early post, “On Playwriting, On Gameplay”) is to develop a new vocabulary for branching or unfolding narratives — something loose enough to survive spit-balling and rough use, but rigid...
by Will Hindmarch | Nov 11, 2007 | Board Games, MMOs, Musing, RPGs, Story, Video Games, Will's Thesis, Writing
This is the start of something. This something began with “Storytelling Games as a Creative Medium,” an essay that first appeared in Second Person: Roleplaying and Story in Games and Playable Media. (If I had it to do again, I’d change that title.)...
