✨Ben Hamill✨ @benhamill@witches.town

I have a further proposal, which is that roleplaying games draw on the tradition of what-if wargames on one hand, sure, but also draw on the tradition of Surrealist exquisite corpse games on the other hand.

Casting rpgs as conversations, they way I do, highlights the latter, at perhaps the expense of the former.

(appendix ii) #rpgTheoryToots

Other games where talking together is the medium of play:
- I Packed My Grandmother's Trunk
- 20 Questions
- Contact
- Similes
- Playing Guessing Laughing (http://lumpley.com/index.php/window/installment/57)
- Encore, if you count singing as talking
- Any number of other Victorian parlor games
- Any number of other Surrealist party games

(appendix i) #rpgTheoryToots

So that's my basic proposal: in games where talking together is the medium of play, you can and should have different rules for talking about different subjects.

Thanks for listening!

(5/5) #rpgTheoryToots

For example, you can think of Apocalypse World's basic moves as being like the different ways that Chess pieces move.

A pawn steps forward one space; when you have your character attack someone, ask the other player whether their character's going to stand up to you or back down.

A bishop slides along a diagonal; when you have your character act under fire, the MC offers you a bad deal or tells you how your character falls short.

(4/5) #rpgTheoryToots

In Candyland, you have just a single simple rule for moving your piece. In Chess, though, you have different rules depending on the situation. The different pieces move differently, there are rules for pieces blocking and capturing each other, there are special case rules like castling, check, and en passant.

Same thing in rpgs. The game's rules for talking can change depending on the situation.

(3/5) #rpgTheoryToots

In a board game, you need rules for how to place, move, handle the pieces on the board. In a card game, you need rules for dealing, holding, playing, reading the cards.

In a roleplaying game, let's say that you need rules for talking: what should we talk about? How should we talk about it? How should we respond to what others say?

(2/5) #rpgTheoryToots

In Apocalypse World I say that roleplaying is a conversation.

What I mean is, let's take talking together out loud to be the medium of play. Instead of taking place on a board and pieces, or in cards arranged in decks and hands, or in pixels on a screen, the game takes place in the words that you and your friends say to each other.

(1/5) #rpgTheoryToots

Every trans vote counts 😅

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/362934-philadelphia-write-in-candidate-shocked-by-surprise-victory

*URGENT' -- HELP with dogs in BERLIN!

hey all,
i'm in berlin fostering three puppies, and i've had a death in the family yesterday and need to leave - and cant take them with me.

is there *anyone* who could take one for a week or so? i can provide a kennel for the night, food, local contact for emergency. please, please ask around... i'd be eternally grateful, and so would one of the baby girls!

please share this, and ping me here or on facebook.com/glorybeasts

THANK YOU!!

https://cybre.space/media/Nd3lJ1fny6zaEPqmxMQ

everything

@benhamill

jaenkaen

@benhamill ULTRAMICROTOOTING

Two children have just completed a task. Both are praised for completing it.

Child 1 hears: "You're so smart, good job!"

Child 2 hears: "You did such good work, good job!"

They feel roughly the same, but there's a substantial difference. Consider the implications:

Child 1 hears: "You have an innate ability that allowed you to complete this task."

Child 2 hears: "You did a lot of work that allowed you to complete this task."

Now do you see the difference?

@benhamill "take" has a lot of uses (often with prepositions) that don't seem obvious from its etymology - "take apart" and "take off" come to mind, but also a "require" meaning ("It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken"), "undergo" ("take a shower"), "perform" ("take a walk"), etc.