How Does IF (At Least the Pen And Paper Variety) Work?
Cops and Robbers is played in the backyard, wargames on big maps using model soldiers, but what about what the type of Interactive Fiction that Gygax and Arneson created? How does role-playing work?
At a high-level, a group of people sit around a table, with each person controlling the actions of one character (remember Arneson’s contribution?) with the exception of one person who describes the action for the others. A set of rules provides the all-important framework.
But that clinical description greatly oversimplifies what’s really going on. Let’s dig a little deeper, starting with the person who is running the show. Interactive Fiction of the pen and paper variety revolves around the writer and director of the action. Now, some will disagree and say that it starts with the players and what type of experience they’re interested in, and there’s some validity to that, but in my experience (and I’ve been doing this for a quarter-century) it’s not the case. I’ll be using theatre metaphors, so I’m going to refer to this person as the Director. The Director, who is often but not necessarily the writer as well, performs the vital duty of describing the action to the players, what they see and hear. She also knows the entire plot of the episode, she acts out the roles of supporting characters, and she arbitrates any disputes of the rules. She’s the director of the theatre, the ancillary cast and the referee.
If that list of duties didn’t convey it yet, Directing is a big job, and it gets bigger once you add in the improvisational nature of Interactive Fiction. You see, she may be describing the action to the players, but she doesn’t control them. In the realm of Fiction, the author decides what the characters say and do at all times. Not so here. In Interactive Fiction, the players determine how the character they control will behave, and they may (and often do) things that the Director doesn’t expect and didn’t anticipate. So, add to the list above the Director’s ability to improvise dialog and situations as needed.
You see why I’m saying the game revolves around the Director?
More on the mechanics tomorrow, and don’t worry … I haven’t forgotten about the history lesson.
At a high-level, a group of people sit around a table, with each person controlling the actions of one character (remember Arneson’s contribution?) with the exception of one person who describes the action for the others. A set of rules provides the all-important framework.
But that clinical description greatly oversimplifies what’s really going on. Let’s dig a little deeper, starting with the person who is running the show. Interactive Fiction of the pen and paper variety revolves around the writer and director of the action. Now, some will disagree and say that it starts with the players and what type of experience they’re interested in, and there’s some validity to that, but in my experience (and I’ve been doing this for a quarter-century) it’s not the case. I’ll be using theatre metaphors, so I’m going to refer to this person as the Director. The Director, who is often but not necessarily the writer as well, performs the vital duty of describing the action to the players, what they see and hear. She also knows the entire plot of the episode, she acts out the roles of supporting characters, and she arbitrates any disputes of the rules. She’s the director of the theatre, the ancillary cast and the referee.
If that list of duties didn’t convey it yet, Directing is a big job, and it gets bigger once you add in the improvisational nature of Interactive Fiction. You see, she may be describing the action to the players, but she doesn’t control them. In the realm of Fiction, the author decides what the characters say and do at all times. Not so here. In Interactive Fiction, the players determine how the character they control will behave, and they may (and often do) things that the Director doesn’t expect and didn’t anticipate. So, add to the list above the Director’s ability to improvise dialog and situations as needed.
You see why I’m saying the game revolves around the Director?
More on the mechanics tomorrow, and don’t worry … I haven’t forgotten about the history lesson.
posted by Christopher A. Dellario at 3:27 PM
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