Lexicon

This is a list of all the silly phrases I've coined to try to help explain stuff. It's got so that I have enough for a mini gaming dictionary of useful concepts, which is what this page is for. Clicking the links will take you to the post where the phrase was minted.

The Action Principle: Players fundamentally care about stuff that affects their actions in the game. As regards information, players will discount information if it isn't actionable. This is most acute in narrative-focused campaigns (see Capital-L Lore, below).

Bass Ackwards Scene: A sort of Catch 22 where the characters couldn't possibly have any reason to pursue/be in the scene unless they were already privy to information that only gets revealed in the scene. Usually a result of railroading, with players following the GM's lead absent in-world reasons for doing so (see the Kenku Structure).

The "Because City" City: A city that transparently exists in the game world only because the GM decided there should be a city, not because it makes sense for a city to be there. Principle extends to other game elements (the "Because x" x).

Capital-L Lore: In a tightly narrative-focused campaign, the information given to the players that isn't directly actionable (in sandbox games, any information is potentially actionable). Players characteristically don't take an interest in Capital-L Lore because of the Action Principle.

The Discovery Principle: Discovering things is fun gameplay; only keep secret that which is designed to be discovered. Coordinates with the Info Principle to ensure the GM doesn't pad out gameplay and restrict players' options by controlling the flow of information (see the Kenku Structure, below).

The Fifteen Minute Rule: Whenever a player declares an action, try to show the outcome of that action within, at most, fifteen minutes. A heuristic meant to help ensure that players process events as consequences of their own actions, based on the idea that fifteen minutes is about the maximum time for players to make this connection between the triggering action and the effect (related: see Structures of Experience).

Fog-Machine Immersion: The attempt to immerse players in the game by focussing on non-essential features such as handouts, miniatures, voices and detailed "flavour" descriptions (i.e.: not high in actionable info) - basically everything except game-structures.

The Imagined Game: The idealised vision a non-gamer has of how a ttrpg will play when first getting to grips with the concept. Characterised by a focus on free exploration of a fantasy world.

The Info Principle: Not knowing something is not fun gameplay. Coordinates with the Discovery Principle.

The Jules Cleric: The concept of the Cleric class that has no spells (miracles) at first level, and who has to attract the attention of their god before being granted divine powers. Named after the character Jules from Pulp Fiction, who garners divine attention unexpectedly, despite frequently quoting scripture.

The Kenku Structure: The campaign structure created when the GM railroads the players by restricting information about the tasks they get set, usually because the tasks themselves don't make sense, or to obfuscate the game's linearity. (For the Kenku Problem, after which the structure is named, see the Alexandrian blog.)

Nested Risk: When players choose to "buy in" to several different risks at different levels. E.g.: The individual risky actions taken in a dungeon vs the risky action of entering the dungeon in the first place.

The Paradox of Pacing: Playing through every scene in detail actually makes the players' engagement with your game shallower, not deeper. This is because players' ability to think in the mid- to long-term is impaired, so events seem disconnected and arbitrary, rather than arising as a result of their actions and plans (related: see the Fifteen Minute Rule).

Player-Wrangler: The player, classically known as the Caller, who takes on the semi-official job of taking the party's disjointed and half-baked ideas and presenting them to the GM as actions that can be resolved. Helps to enable teamwork and speeds up play.

The Pratchettian Method of Settlement Creation: Method for creating authentic-feeling cities and towns, summarised by the two questions: 1) Why is there a village/town/city/encampment here? and 2) Where does the food come from? Inspired by Terry Pratchett's suspicion of pristine fantasy cities with no discernible working parts (an antidote to the "Because City" City).

The Rule of Genre: An action is plausible in the game world if (and only if) it fits the genre and tone of the game. This trumps the "Rule of Cool", and concessions to realism.

The Sandbox Paradox: When players with too many options default to doing what they think the GM wants them to do, paradoxically turning a sandbox game into a plot-driven game.

Structures of Experience: An idea borrowed from Philosophy, that experiences have embedded structures that relate them to other experiences, the perceiver, and the world (in a ttrpg, the game world). Using game structures to create these experiential structures helps get players engaged in the game world and NPCs.

The Underground Principle: If setting your adventure underground makes it boring, then it was a boring adventure in the first place. Based on the fact that a dungeon crawl highlights the scenario's structure, hence lacklustre scenarios are made more obvious. Used to reject the idea of the dungeon scenario as a relic of an earlier age of gaming.

Whole-Dungeon Thinking: Thinking about the dungeon as a navigable space, as opposed to simply a series of individual choice-points ("room-to-room thinking"). The aim for a dungeon scenario is to get players to use Whole-Dungeon Thinking.

War Stories: Stories players tell each other about campaigns they were in, notably even shared and retold between players who were all present at the events. War Stories almost universally recount events that were unexpected, and could not have been anticipated by either the players or the GM.