RPG Theory Glossary: P-Q

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Participationism

A term coined by Mike Holmes for play where the GM is fudging results behind the scenes to result in story qualities to the play. This is distinct from Illusionism, however, in that the players are aware and active partners in this process.
References:
Looking deeper into Intuitive Continuity
Participationism?
Participation / Illusionism
Does Module Play Equal Participationism?

 

Pastiche

Within general art, this usually refers to an often light-hearted imitation of another artist's style. More broadly, this can refer to art which uses the style or pieces from an earlier production as central pieces. This can be poor imitation (like much of fan fiction and fantasy literature), but can also be innovative, such as the film Moulin Rouge which used verbatim popular songs in an unusual musical.
References:
Narrativism: Story Now
Pastiche in Roleplaying

 

Pawn Stance

Within Ron Edwards' concept of Stance, play where the player does not retroactively provide in-character motivation to perform the actions just done. Pawn Stance is often identified with Gamist play, but it is not defined as such and the association is considered false by some.

 

Pervy

An obselete Forge term for game-play in which the GNS mode calls for close use of non-traditional techniques such as Director stance for playes -- as opposed to Vanilla. This was more generally expressed by the idea of Points of Contact, which concerns the degree to which System is explored.
References:
Vanilla and Pervy
Pervy in my head

 

Points of Contact

A term coined by Steve Dustin on The Forge, and adopted by Ron Edwards, for the steps of rules-consultation, either in the text or internally, per unit of established imaginary content. High points-of-contact means that the system is involved closely with the process, though these not be numeric or mechanical. Low points-of-contact are bundled into a few conceptual steps, though these can still be strict and binding. Thus, this is not the same as rules-heavy vs rules-lite.
References:
Vanilla and Pervy
Pervy in my head
Cannot stand cutesie-poo terms
Pervy Sim, points of contact, accessibility

 

Postmodern

As an artistic movement, this is characterized by art which celebrates its own lack of specific and unitary authorship. Postmodern art emphasizes that meaning is created by the reader and the culture, not by the absolute rule of a single author. This brings up interesting issues of what would constitute postmodernism in RPGs.
References:
Hackmaster: The Postmodern RPG
Postmodern? Huh?

 

Power Gamer

A common term with various meanings, though most are similar. (1) General term for players who seek to make their PCs as powerful as possible, often trying to find ways to manipulate or overcome the GM interference. (2) One of the four types in the Blacow Player Types which was adopted by Robin Laws for his seven player types. (3) Within Ron Edwards' GNS theory, "a potentially dysfunctional technique of Hard Core Gamist play, characterized by maximizing character impact on the game-world or player impact on the dialogue of play by whatever means available."
References:
The Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming
Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering
Player Types (from Glen Blacow and Robin D. Laws)
Gamism: Step On Up

 

Premise

Within GNS Narrativist play, a moral or ethical question concerning human interactions -- adapted by Ron Edwards from the writings of Lajos Egri. Within fiction writing, this starts as an ideological challenge or question. The course of the plot then answers this challenge with a message or theme -- a judgmental statement about how to act, behave, or believe.
References:
Narrativism: Story Now

 

Prima Donna

A term coined by Ron Edwards in his Narrativism essay, for a Narrativist player who engages in Premise-addressing, but will not share screen time or Premise-significant decision-making time with other participants. An extremely dysfunctional subset of Narrativist play.
References:
Narrativism: Story Now
Chris Lehrich on "Committed Passive Players"

 

Protagonism

A term commonly used on The Forge with two meanings which unfortunately often mix-up player and character. It can mean (1) the characteristic of the main characters of stories of any type, or (2) power given to the player of a character during role-playing to control his thematic choices, often associated with Narrativist play.

 

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John H. Kim <jhkim@darkshire.net>

Last modified: Tue Mar 18 15:19:07 2008