Analyse This! - Or the Science of RPGs

For the last couple of years I've been a subscriber to Pyramid, the on-line magazine of Steve Jackson Games. It's very much aimed at GMs (Game Masters, aka Keepers or Referees – the person who runs a role-playing game) with articles on scenario and character ideas, or discussions of the problems and opportunities that crop up when running RPGs. It's arguably worth the subscription for princeofcairo's 'Suppressed Transmission' articles, but there's usually plenty of other stuff that captures my interest, often for reasons beyond just RPG-running.

The Jan 5th issue in particular had a very good article by Gregory Stauf exploring the reality behind the stereotype, familiar from any number of gaming genres or sf/crime TV shows, of a character rushing into a lab with the Unexplained Object of the day, saying "I need this analysed, right away!" – and more often than not, being told (in a remarkably short time) "It's utterly unknown to science!". As Stauf points out, not only is real-world scientific analysis a lot more complicated than that, but the whole issue is much more subtle.

( Read more... )