Principled Freeform and FKR

(My sincere thanks to Jonathan, Justin and Ven)

You end up seeing Principled Freeform referenced in some communities, but receiving a definition involves jumping from old forum thread to old forum thread and picking up the pieces. How to proceed? It’s particularly interesting to me because as a FKR person, the discussion about “GMless FKR” (an oxymoron) is recurrent and Principled Freeform is cited as the already existing definition for the non-FKR proposal, so it would be useful for everyone to have a clear post about it (Procedural Freeform and the difference will also be explained). Besides, Principled Freeform is very rewarding to play and deserves wider attention.

FKR and Abstraction

(This is the third post in my recent series on FKR. I recommend reading the first one for a clearer understanding of this one).

My thesis here is that an arbitrary attribute of a ruleset like length or math crunch should not be used as determining factor regarding its utility to FKR play.  To present it, I will go over three points: why freeform and ultralight are associated so strongly with the FKR, how so called “crunchy” rulesets can be used by FKR referees without any dissonance, and a direct example of a famous RPG abstraction being applied to hypothetical FKR play. I believe case studies greatly strengthen hypothesis.

Thinking Tunnels & Trolls: Story and Adventure Gaming

Someone once asked me why I love OD&D. I thought about doing a blogpost about that, but really, it’s just retreated ground at this point. I like the freedom, the spirit of the text, how it feels like a suggestion of a distant lost game, its procedures for exploration, the non-variable damage, the offering of procedures for speeding up parts such as searching for doors, the resources for stocking and creating environments, the weird evocative rules like jousting and the strongholds in the wilderness, the implied setting and vision for pulp fantasy.