Tensions in Live-Action Roleplaying Game Design
A Case Study with the MIT Assassins' Guild by Philip Boonyew Tan
Submitted to the Comparative Media Studies Program on May 7, 2003 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Comparative Media Studies
Contributed to the Assassin Wiki as a snapshot of how things in the Guild were done at one time. Full thesis document available in Word .doc format and Adobe .pdf format.
Changelog
3/15/05: All pages uploaded. Footnotes still missing. - PT
Abstract
A textual analysis of games of the MIT Assassins' Guild with an ethnographic and historical slant provides an analysis of five kinds of tensions in the process of the design and the implementation of mechanics in MIT Assassins' Guild Live-Action Roleplaying games. These tensions are a product of a combination of the history of roleplaying games and other Live-Action simulative activities, the specific logistical and historical circumstances of the MIT Assassins' Guild and the expectations of the members of the MIT Assassins' Guild. Game designers and players frequently cite case studies and have developed a useful vocabulary that are worth learning to facilitate further discussion of game design.
Guild game mechanics are designed for feasibility of implementation and execution by the game designers and the players, to provide and hide information from players in a timely manner, to dissociate player decisions from character actions, to enhance the verisimilitude and the atmosphere of the game for the players, and to generate, balance and resolve interesting competition among players. Experienced game designers keep all these tensions in mind while designing mechanics that can satisfy all the criteria and highlight desirable traits that arise from the interplay of the tensions.
Contents
- Wargaming: The Forebear of Roleplaying
- The Breakthrough: Dungeons & Dragons
- Live-Action Roleplaying Organizations
- The Game of Assassin
- The MIT Assassins' Guild
- Development of Guild Game Mechanics
- The Phases of Game Design and Implementation
- Tools of the Trade
- Heroic Attempts at Efficient Game Writing
- Abstracting Character Actions for Feasibility
- Negotiating Game-space
- In-game Workload
- Coin Flipping and Decking
- Who Broke the Mechanic?
- Bluesheets and Greensheets
- Item Cards, Name Badges and Wall Signs
- Memory Packets
- Research Notebooks and Puzzle Trails
- Statistics
- Non-Players, Game Halts and Dangerous Play
- Ability Cards
- Psychlims
- Truthing and Brainwashing
- Seduction
