Chekov's Gun in Details in the TRPG. Pull-System for Details and Elaboration

Checkov's Gun is a principle by which we can approach details that affect stakes (stakes are things that give set backs or gains to the character). This is using pull system when details come into play in a story. 

if the Player starts talking about their clothes, spending time in the game to elaborate about something that fills out the character like clothes and gives the character depth then the GM will or the Player will elaborate on the clothes when the Stakes are high. 

Basically a Player who spends the Opportunity in scenes to elaborate on details, gets to call on this detail when it is favorable. Calling on the details - if the GM gives hero dice  or bennies or any type of reroll or luck - this allows the roll to be called in a wider variety of circumstance. 

often, in my observation, the Bonus hero Roll just happens. No "Cause", the Players choose to use it and that's it. If the GM wants the story to be more effective you can make it more effective (like rolling a 1d4 or 1d6 with the 1d20 roll) depending on how the player ties in this detail. 

To prevent abuse and the Trope being over played, the gm can limit this to once per Story arc. 

In Christian Camerons Novels (Tom Swan and the Willam Gold Series) the characters Clothes get him into trouble and problems as well as get him out of these problems. 

Not just Clothes, relationships (being nice to the bartender, being an ass to the beggar, etc... ) when the Player choose a scene to elaborate where the detail fleshes out the character this detail will be used later in the Story arc. 

This is NOT a NEW technique. Many GMs use this, except that in my observations they dont use it following the Principles of Checkov's Gun where it will come into play. Checkov's gun exists in most GM's techniques, its just that many of us did not recognize it as a Checkovs Gun until we learn about checkovs gun (there is a Frequency Illusion once we learn something - we realize its been happening a lot and we failed to notice before we learned definitions and concepts)

This is not just for the Party's Gain, but also to the Party's detriment. Often we can make zero-sum choices in the game - Options that have other consequences. When the PC deals with this character instead of another, or chooses one path over another because of Personal reasons (Details) this can lead to how the GM will resolve Hooks (challenges that face the characters) as well as Fumbles (1s rolled). 

 PROBLEM STATEMENT: 

How do you justify Making time for Character detailing? My character likes making pies, and bakes a bunch of pies when he gets down time. How does that fit into my story? 

Stakes (gains or setbacks) modify a detail. if a Detail affects stakes then it becomes more important in the story and more engaging. 

OUTCOME:  

Opportunities to Flesh out the character becomes opportunities to create Details that will come in PLAY later in the game to determine a Hooks and Saves (when the stakes are high). 

Aging Tinkering Gamer and Skills

Skill is a concept that keeps changing year to year in my life. Although we are being introduced to skills early in life, it is through games where I see the implications of mastery.

Before my understanding of skills is that its these discrete corpora of knowledge: like "Management," "Leadership," "Diplomacy," etc... I believed that, over time and practice, these discrete corpora would allow me to perform greater and higher levels of mastery. I would have a more difficult challenge, and my mastery will allow me to overcome these. In Management, I can handle more problematic organizations, in Leadership more demoralized people, and Diplomacy more complex issues.

But I was wrong. Skills are not discrete corpora, but we learn a vast amount of small skills like "Sarcasm" (a kind of framing), "truth sandwich," "next action," (131 tools and techniques in PMBOK, )etc...  and that we use all these different tools and ingredients to create specific results. We don't have the Large Overwhelming Problems; we can break down all problems into smaller and smaller components. The problematic organization in a Management problem has a root cause and will require an adaptive lifestyle approach. The issue of morale and behavior in an organization can be a mixed bag of bad policy, bad culture, and conflicting incentives and penalties. It gets more complicated as Diplomacy can be confused with Leadership because there is a give-and-take with people.

For ease of understanding - our brains still think of skills in discrete corpora, but in actual daily use, our Skills are made up of many smaller skills. These lesser skills are mastered to the level of conditioned response or requiring minimal conscious effort. Mastery to not need any conscious effort allows us more complex feats since this mitigates the limitations of our working memory. When so much skill is in our Long Term Memory, that place in our mind beyond our Working and Conscious awareness, and we have a positive feedback loop going on with those skills, we seem to achieve FLOW.

It's not that there are Big Problems that require an Overwhelming Mastery of Skills. Its that there is a scarcity of Attention, Time, and Resources. In the Information Asymmetry of life, Prioritization is the Indommidable and Ubiquitous problem.  Our biggest problem can be fixed by a bunch of small skills, but it would take a lot of resources we don't have. That we juggle a lot of problems, and when we do we sacrifice the ability to solve deep thought problems.

These days I want to lose 2-4 hours just updating my definition of Skills. Either tinkering with D&D or GURPS, either simplifying or elaborating and categorizing these skills by their historical, economic, and social value.

Thanks to GURPS Fandom and =importHTML and google sheets fu, I was able to finally make that cleaned up list of GURPS Skills. I used PIVOT table to remove redundancies.

It is interesting to Listen to E. Goldraths Beyond the Goal, because his "unifying theory" for work and problem-solving compliments or supports any gamers unifying theory of World/Reality Mechanics.

If you have kids and if your kids use "Newb" "Pro" "God-Tier" to describe skills, they seem to get it. But even when my son has that understanding, his ability to overcome his anxiety regarding the work that goes into these skills seems to be my constant stumbling block. Its not that I cannot reframe and reword an argument, its that kids have a Finite window to change their mind. Once they lose patience they lock up their mindset. What I think I will discover as I spend more time with my son are the early indicators of his loss of patience and how to head these off.

Plan-Do-Check-ACt in EVERYTHING - even in Game Systems, and Game System Design

Seeing Cyberpunk 2077 and Cyberpunk 2020 it makes me wonder why it isnt an acceptable model to Rewrite a Scifi Setting every 3-5 years updated to consider all the new technology and Trends like a new D&D edition?

It would be so beautiful work of Documentation Management 😅. But I realize people are people and Change and updates are not very welcome, what's wrong with how I do things now? Still its an exercise of creating an Approachable Living System.

Its kinda weird since most Gamers I encounter in G+ are Programmers and Version Control and Iterated Improvements and Rollouts/handoffs are something deeply understood and appreciated. 

So PDCA in Everything - A System for Systems - is a very meta but usable framework in Looking at TRPG systems. TRPGs are not just Games but Playable Models of a Story (or Narrative "reality").

What's wrong of how I do things? Or Whats wrong with the Status quo?
Architecture is a word I encountered in CISP and in BPM that talks about Designing Frameworks - Designing how a System in teaching a Target system (Designing System A, System A is designed to Teach System B). Architecture is the Term for Designing System A. So wow take a breather.

Anyway, so Architecture in Designing a TRPG's Design would be kind of Heavy. But the things Some TRPG Game System nerds think in this way. They can put to writing the system by which they design the system of Developing the User Experience. Tobie Abad's works and his discussion of these works is what reminds me of this. This is Architecture. There is a Wikipedia Article in TRPG Design Theory and there was another book about it - which come to think of it was a great foundation for me getting into ISO, BPM, and other PDCA systems.

So what's the point
TRPGs is a great way to Learn some Key System Literacy skills that is essential in Learning more complicated frameworks and models that deal with real life work. The obsession about it is what allows us to get deeper and deeper into it and seem to see PDCA systems like in ISO or BPM (and the many other Process Frameworks) one of many systems we can understand as we've been given a system framework from TRPGs.

Its great education - its a life skill, and its fun to talk to other Gamers who think in System Architecture and find a FUN use of such  a serious skill. A fun use of a serious skill - how games and play is a strange evolutionary memetic of preparing us for harder problems ahead.

Game Mastering Research Update; leave it to Gamers to Game Self Improvement.

So I'm preoccupied in updating my Game Mastering Skills and Heuristics Document. I found this so much easier to update than blog posts because blog posts have an expectation to have a 500 word singular theme or  idea. I cant exactly say a small thing like "I finished reading dungeon world" lolz. An idea as incomplete as that, I might as well post in G+.

Anyway I've just finished a BUNCH of readings:

1. GURPS Horror (finally after all a few years I finally got to finish it). 
2. Chronicle of Darkness
3. Dungeon World (its rather short compared to the rest). 
4. Qin The Warring States (thoroughly, not just a systems analysis).
5. Qin the Warring States the Art of War

Using my Production and Operation Studies. 

So I've been studying Production Operations for about 4-6 months now. Reading stuff recommended, and those that an Industrial Engineer should have studied. One thing I'm clearly taking away is the techniques that refine and improve Processes and Activities that can be clearly applied to the way Games are run and played. 

I'm self studied in Game Design and User Interface or designing a User Experience since the 2000s when I hoped to get into Game Design Course (which didnt exist then). These "User" design techniques augmented by studies of Behavior Sciences, particularly Kahneman and Tversky's work (thinking Fast and Slow, Prospect Theory, and Applying the Behavior Sciences in Designing an Experience and Process). 

To put simply The Game Master Skills and Heuristics are actions and activities that allow someone to repeat and practice certain abilities that would enhance their Gaming Experience. Its have emphasized the following:

1. Actions. instead of Principles, Guidelines, long Essays of theory. Lets give  the Gamers ACTIONS to do. We can give them a default set of actions, and we can expand to how to modify and improve what ever Action Process they use to improve their gaming experience. 
2. Working Memory Management. Many of the Techniques have their emphasis in dealing with a terrible working memory or hacking and conditioning it so that skills are so ingrained that they occupy less of the working memory and allow greater bounds of complexity as well as preventing the gamer from being overwhelmed. A good mental environment, a 5S inside one's head.  
3. Opportunities for Deep Work. As we identify skills and heuristics, a lot of small techniques get mastered quite quickly and more opportunities for DEEP WORK begin to emerge for the Gamer. This can take the form of Flow in prep and refining improvisational abilities OR with his/her players. 

Moving into Gaming Agnositic has had some Interesting results. One of the most useful is focusing on the User Experience and Game Experience that does not hinge on any system. To have tools that allows the Gamer to have greater levels of engagement, experience, and enjoyment regardless of system. Isolating core principles that no one system can hold monopoly lolz (LIKE SCIENCE! Lolz)

You'll notice the Studies in Operations Sciences are BLENDED with Zen and some Philosophical Works. If you've checked out the Toyota Production System and Kaizan, its kinda steeped with Eastern Philosophy. Particularly the derivations of Buddhist and Confucian continuous improvement (commonly known as Kaizen). Whats notable about this is how it related to Memory and Skill Mastery. There is so much mysticism about it, but when you explore works concerning memory, behavior and biases it can be interpreted as a 5S and Lean Six Sigma approach to self improvement. 

Arthur V. Hill and many of the Operations Sciences researchers have noticed that MANY of  the "tricks" in the science can be applied in a personal level (coining Personal Operations). Especially since its an OBSESSION with heuristics which should be very familiar to gamers because these are basically the Models and mechanics we horde in our memory when we learn other game systems. Imagine using that memory, conditioned to memorize tons of Heuristics (game mechanics) applied to more practical mechanics and GAMIFYING those mechanics . That mindset that can pick and choose, modify and improve, or HACK, heuristics and models to serve what ever ends we gamers so desire lolz. 

To be a Gamer, particularly a TRPG gamer, maybe a kind of heuristic collector. There is some gamer pride about being able to learn ANY heuristic or mechanic or model. And there is an amount of satisfaction with being able to PLAY with any  heuristic or mechanic. And to play and play with these models - how MUNCHKIN is that method to max out a particular skill. 

I can go on and on. I'll just leave with the note that I'm always on the look out for feedback and collaboration in developing the Skills and Heuristics document. Feedback is a key aspect  of being a Gamer - when our expectations dont match up with reality, our ability to adapt and improvise is one of our strong suits. So if you want to join a particular feedback loop of challenge its good to look for places that would allow our limits and flaws to be visible and work on them. 

Committed Phase, Game Theory-ish

I talked about schelling point before and I learned to put to words something recently: Committed Phase. Basically its a chemistry term but recently I learned it is a business term, Anyway its a great tool if you are a GM or anyone who wants to break down nuances of social interaction into a RPG terms or any term that would suffice to serve a technical description.

The way I use it is basically is to describe a kind of a schelling point, or a focal point, where the game (by game I mean incentives and consequences) changes after making a decision on which path to take. Why I wanted this term vs just using cross roads is how illustrative the term "Commited" is to what happens next. Its like a "minor" point-of-no-return, that the game changes but  not so much as change your entire strategy.

One real useful use for the term is when I talk about social engineering or dealing with people in a social setting. There are "Favors/Debts", and there are "Pushes", "Soft/Hard sells", as well as "Conditioning" and other engineering type terms to illustrate the strategies one has to employ to deal with social constraints but one part that was hard to describe was "Committed Phase" meaning:

Ex.
I'm always looking to make friends, I believe we change and that friends help us with their advice and perspective and having a lot of friends who are willing to give their TIME and perspective is always very valuable. Now when you bring certain elements into a relationship, you change it: you are enter a "Committed Phase" where your friendship is still one that is friendship but some of the elements have changed.
The classic example is lending money to friends. Its always advised never to bring up such matters around friends because it changes the relationship. ( Dan Arielly explores it in Predictably Irrational, but I forget the specifics of the page and chapter). This is an example of a "Committed Phase" and it applies to other actions that change the landscape of the relationship or "Game"(as in the game theory definition of Game). 

You can imagine that when you're talking to people and you express a hesitation to "ask this person out", then that is an example of a "Committed Phase". Or when you propose to a change of relationship, as well as realizing the validity or importance of Ambiguity (actions which have motives that cannot be easily discern or Impossible to discern).

In RPGs, the GM or the Players later on learn a more "realistic" scenario has many more "commited phases" that you cannot just retry or just attempting something, success or not, changes the game. So if you had to break down your strategies you can use CP (committed phase) to describe a list of possible consequences and consequences for even trying or even considering.

Its a great term to think about especially in light of Thought Police or where there is are limits even in the mind. That considering to do an action is already punishable, even if it was just considered and there was no action that took place.

You also then realize "Ambiguous" Actions, like certain kinds of "Flirting" which is permissible socially but can be interpreted as something or nothing at all. The need for "hinting" may be one of those tactics which tends to fall in "Alls fair in..." or in various situations where it is very hard to prove a particular "intention". If you've grappled with the Legal implications/challenges with Intent you get the picture of how this is a really big array of options and possibilities.

Anyway, Happy Holidays!

Paper expenses, and RPGs with Trade

TL:DR What's this relation in Gaming, particularly Trade Games like Traveller or any Game where there is trade and negotiations value is pretty arbitrary with bench marks made by the business overhead. 

I was talking to a a very successful accountant friend who is also a gamer about trade based games.
We talked about cheesy min max combos in Real-World accounting, and there was the funny trick with paper expenses.

Basically if you pay in commodities, goods and services, what ever value you assign is almost arbitrary. It exploits several cognitive biases and the abstract nature of value. 

I can sell you a technical service , example: like internet access in exchange for cash or a trade of services. You can sell me another similar good like connectivity to X network or security services. In our books we will write down how much I sell my "technical service" in exchange for your "technical service" and we give each other receipts and pay taxes according to how much that is... the questions is how much does such a service cost us. Its called a paper expense for a couple of reasons, the one' i'm familiar with is that it is an expense provable by only documentation. 

IT companies have a lot of paper expenses, see the controversy of ISP companies in the USA over the Cost vs Bandwidth. 

Services and various Technology is hard to measure in costs, because Infrastructure is a complicated beast to measure. I can probably go OCD (if I could) and measure my usage of a car in both GasWt./distance it  transports, Maintenance vs the payments I'm making every month, and compare it to my Cost of Living and Wages to see if I've maximized it or I've hit diminishing returns (that would be a great gadget to make and probably already exists). Already just as simple as a car is complicated to measure... what more an Office and office furnture - it they look like crap you fail to create confidence in your patrons, if you pay too much for luxuries thats more expenses than you had (examples of lines you won't know till you cross them). 

Now the ethics come in as What you charge affects both your patrons, your competition, and complimentary or dependent commodities and the market. There is a cognitive bias in dealing with people in degrees of separation (faceless groups, even if you give them a face). There are so many factors in this circumstance: Competition (Prisoners Dilemma) and Value Perception (Placebo Affect of Expensive Goods). And of course the "Taboo" of Economic Ideology... UGGG... good thing most adventurers are Selfish *****. 

In the two Traveller Games I'm playing I play a "cut digit" accountant 

  and an Honest Merchant suit of a Cowboy (Inspired by Brisco Country Jr). So I get to ponder trade in games and their relationship to my business experience. 

Dramatic vs Challenging Occasion to Roll

Working on my ORP I've made some breakthroughs in definitions, particularly defining Dramatic vs Challenging occassion to roll.

Risk and Consequences  

Both dramatic and challenging occassions to roll very similar because of the Risk and Consequences. if you look at GURPS, the DMG's, or WOD or Fading Suns, etc... definition when to roll they focus on the scenarios. I wont dwell on this since most game systems say the same thing: TL:DR roll when its important.

Overall Story

What story are we trying to tell? Realism or Harsh realism doesnt mean rolling for every step until he crosses the street, but defining the realy decisive challenges in every problem. In order to focus on the real challenges, or the Drama, what can happen is that the "little Rolls" the GM rolls and decides what is more expedient and dramatic for the story. Rolls to Fast Draw, Stand up, trip, Spot a clue, etc... are left to the GM so that he can push the story forward... But thats only half of what is happening, players can speed things up with initiative - condensing actions and questions into their turn instead of waiting for feedback or permission. 

Pacing and Logistics

There is a real logistical problem in Games when it comes to Dice Rolls. Rolling dice, counting, and zooming out to look at the big picture or zooming in to the details, all take time and effort. Ideally the GM spends most of his effort in the narration to build up drama and the dice is complimentary. When we narrow things to when it is dramatic it is easier for the GM, and creativity is the measure of success in the scene. Don't sweat the small stuff, unless wee are near the Climax of the Scene or the Story.

In ORP, DND and Fuzion or game systems that allow averages for the Defense Stat, what can happen is that the GM can just ASK the player to roll defenses and make attacks hit at an random and cyclical pace. You can apply it to GURPS or other Active Defense Game Systems as well, where in the attack doesn't really roll but Hit at an Unknown and fairly random pattern. 

Ask for a Roll during a Focal Point

Sweating the small stuff can change the flavor or direction of the story in interesting ways. We want unpredictability when we try to predict the characters and players, and that's when we look at our dice rolls behind the screen and ask ourselves - is he not being challenged? Can his temperament take a few bad rolls? Can he creatively turn things around, in a scene that didn't go the way he planed?

We really do is measure the Players temperament and energy level. We gauge it, and as they get better and as we get better we throw more mishaps their way now and then to keep things interesting. What if she doesnt draw the weapon fast enough, how does he improvise?

Timer and the Player's Energy and Temperament Level - read them and see if they can take the challenge. If you have a GM tag team we have the advantage of having a better gauge of what they can do, and someone to think off other ways we can spin things based on their assessment of their improv-idea.

TL:DR roll during a Schelling Point.

SIFRP game by end of March 

Since I'm GM-tag-teaming with Ziggy for SIFRP I'm excited to first dissect the Psychology of the Group and design the game for optimal Satisfaction, based on where they liked challenged.

Role playing moral dilemmas

It is an opportunity to reflect and dig deep. It is in a friendly environment where nothing of yours is truly at stake, and you are asked to dig deep and ask questions about your character using your own experience and

Three dimension characters change. They evolve, which means player has to move from one PoV to another. There is a medium to change POV and to do it safely and explore various people.

One dimensional character is what is on paper, two is what he is give certain situations and three is how he changes over time. In RPing we have to be 3d. We have to be flexible breaking up our concepts and building them back up given new data and experiences.

I think this is where we can grow a lot, a medium to grow and change by having characters change. Oh yeah, and we change as our characters change. We are influenced by the rationality we have created for these characters. Although it is a little change, it helps us grow the means to understand people better.

I think the groups collective EQ has a way of providing rich ground to improve those are still maturing, and to further explore other ideas.

I guess RPing gold, what we dig up in good games are really GOLDEn opportunities to grow and mature,

Ancestry of Game Design

First there was Natural Philosophy, the knowledge of how the world worked before math became involved. Next it grew into the Philosophy of Geometry, when the math allowed the Philosophers of different peoples and cultures create metrics by which to measure the world. The discipline of Physics came next, and people were able to measure, reflect and predict the motions of their surroundings. Around the same time General Science and Mathematics, began to branch off from the tree of philosophy.

In what is considered the modern era, we have several philosophers tackling people and their behavior, attempting to get it all down to a science where there is a level of certainty and predictability. In the development of the economic discipline we have great altruists and philosophers who tried to sum up the behavior of men.

When physics and its ability to predict accurately came around and explain became more a consistent way how the world works, great economists began working towards that same level of truth. Alfred Marshal, comes along and makes economics explanatory and usable through math. He creates the interactive formula of supply and demand that we can apply to behavior and not just buying habits.

Decades later, Game Theory emerged, as the mathematical tools of economics became more sophisticated. Enter the 2 grand fathers of games as we know them: HG wells and John Von Neumann. Both brought gaming, beyond their previous boundaries. HG wells, as any war gamer and RPgamer made games and design to the masses. John Von Neumann furthered Game Theory, ambitiously attempting to give it physics-like utility.

Game Theory is the science of structured interactions and the complex patterns that emerge from them. It slowly gaining momentum as it is used in developing more efficient and fair methods of interaction, especially in State Policies, Biology (Medicine), Business, and War. The same principles can be found in game design, as hobbyists try to make their setting and game more challenging, sustainable, and fun.

We gamers, typically GMs, work on Game Design to build a better game. In my experience, we address challenges in making behavior, fairness, sometimes Ethics, stimulus and problem solving work in the way we see the world. Game Design is a way to simply and communicate the complex ideas of how the world ought to, should, can be from the GM's perspective.

One can say that he can learn about the entire personal philosophy of a Game Designer from the way he makes his games or tweaks a game system. The values and expectations he plays on humans or sentient beings can be seen in their treatment. How the GD approaches Social Status, Fate, Luck and hard work. To those who grew up on RPGs, Game Design is a language to discuss and relate these ideas and to test, share and express them with others and their unpredictable reactions.

The language of Game Design, is the language of everyman trying to make sense of his perspective and let others see the world in his point of view.

Coordination Game and Battle of the Sexes.

I'd like to talk about game theory and how it relates to RPGs.

The coordination game is very simple. You see it in any interaction where being on the same side or page as someone IS the intended goal.

When you don't know what to do in the situation, you ask. You ask your players what they think about an idea and if value their input and attempt to match them, that is the Coordination Game.

What happens when both needs are different but equal strong. Then you have "the battle of the sexes". In this situation, both are truly equal that you cannot reach a resolution. Any action you take in this situation: Changes the game to a coordination game.

When you "bribe" your players to go along with something. The bribe re-arrange the pay-offs to be more like the coordination game. If your players, make it clear that they won't enjoy your intended game: they make you see options where getting along is the higher pay-off.

We encounter these most basic and elementary of games in almost all human interactions. In fact the MOST basic act of manipulation is one party trying to achieve a Coordination Game without the awareness of the other party.

Now how does this relate to your game? These two basic games teach the fundamentals of interactive strategy (in my opinion). When I learned that information and my actions have the power to change the game, I have a greater power in influencing outcomes.

It may appear simple as common sense, but if you've read up on cognitive bias you'll learn that there is no such thing as common sense. No one has ever has a "perfect" understanding of logic and is able to divorce their biases to their own judgments without employing critical thinking techniques. Game theory and its little games are one of those powerful techniques we can employ to systemically improve our decision making and, consequently, our strategic thinking.