Four Stages of Post-Playtest Game Editing

You have a game. It works when you are there to explain it. You've playtested it. And you've incorporated that playtest feedback to make your game work even better. Your game is cooler than it's ever been. That's it, right? Now you just need to cut and paste all your notes into one file and.send it off to your buddy who does layout, eh?
Wait. Not so fast.
Your game.may be better than ever, but outside of a convention, people aren't buying your game. They are buying your game documents. They are paying for your instructions on how to reproduce your awesome game. That means you need another editing process. You need to develop your game text into the best set of instructions you can produce. 
In other words, before layout there is a post-playtest game editing process in which you develop the text itself to make sure that it is helpful for players wanting to learn your game AND, if possible, fun to read. 
That's a tall order. Where should you start?
I admit that I treat post-playtest game editing like the final process I use when writing a sermon. I picture this editing process as four stages, and when I edit, I try to complete all four. 
(But each editing pass can accomplish at most one and a half of these stages. That means that, ideally, I'm going through each post-playtest game three or four times.)

These categories are in series. You can't reach a new one until you've finished te previous.

1. Clear

Does the text make sense? Are each of the sections labeled and in an order that helps the reader? Is anything missing? Does anything need to be defined, repeated, or put into a visual aide like a table or flowchart?

2. Playable

Do players know how to set up and start the game? Does each kind of player or facilitator have clear instructions for their role? Do we know when to stop and what to do when we are finishing the game? Is the order of play well-regulated? Do I always know when I am supposed to act AND what I can choose to do next?

3. Emotionally Engaging (Fun, broadly defined)

Is the game built to evoke a certain emotion or does it emulate a certain genre of storytelling? What are players supposed to feel or act like during the game? Has the tone of the game been made so clear, explicitly or implicitly, that players know when they have accidentally violated the tone of the game? If the game has a strategy for best play, is it obvious?

4. Cleverly Written (Strong Narrative Voice)

Does the narrator have a recognizable personality? Is the style of writing  consistent? Have I eliminated distracting or mood-killing elements from the text? Will the reader be pleasantly surprised by the writing itself?

I hope this is of some value to you in your post playtest editing process. You are free to use your own methods. The above categories are descriptive of my approach, not prescriptive for yours.

Daddy versus the Medical Bills

The best way to help is by donating to Paypal.

This is my son Sam. He is five years old. He's a great kid. He and I need your help.

A few weeks ago, he had breathing-related medical emergency. We rushed him to the ER and he spent five days in hospital. 

He's feeling much better. Thank God. But I, his daddy, have a big problem. The medical bills from those days in the hospital are big. Like "drain your savings and then keep going" big. On top of that, because I had set certain bills to be paid automatically, I have accidentally spent much more than I can afford on these bills.

Long story short, our family needs financial help to cover necessities like groceries and daycare for the next two to three weeks until my wife and I get our next paychecks. We have accidentally overpaid our medical bills early, so we need at least $1,200 to help us survive until the end of the month.

We are working with the hospital to pay the remaining bills a little at a time. We are talking to extended family to help cover expenses where they can. We're budgeting our expenses carefully and only spending what we absolutely have to.

But my family needs help as a result of our one-time emergency medical debt. If you can, please help.

The best way to help is to donate to Paypal. The second best way to help is to share a link to this article on social media. The third best way to help would be to buy some of my games. See the links on the side of this page. Keep in mind that I only get a percentage of the profits from these games. It helps, but not as much as Paypal.

In the end, do whatever you are comfortable with. If you can help, you have my deepest thanks. And Sam thanks you, too.

The best way to help is by donating to Paypal.

A Tip for Finding New Character Names

If you are looking for plausible but odd names for your characters, just check your spam filter. It's full of fake names.

Here are a few from mine:

Millicent Ramirez

Bruno Christensen

Adolfo Petersen

Ernest Malone

Ronda Livingston

Cesar Byrd

Now tell me that Cesar Byrd isn't an awesome character name!

Your spam filter is also a good place to find business names, but I wouldn't use those names for any of your commercial projects, in case the original owners take offense. But for your personal rpg group or for non-commercial fanfic, go ahead and use Defender X or Shadowfall Productions or whatever strange business names you find in your spam filter.

Run! Fire!

I just put these rules together. Feedback welcome. Feel free to tell me that they are confusing or broken.

Run! Fire!

A card game for 3 players. 15-20 minutes.
In this game, you play three ranchers trying to escape a huge grass fire. Will you help put the fire out? Will you panic and run? Who will survive?

Setup

3 players
Deal each player 3 each of Fire and Run. (Use red cards for Fire and black cards for Run)
Make a central deck of 2 Fire and 2 Run
Each player starts with 10 coins

Play

Every player plays one card of their choice face down into a pile in the center. The tallest player is dealer this round. The dealer draws one card from the central deck, shows it to all the players, and puts it face down in the pile. Each player then bets.

To bet, lay down a card from your hand face up. Place at least one coin on that card. (Betting represents your decision whether to help extinguish the fire or run and try to save yourself. If you play a face up Fire card, you are trying to fight the fire. The more coins you place on it, the more committed you are to extinguishing the fire. If you place a face up Run card, you are trying to save yourself by escaping the fire.)

After each player bets, the dealer shuffles the pile of face down cards. He plays one card in the middle of the table face up. He then places the rest of the cards on the top of the central deck. If this card matches the face up card a player has bet, that player is a winner this round. Everyone else loses. The winners split all the coins that have been bet. If the coins cannot be split evenly, give the extras to the dealer, even if the dealer lost this round. Place the face up card that you bet with back in your hand.

The player to the tallest player’s left is the new dealer. Players play another card of their choice face down in the middle of the table. The dealer takes one card from the top of the central deck, shows it face up to all the players, then shuffles it facedown into the facedown pile. Then everyone bets. (If you have coins left, you must bet at least one during each round.) Then the dealer plays one card from the facedown pile face up. Players who match that card with their bet card win. Split the coins among the winners, then place the card you bet with back in your hand.

The position of dealer then rotates one more time, so each player has had the chance to deal once. Play another round just like before.

Scoring

Now, each player shows their remaining cards face up, and everyone calculates their score. Any player with more than 10 points lives. That means you escape the fire and win the game.

Run!

Look at all the players' cards. If more than half are Run cards, the ranchers were not able to work together and put out the fire. (Those who lived are the folks who ran away. Those who died are those who tried to extinguish the fire.) Run cards are worth 2 points. Fire cards are worth 0 points. Coins are worth 1 point.

Fire!

Look at all the players' cards. If more than half are Fire cards, the ranchers were able to put out the fire. (Those who lived worked together bravely to extinguish the fire. Those who died were the ranchers who panicked, made a wrong turn, and got caught by the fire.) Run cards are worth 0 point. Fire Cards are worth 2 points. Coins are worth 1 point. 

7 Ways to Reuse Abandoned Games

What do you do with abandoned tabletop games? Think of card, board, or roleplaying games that you own that you no longer play. Maybe the rules don't interest you anymore. Maybe they interest you, but you no longer have someone to play with. They are missing pieces. They are too expensive. For whatever reason, you have abandoned the games you used to play. But is there a way you can still use them?
Let's talk about a few ways to repurpose those games so that you can still get some use out of them, or at least have fun with their components. Now, I don't know what kinds of games you have lying around, so I've decided to phrase these ideas as questions. We're relying on your creativity to figure out how they apply to your specific situation.

1. Physical Components: Can you use the art, cards or board pieces in another game? Maybe the art would make a good inspiration for another rpg. The board pieces could be replacements for another game.

2. Rules Hack: Can you change the rules to skip the part of the game that doesn't work for  you? There's no game police telling you that you have to play a whole game of Monopoly. You can skip to the end, if you like.

3. Spiritual Sequel: Can you write your own game that uses this game as inspiration? Our hobby has a long tradition of fantasy heartbreakers, that are essentially someone's attempt to use D&D as inspiration for a new game. Though not all of these are great, some of them are. Can you make a "heartbreaker" based off of a card or board game you abandoned?

4. Swap: Can you trade this game away to one of your friends for another game? This may feel like cheating. You aren't hacking the game. You are literally reusing it by giving it to someone who wants to play it. In return, they probably have a game that you've never tried that they are willing to give you.

5. Update: Are there alternate rules for this game available on the Internet? Playing with revised or updated rules may help renew your passion for the game. Are there errata that have been breaking the game? Nerfing those can make a world of difference.

6. Doing It Wrong: The French poet Paul Valery wrote "That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false." What can you do to break this game, to use it incorrectly, or to play it backwards? How can you make a new game by using the old game wrong?

7. Steps: What section of the original gameplay was the most fun? What did you love to do in the game? How can you borrow just that part of the gameplay and do it in a different game?

Here are seven ways to squeeze a little more fun out of tabletop games you've abandoned. But I'm sure there are more methods. What other ways can you think of to reuse, repurpose, or recycle tabletop games that you used to love? Send your tips or examples to gingergoatpress@gmail.com

Armed

Here's a subsystem you can add to non-combat larps with 10 or fewer players. Although it seems like it just adds combat to the game, what it really does is play with the idea of consent and bullying by adding the threat of player elimination to the atmosphere of the game. In other words, it changes the mood of the game and the negotiations between players by adding a subtext of potential violence.

You need:

A larp that doesn't already involve combat or player elimination10 or fewer players, preferably 3-6.Toy weapons, enough for half of the players. I prefer toy guns that make noise when fired.1 coin

Setup:

Starting here, read these rules aloud to the other players. Read all of this section and the following section, How to Play. Before playing, players take turns flipping the coin. Start with the oldest or tallest player. On a heads, you get one of the weapons. When you run out of weapons to hand out or when everyone has flipped the coin once, move on to playing the game.

How to Play:

Play the game as normal. However, at anytime after the first ten minutes of play, any character with a weapon may attack another character. To attack, aim your weapon at the other player and announce that you are attacking. Other players around you should pause and watch what you are doing. You now flip the coin. On heads, you hit. On tails, you miss. If you hit, flip the coin again. On tails, you injure the character. This has no mechanical affect, but the player of the injured character will probably assign some affect to his character in the story. On heads, you kill the character. That character is no longer part of the larp. That player should sit out the rest of the game. (This may break some games. Feel free to adjust the rules on the fly.)Play of the game then resumes as normal. After you have used your weapon, you must wait at least 10 minutes before you use it again. If you ever miss twice against the same person, give that player your weapon. Their character has disarmed your character. If a character is ever injured twice, that character is dead.

Last Week to Kickstart Singularity

We've got one week to go and just over $1,000 left to raise in order to reach our goal for Singularity. If you haven't heard yet, this is a live action game for 4-6 people. It's a scifi version of a dating show like the Bachelor. Interested? Then back it today!
I just got word that Caitlynn Belle will finish her final design changes on the game in the next two weeks and that Thomas Novosel has started working on a style guide for the layout. That means that we are on track for a tight turn around. If we reach our funding goal of $3,000, we should have pdfs for people by June. (Maybe earlier. Cross your fingers.) Depending on how smoothly things go at the printer, backers should have physical copies in their hands by August.
Keep an eye out for another announcement today or tomorrow that contains images of one of the character sheets for the game. It should give you a good idea of Thomas' plans for the layout of the book.
If we meet our goal, it will be Ginger Goat's fourth physically printed book, after Heroine, Girls Elsewhere, and Dangers Untold. As with all our games, Singularity is feminist, pro-diversity, and narratively driven. If you liked our other work, I'm sure you will like this one, too.

#Transhumanselfie

Do you have a futuristic or robot costume? Not from a licensed show? Are you willing to post your #transhumanselfie for me?
​Ginger Goat wants them for a Kickstarter video for our transhuman dating show.
All body types, genders, etc. are wanted. No nudity for this one, please. Your bods are beautiful but I want to make a kid-friendly video.
If we use your selfie in the Kickstarter video AND the project funds, I will send you a pdf copy of the game (or an extra pdf copy, if you also back the game.)
To enter, all you have to do is post your #transhumanselfie on Twitter or G+ where I can see it, then make sure I have a way to contact you. If you're not sure I know how to get in touch with you, you can always email us at gingergoatpress@gmail.com.
What kind of costumes are we looking for? Aliens, robots, cyborgs, futuristic humans, anything you can imagine! Don't worry about what's in the background of the photo.

Animal Professionals of Place Place Number: A Solo Writing Game

I had a game idea for Ole Peder Giæver​'s #3nano16 game design challenge as I was falling asleep last night. 

Animal Professionals of Place Place Number

APoPPN is a one player writing game that takes the form of writing a formal playtest feedback letter about a game that doesn't exist.
1. Write a letter to a GM or game designer. Choose someone whose work inspires you and who knows you at least by name.
2. Thank them for the chance to playtest their latest game. Give it a name in the form of [Animal] [Professionals ] of [Place] [Place] [Number], eg "Squirrel Jugglers of Star Moon 5."
3. Tell them about something that you liked about the game. Compare it to a game or movie that you love. If possible, describe an interaction between characters in your playthrough of the game. Name the characters after people you work with or go to school with. Last names only! Name the players after gamers you know.
4. Tell them what confused you about the game. Quote a rule from their game that doesn't seem to fit. (Use a sentence from page 42 of the book closest to you as this rule quote. You can quote it exactly or use this real book as inspiration for your rules quote.)
5 Thank them again for the chance to playtest their game. Give them a genuine compliment about their (real) previous game designs or GMing.
6. Sign your letter with the name they know you by
7. Mail, email, or post your letter online where the intended recipient will see it.
8. (Optional) Include a link to the text of this game, so they don't think you're completely bonkers.
This game is copyright Josh Jordan and is released under Creative Commons Attribution. You may repost these rules wherever you like.

Five Monsters

Need a few mood-setting monsters for your game or your story? Feel free to use these. Each is a common monster tweaked into something a bit more ominous.

The Skeleton

The animated bones of a cowardly soldier, usually wearing the armor or uniform of his former station. The Skeleton only attacks when it has the element of surprise. It moves slowly but quietly and it likes to attack from behind. When faced with well-prepared fighters, the Skeleton flees to the nearest woods and waits until the next night to attack again.

The Gelatin

A waxy, off-white puddle that drags itself across the ground, digesting any human or animal matter it touches. The Gelatin shows a rudimentary intelligence and is a careful hunter. It lures prey by giving off the smell of cooked meat and by mimicking the sound of wounded baby animals. It most often sounds like a crying human child.

The Well of Sin

This well is cursed. There is some debate whether it is itself intelligent or not. However, rumor of its curse has traveled far; many fools make pilgrimages to drink from its depths. Anyone who drinks from the Well of Sin is said to receive the thing they desire most by the end of the day. However, this wish-come-true comes at a terrible price, for upon sunrise of the next day, the drinker becomes possessed by a demon for the next three days. These possessor demons vary, but they tend to wild murder sprees, theft, and near-constant libelous speech.

The Wellington

This Venom-like possessor entity covers the body of its host with a black rubbery film over the course of a few hours. Any body part covered by the black film is under control of the Wellington's alien intelligence. Its motives are unclear, but all who survive its possession describe the experience as a series of nightmares about owls, fences, and dried river beds. After a few hours of total coverage, the Wellington abandons its now unconscious host and returns to its dormant state, a pair of rain boots.

The Velveteen

This beast appears in the form of a well-worn stuffed animal. It appears to feed off the suffering of families with young children. It abhors violence, however. The Velveteen's only method of attack is to cause despair in adult men and to directly or indirectly encourage them to abandon the family.

Photo by Starmanseries

OSR Game: Motley

I had an idea for an OSR game last night, but I suspect some people would really hate it. It might hit that terrible sweet spot of too mechanical for indie fans and too non-violent for old school fans. For now, I'm calling the game Motley.

Imagine a fairly typical dungeon crawl system where hit points represent not just how alive something is, but how able to fight it is. So a specially trained character could reduce hit points with a joke or a distracting magic trick.

Now imagine that in the Equipment section, next to the weapons table and armor table, there are tables for comedy, friendship, and distraction. A character with the right proficiency can use exotic friendship techniques to convince monsters not to fight.

Depending on your setting, you may scrap traditional weapons completely, or you may use them alongside these non-violent techniques. Perhaps your elf dual wields fart jokes and a rapier. Perhaps your dwarf uses long-stemmed roses as a ranged friendship attack and an axe as melee combat attack. Perhaps your orc is a firespinner, who can awe someone right before kicking them in the shins.

I imagine that this system would deserve its own classes, like jester, performer, and bon vivant. Each would grant certain proficiencies and special abilities. I might have to retroactively write fighter, wizard, thief, and cleric classes just to clarify what abilities they have.

Would monsters use combat or would they try to use these abilities, too? Is the dragon trying to kill you or befriend you? What happen if it succeeds? What happens if it befriends half the party? All of these issues would have to be worked out. My default would be to have most monsters trying to harm the PCs, at least until the GM figures out how to run comedy monsters, etc.

What do you think? Do you hate this idea? I'm particularly interested in hearing from OSR fans on this one. What do I need to add for the game to work?

Image by Quinn Dombrowski,Creative Commons

Anti-Villain: A Call for Short Story Pitches

Hey authors! Anyone interested in writing a short story for a paid anthology about anti-villains?

I'm a little tired of anti-heroes. The other day, I asked myself "What would an anti-villain be? Does he do the right thing for the wrong reason? Is an anti-villain the opposite of a villain? Or the opposite of an anti-hero?"
I don't know the answer, but I'd like to find out. So I've decided to assemble an anthology of short stories from a diverse group of authors, each trying to answer these questions. I plan to Kickstart this anthology and sell electronic copies. Depending on the Kickstarter, I will probably sell physical copies as well.
Right now, I want to hear story pitches from as many authors as possible. Define the term "anti-villain" however you like for your story. Maybe an anti-villain is the bad guy you don't want to see captured. Or the antagonist that you like better than the hero. You decide. (And just to be clear, the term itself doesn't have to appear in your story.)
If you are interested, please email me a short (<8 page) sample of your work and a one paragraph pitch of your story for the anthology. Also, please feel free to introduce yourself. Even if we end up not working together on this project, I look forward to meeting any authors interested in this sort of story.

Job Details

• Stories can be any type of modern or future genre fiction, including but not limited to SF, horror, superhero, supernatural, weird, supernatural religious, paranormal romance, etc.
• Pitch emails should include a short sample of your fiction, a pitch for your story in this anthology, and an introduction of yourself as a human person.
• I pay a minimum of $.05/word. I plan to pay $.10/word for shorter stories. (I'm willing to negotiate paying you royalties instead, if I'm already familiar with your work and you prefer that method of payment.)
• Since I want to Kickstart this fiction anthology, I plan to  pay two or three authors for stories to show during the Kickstarter. Other authors would start writing their stories after we fund. No one should start writing their story until they have a contract and I've given them the go ahead. I don't want anyone to write for me until I already have money for them in hand. 
• Each story should be 800 to 2500 words. There may be one or two stories that are longer than this.
• There will be at least seven stories. Depending on how well the Kickstarter does, there may be as many as fifteen.
• I will accept pitches until August 31st. Pre-Kickstarter authors will probably begin writing in October. Post-Kickstarter authors will begin writing in January 2016 at the earliest.

A few things I can tell you about Ginger Goat

• We publish rpgs, larps, and fiction, both electronically and in print.
• We're a small press.
• We love diversity. I (Josh) love stories written about someone who doesn't look like me by someone who doesn't look like me that still share something about humanity.
• We like to buy first publication rights, not exclusive rights. We pay on completion, not publication. We like both new and experienced writers.
• Josh T. Jordan, the owner of Ginger Goat, is a game designer, editor, story addict, sometime-preacher, and high school English teacher. He's been told that he's nice to work with.

Please submit a story idea, even if your imposter syndrome is telling you not to. Some of my favorite work is by first-time writers. Just email me at gingergoatpress@gmail.com. It can't hurt to try!

Also, feel free to share this call for pitches with any group of writers you want, especially writers who come from an underrepresented race, gender, faith, or other group.

Sincerely,
Josh T. Jordan
Ginger Goat

Photo by Keoni Cabral. Used by permission.

The Five Seals of InfoSec

Here's a weird idea that I don't have time to turn into a game. Feel free to hack it, if you like.
Information Security, or InfoSec, is too important to be entrusted to normal people. That's why NATO and Warsaw Pact nations began to train mages to protect our nations' secrets.
There are now several overlapping schools of InfoSec datamancy throughout the world. The most successful are in the US, Germany, China, Russia, and India. Rumors persist of schools in Brazil and Israel, but if the other governments are aware of schools in those countries, they aren't talking.
How does InfoSec magic work? There are various incantations and techniques for protecting government secrets. However, the five most common techniques are called the Seals of InfoSec. Each seal represents an entire branch of datamancy. Not all schools teach all five seals. Some schools are much better at one or two of the seals than the rest. But all datamancers are at least aware of the five seals. There are spells and curses outside of the five seals, but these rogue spells are the exception rather than the rule.

The Five Seals

Seal of Obscurity

Seal of Tedium

Seal of Banality

Seal of Encryption

Seal of Monitoring

Obscurity spells make information hard to see or hard to find. This is the most common seal. All schools teach some obscurity spells.
Tedium spells make the information time consuming to read or understand. Imagine an entire book with the words "Fat," Tuesday," and "Bingo" placed randomly between the actual words of the text. This would not make the actual words hard to find, but it would make them take more time to read.
Banality spells make the information so boring or mundane in appearance that it is difficult for an untrained person to focus on the information long enough to finish consuming it. (Banality spells were originally created in the US as an answer the Russian creation of Tedium spells. Now, most InfoSec schools teach both techniques, sometimes in combination.)
Encryption spells alter the information so that it looks like random noise unless you have the code to unlock it. The observer can see the information, but can't make heads or tails of it without the proper training. This is the only school of datamancy that actually involves computers as spell components. Other seals may allow you to cast spells on information INSIDE a computer, but encryption spells are often cast BY MEANS OF a computer.
Monitoring spells do not conceal the information, but they allow the caster to observe anyone who attempts to interact with the information. This defense is less like a barbed wire fence and more like a security camera. Specialists in monitoring spells often carry guns and stay hidden in a room near the information they are protecting.

How does datamancy work? What does this magic look like? I can't tell you. What's the difference between magic and technology? Unfortunately, that's a secret, too. The best I can say is that this sort of magic should either strike your players as cool or you shouldn't use it in your game. And if you want to see the guy who inspired me to write even this much on the subject, I recommend Sam Chupp's Encryptopedia.

Image by Blondinrikard Fröberg. Used by permission.

Draft of Scene Mechanics

I'm re-writing scene mechanics for a game I'm working on. I've reached that stage where I need someone else to tell me whether they are comprehensible. Assume by this point that you already know about your character, his attributes, his weaknesses, and his goals. You already know who is playing as your Thorn and you know where your token is on the Wheel. Can you follow these steps?

Scene Order

1.       Active Player chooses which 1 to 3 other PCs will be in the scene. He may not choose the PC of the player who controls his Thorn (character flaw or internal struggle.)

2.       Active Player chooses whether to focus on active character’s Need (external, measurable goal) or Thorn. If he chooses Need, he describes the location of the scene.

3.       The player controlling the active character’s Thorn (NOT the active player) describes the location of the scene if the Active Player hasn’t already. The Thorn Player then introduces Stakes to the scene by describing: an internal conflict that the active character is wrestling with OR how other players’ characters in the scene are interfering with the active character’s Need.

4.       All the players in the scene describe what their characters are doing. The Thorn Player stands in for any non-player characters and narrates the active character’s internal doubts.

Remember that the position of your token on the Wheel determines restrictions for your character’s outward behavior. For example, whether or not you are the active player, if your character is in a scene and your token is in Distraction on the Wheel, your character cannot outwardly acknowledge any of his own weaknesses or problems.

5.       When the active character attempts any action governed by one of the four Personas (attributes), the Active Player rolls dice equal to that Persona. If a player has 0 in that Persona, he fails. If he rolls any fives or sixes, the Stakes resolve in his favor. If the highest number on any die is a four, he achieves a partial success. Otherwise, he fails. The Thorn Player narrates the results and the scene ends. The Active Player then rolls all his dice to determine his new position on the Wheel.

6.       The player to the left becomes the Active Player.

Play by Stuart Brown, M.D.

I've started reading Play by Stuart Brown, M.D., and a lot of what he has to say resonates with my experience as a roleplayer and storyteller. I've skimmed through the book and started reading the beginning in detail, so I'm only giving my first impression here.
In his attempt to define play, he hedges a bit, because play is experiential. A description of play must take into account that what is fun and relaxing for me might be repellent to you. Some people play cards for a living and garden for fun. Some people garden for a living and play cards for fun. Their experience of the details of play will be different, even though the benefits they draw from it are similar. I'm reminded here of the Brilliant Gameologists complaining about people who use the word "fun" in game reviews. They point out that this is worthless as a descriptor, because the only thing it tells the reader is that the reviewer enjoyed the game.
Brown does give a few definitions of play, including this list of criteria:

• Apparently purposeless (done for its own sake)
• Voluntary
• Inherent attraction [By which he means the activity is fun for the participants]
• Freedom from time
• Diminished consciousness of self
• Improvisational potential
• Continuation desire [by which he means all participants want it to continue]

I think that this definition contains in it a checklist for healthy, positive roleplaying games. If we design games that encourage all of these criteria for all participants, everyone at the table will probably have a good time. What that sort of design looks like is worth thinking about.

A couple of medical observations Brown makes about play, in no particular order, are:

Based on interviews with Texas inmates, a childhood without a lot of opportunities for play is as good an indicator of adult behavior problems as any other factor.

In animals (and presumably humans) one benefit of play behavior is that it helps the individual practice responding to surprise while in a low-stakes environment. Given how often animals will need to respond to high-risk surprises in order to survive, practicing and developing this skill does have survival value. However, this benefit is not, in Brown's view, the primary benefit of play for humans. That benefit has to do with social interaction and with mental health.

According to Brown, the opposite of play is not work. It is depression. Quitting your normal play activity is a frequent sign of depression. And in some cases, play can serve as one treatment for depression.

Again, all of these are just my initial take on the book. As a game designer and storyteller, I think that the nature of play is worth examining. I often think about the nature of story. I design toward particular kinds of narrative. But my design assumes that you share an enjoyment of certain play activities with me. Perhaps I should examine that assumption. Or at the very least, perhaps I should use Brown's criteria of play to help ensure that everyone else is having fun, too.

Dangers Untold Quickstart Materials

There are only a few more extras that I need to put in the mail for Dangers Untold backers. I expect to put all those things in the mail by the end of June. There's also a setting based on the biblical book of Esther that I need to finish writing. That should be done in June, too.

Meanwhile, I've collected all of the pre-generated settings and characters that Avonelle Wing and Ruth Tillman helped put together. This collection contains fourteen different settings, each of which has eight characters and some notes on how to run the setting. I've decided to call this collection, Dangers Elsewhere. Dangers Elsewhere isn't available for sale yet. Right now, only Kickstarter backers have their hands on the whole book. But I've decided to make a preview version available to the general public.

Here it is. This pdf contains the first eleven pages of Dangers Elsewhere, which includes the first two settings. The first, "I Dream in Song," is a Faerie music conservatory. The second, "Uplifted Whales in Alaska," is a futuristic, First Peoples/Native setting in which humans and sentient whales work together on the Alaskan coast. Feel free to share this preview with anyone you like.

Update: I originally described "I Dream in Song" as having Arabic and Welsh influences. I've removed that part of the description at the request of the author, who doesn't want to sound appropriative of other cultures. Though my initial idea for the setting was inspired by Arabic and Welsh stories, she doesn't feel she did the cultural homework to justify claiming those influences for the final product. I think she's right. I apologize for my mistake.

Borders and Bonds

 Borders and Bonds

A modification of Lines and Veils

As I understand it, Ron Edwards originated the terms "Lines" and "Veils" in his book Sex & Sorcery. Lines and veils are limits on the topics of conversation and of narration in your game. Lines are hard limits, subjects that no player will mention at the table. Veils are occasional limits. Players ask for a veil whenever the narration or conversation is making them uncomfortable. All of the players then skip past or replace that part of the story with something that everyone is comfortable with. 

Mo Holkar explains Lines and Veils clearly here. He goes one step further and suggests that players should have the opportunity to set lines and veils anonymously before they even sit down at the table. I think that Lines and Veils are a good tool for setting social boundaries at the table, and I like the idea of giving players the opportunity to add them anonymously. However, I I don't think there's anything sacrosanct about the terms themselves. There's any number of ways we could frame these social boundaries between players. 

Borders and Bonds are a different method of setting up those boundaries. I offer them as a replacement for lines and veils at your table. Roughly speaking, Borders replace Lines, and Bonds replace Veils. They are different enough that this is not exactly true, but if you are used to Lines and Veils, it shouldn't be hard for you to make the switch for some of your games.
Before I explain Borders and Bonds, I ask that you remember, whatever system of social boundaries you use at your table, to make sure that other players are comfortable. No rule system replaces your duty as a fellow player to pay attention to how your friends seem to be feeling.

Borders

Borders are areas of conversation that your group decides never to bring up. In story terms, anything behind a border may exist somewhere in your story world, but it will never come up in the story you tell at the table. For example, if your Star Wars group puts a Border around child violence, you are free to imagine that child violence happens in the Star Wars universe, but all the players agree that description and discussion of child violence are outside the scope of our story. Events, subjects, tropes, or characters that your group has put a border around may happen somewhere in this universe, but they happen before, after, or completely away from the notice of our narration.
Like a Line, a Border excludes content that makes one or more players uncomfortable. Unlike a Line, a Border specifically restricts the speech and behavior of the player, not the content of the story per se. Players are free to imagine that the restricted material happens in the fictional universe of the story. Players are free to use shared universes or pre-existing fictional settings or game books that include the restricted material. They are only restricted from mentioning it at this table on this particular day with these players.
A Line may be a restriction on the story. A Border is a restriction on the speech of a player.

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Bonds

A Bond is your connection to a specific story element you do not want to be in danger. For example, if you have a bond with children, you like having children in the story, but you don't want child endangerment to be part of the story. If you have a bond with your character's magic sword, none of the other people at the table will threaten to steal, break, or nerf your magic sword. You can bond with ideas, too. A bond with romance means that characters may have romantic relationships, but those relationships will not be used as a source of conflict.

Bonds are points of trust that will not be broken during your story. These things are fragile and valuable to the players, so the conflict in the story shouldn't put them at stake or at risk.
You can bond to people, objects, or ideas. You can bond to something specific, like your father's magic hat, or something general, like all children.
Do not bond something simply because it is a cool aspect of your character or her relationships. As  Caitlynn Belle reminded me recently, great stories can happen when something important to your character is threatened. There are great Batman stories about Robin or Batgirl or the Batcave being threatened. There are great Batman stories about Bruce Wayne's identity being threatened. These things are not Bonded. On the other hand, I would argue that Alfred and Wayne Manor are usually Bonded. They are rarely threatened. They are part of Batman's safety net as a character.
If there's some element or relationship that you don't want threatened very often or that you want other characters to treat carefully, don't use a Bond. Just explain that this element is important to you, and you want them to, as Caitlynn says, "Tread carefully."

How to use Borders and Bonds

Give each player the opportunity to privately and anonymously write down Borders or Bonds on pieces of paper before the game. If possible, give them the chance to do so even before they sit down at the table. Players may need to ask you to break your anonymity if they do not understand what you have written down, but they will first make a good faith effort to figure it out.
(As Stephanie Bryant pointed out to me, if a player wants her Bond or Border to remain anonymous, it helps to write a couple of sentences to explain yourself. Saying "A Border around child violence" may cause your fellow players to ask clarifying questions. Violence caused by children? Violence affecting children? What about child PCs, who may become violent later? Spelling out "A Border around using children as collateral damage during fight scenes and against all kinds of child predators" is much more likely to guide the other players to restrain themselves the way you need them to. And writing this all down while you are still anonymous will help you to remain anonymous.)
Once you are at the table, as part of the conversation at the beginning of the game, give players the opportunity to mention that they want certain subjects to be Bordered off or "out of bounds." Also give them the opportunity to list relationships, ideas, or equipment that they feel a Bond toward. Listing Bonds works naturally as part of the character creation process. Setting up Borders works more smoothly as part of the game setup.
Players should feel free to add Borders or Bonds during the game itself, especially of the story takes an unexpected turn. If your group uses the X card, you may not need to spell out new Borders or Bonds in mid-session. If you don't use the X card, I suggest you practice calling for a new Border or Bond in the middle of the game, so that other players feel more comfortable doing so if the story goes in a direction that bothers them.

Summary

As cooperative storytellers, we are still discovering elegant and effective ways to care for each other during play. One critical way to care for other players at our tables is by restricting the content of our stories to avoid triggering past trauma or stepping on each others preferences. By all means, use Lines and Veils at your table, if that is what works for your group tonight. By all means, use an X card, if that is the most effective tool for your players' comfort. But consider adding Borders and Bonds to your tool belt. It has the advantage of including both an exclusionary rule, Bordering things out of the story, and an inclusionary rule, leave the Bonded things safely in the story.

Cheers,
Josh T. Jordan

Photos by Kerem Tapani Gültekin, released under a Creative Commons license.