“Roll D8 for Initiative” — On Second-Person Narration in Tabletop Narrative Role-Playing Games

Ambidice: an ambient music interface for tabletop role-playing games

Tabletop role-playing games are a collaborative narrative experience. Throughout gaming sessions, Ambient music and noises are frequently used to enrich and facilitate the narration. With AmbiDice we introduce a tangible interface and music generator specially devised for this application scenario. We detail the technical implementation of the device, the software architecture of the music syst...

Dungeons and Downloads: Collecting Tabletop Fantasy Role-Playing Games in the Age of Downloadable PDFs

Narrative Structure in Trans-Reality Role-Playing Games: Integrating Story Construction from Live Action, Table Top and Computer-Based Role-Playing Games

Trans-reality role-playing games are conceived of as a form of role-playing game evolving from and integrating established table-top, live-action and computer-based role-playing forms. Each of these established forms has specific strengths and modalities for the ongoing articulation of the history of a game world regarded as an unfolding story. Integrating these forms in a trans-reality role-pl...

Emergent Economies for Role Playing Games

Computer role playing games, particularly those with persistent worlds, often allow players to buy and sell goods and services with computer controlled non-player characters (NPCs). The prices for these goods and services are often determined a priori, and remain fixed for the game’s duration. As a result, prices do not respond to changes in supply and demand, nor does supply and demand respond...

Character Design Fundamentals for Role-Playing Games

Careful character design is a way to strengthen a role-playing game experience. Well-defined characters that are consistently communicated to players are an important ingredient in a potentially successful game. In this paper I will explore the important aspects in a character, those that support and make character immersion possible. My starting point is that in a role-playing game posing as s...