The Right Gaming Theory

A lot of people gripe about G/N/S theory (for those of you that don’t know, G/N/S stands for Gamerist, Narrationist, and Simulationalist), and I can partly understand that. I’ve read the original G/N/S essay and the accompanying 124 vital tie-ins that the Forge people said I had to read to get it, but after discussing it with Professor Curtis, I now feel it is a little too elementary for my tastes. Professor Curtis, when he isn’t busy these days working through Philosophy 102 (I guess that’s why he’s the prof and not me, huh?) has a different classification theory for games that I feel works a bit better:

Correctism: Playing the correct games correctly; i.e. exploring deep social and moral themes, self-publishing games, ensuring said games are profound enough. Games in this category: Professor Curtis’ games (inclusive), occasional Forge games.

Pseudo-Correctism: Playing games that are almost correct, but feature some form of combat or don’t explore social themes and issues deeply enough or sacrifice profundity for entertainment. Games in this category: Capes, The Shadow of Yesterday.

Wrongist: Playing games that are the correct games incorrectly. Examples: having fun killing people in Dogs in the Vineyard, playing or translating Nobilis in plain English.

Bankruptism: Playing games that lead to emotional and/or mental bankruptcy, or discourage people from enjoying more artistically important RPGs. Examples: Anything from Wizards of the Coast, Palladium, Steve Jackson Games, White Wolf (except Exalted, of course), and Hackmaster (which I hate to even be associated with by typing its name out).

Now, any game you play can be defined in those terms, and if you can’t do so, you’re likely doing something wrong.

Our Weekly Gaming Night

I just got done reading Joshua Newman’s Shock. I’m telling you, Orange is the new Pink. He’s so right when he compares himself and his fellow Forgites to the Beat Poets. In fact, you might say they “beat poets” any day of the week! Ha ha!

I went over to Professor Curtis’ house tonight for our weekly gaming session. Right now it’s just the two of us, since a lot of our gaming community around here is mired in “traditional gaming”. I can’t believe I used to play that sort of thing, but I guess anything will sell to the masses if it’s “mainstream” enough.

Anyhow, I’m helping him playtest his game Limbo Fever, which is all about the choices contestants in a dance competition face; basically, it all comes down to the question “how low can you go?”. We’re also using it to explore some heavy personal stuff. There was a moment where my Venezuelan limbo king dealt with his alternative sexuality, which was really a powerful moment at our table. I didn’t see the game going that way, but the Professor threw it in there. That’s the great thing about our Forge and indie games—unlike some other systems I can think of that are extremely popular and have over 60% of the market share, we can introduce and explore different “themes” to our games any time we want!

An Intro To This Site

Hello, and welcome to the Indie Gaming Scene, a new blog about indie, small-press, and alternative role-playing games that I’m really excited about starting!

Just a little background on me—my name is Cornell Richardson, and I’ve been an advocate of Forge-type games ever since a fateful run-in with an enlightened soul named Professor Kory Curtiss. Professor Curtis (well, he’s not technically a professor, but he is only 5 years of college away from that worthy title) introduced me to narrative-style, narrow-focus thematic gaming at one fateful convention about two years ago. Here’s how it started: I had been having a wonderful time playing Shadowrun and Rifts all weekend (how I grimace to say that now!) at our college convention and was looking to round out the week’s action with a game of D&D when I saw a man sitting by himself at a gaming table. I asked him if he was interested in playing D&D, and we fell into talking. It was so amazing—he talked about gaming in terms I had never heard anyone use—and he used such very impressive professional and technical-sounding terms to do so. It was amazing—I learned that day that sure, I might be having fun playing Dungeons & Dragons, I might really like the system, and might find it comparatively easy to find folks I wanted to play it with, but, he, asked, was I exploring heavy social and morally relative themes with my gaming? At this, I could only hang my head in shame. But did the Professor chide me for my ignorance? Well, yes, but afterwards, he let me play his “thematic” game Cats In The Cradle, which is all about the choices we have to make regarding giving up pets if we have children. And it just totally blew my mind. From that day forth, I’ve loved all sorts of indie games, so long as they explore deep moral or philosophical questions. And that’s what I’ll talk about on this site.

Now, some of the topics we cover here might be a little heavy for those of you still enthralled with D&D or some other intellectually lightweight fare, but I believe in reaching out to new audiences and really spreading the good word about my type of indie RPGs. Remember, just because you’re having fun gaming, doesn’t mean you’re doing it correctly.