A wiki for the Fishtank roleplaying game theory crafting community based in Sweden, Malmö.

This page is for those who want to freshen up their knowledge. This wiki should not replace us explaining the terms during our roleplaying game theory meetings.

Feel free to add your own terms or common jargon. Write a short summary, and give links to main articles for longer explanations.

Beginner's Guide to Wiki

Weekly summary of topics we discuss.

Topic suggestions

Terms to add: Braunstein, Possibility Space, Diegesis

Complete list of wiki-listed roleplaying games

For a lack of more appropriate terms, a list of popular RPGs

Indie RPGs

Obscure RPGs

Projects: A list of projects and games Fishtank members have completed or are working on. These are mostly not affiliated with Fishtank.

RPG Library: A list of games that one member in the Fish Tank can borrow from another.

Main article: Playing the game

The basic structure for traditional games are

1. Learn the basic rules
2. (Players) Create characters
3. (GM) Use or Create a scenario/adventure with start (premise), key elements, goals and world filler*
4. Introduce group
5. Start/introduce premise
6. React to player actions
7. End game when players achieve goal, others achieve their goal or time runs out

This is not universal to all roleplaying games and there is a lot to be said regarding the basic structure.

RPG Book Design: A general observation of what parts exist in most books and some design considerations. The latter part is of limited use.

Occasionally obscure.

• Dark Dungeons: short comic by Jack Chick, about satanic/wicca cults seducing kids through D&D.
• Quick Start!!: Manga about high school girls playing (existing) RPGs. The unofficial translations give some general ideas regarding how the systems played work.
• Genshiken: About a club of general nerdiness in Japan with a focus on anime and manga

• Mazes and Monsters: movie that kickstarted the DnD satanic panic in the US. Based on the book vaguely based on lies based on a true story. Starring Tom Hanks in his first major role.
• The Gamers: humoristic portrayal of how a game session would look like as if it were a movie.
• Äventyret: Swedish version of The Gamers, using miniatures.

• Darkest Dungeon: Computer roguelike RPG where your heroes go insane and die a lot. Not to be confused with Dark Dungeons.

Links to add: (subcategory) Different rpg forums

• The Alexandrian
  • RPG analyses of different kinds.

• Analog Game Studies
  
  • In depth analyses of different kinds of roleplaying and boardgame elements.

• Vi åker jeep
  • A list of different freeform techniques.

• Play With Intent
  • A collection of freeform techniques.

• We Know So Little of Our Hobby
  • Drawing knowledge from other sources than roleplaying games, and translating them for roleplaying game use.

• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
  • Says the same thing as MDA (see Game Design below) but from a totally different perspective.

• Impro by Keith Johnstone
  • A must-read for all game masters, and LARP designers.

• Play Unsafe
  • Contains an extract from Impro, but “translated” into roleplaying games.

• Theory of Fun
  • Why we enjoy playing, and why we keep on playing.

• Four Keys of Fun
  • Four different ways of enjoying games.

• Personality And Play Styles: A Unified Model
  • Brings together most theories of what people enjoys in games (like Four Keys of Fun, and Bartle's Types), and categorize them. A good introduction to different game theories and player analyses.

• MDA - Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics
  • Game designers usually start from Mechanics, but the users starts with aesthetics. A general approach to game design.

• Three Minute Design
  • Excellent introduction to game design on Youtube with challenging ideas about what game design is.

• Game Design Concepts
  • A great presentation of different game design theories and analyses.

• Game Geeks RPG
  • In depth reviews from someone with an open mind about roleplaying games.

• RPG.net's reviews
  • The reviews usually goes through the mechanics, if you ever wondered how one game's mechanic is working.

• Psychology of Video Games
  • Because the articles are based on psychology, a lot of the articles can be applied to roleplaying games too.

• Game Wisdom
  • Articles that concentrates on different mechanics in video games.

• Extra Credits
  • Short videos about contemporary topics within game design

Articles that haven't been categorized

Possible subsections that can be added if anyone wants to fill them with information:

News and Rumors, About Us, Scenarios, Specific Game Contributions