[RPG] ‘punk’

A bit of history

"Story Game" has been used in many different ways, but at least in the context to Dungeon World, it has a definite lineage.

The term as associated use today, was first coined by Clinton R. Nixon (I believe around 2006-2007?) as a simple and catchy term for Narrativist games. This allowed a way to promote these types of games without having to deal with the baggage (social, terminology) of Forge Forums' GNS Theory (now "Big Model Theory" as developed by Ron Edwards).

It caught on with a subset of the Forge crowd and became the inspiration for the Story Games Forums where a sizeable chunk of that crowd ended up migrating to. As they kept producing games, or talking about games developed from the Forge/SG crowd, "story game" got applied to a lot of games, regardless of whether it was Narrativist focused or not. Basically the term ended up getting broadly applied for many things much like "indie" has been for the last several years.

How it gets used now

Well, "story-game" usually gets used to mean ANY one of the following:

• A Narrativist focused game

• A game that focuses on fictional elements over mechanics (which usually means inclusive of many Simulationist games, particularly if they are rules light)

• A game developed by regular members of Story Games Forums or the Forge Forums

• A game that is designed with a focus

• A game that is rules light

• A game that is innovative or different than whatever folks consider "Traditional"

• A game that can be played in short form

Is Dungeon World a Story Game?

Well, there's a lot of potential definitions up there. If you ask most of the Story Games Forum crowd, they'd probably say yes, since it falls into the usual definitions they tend to use more often with it.

As you can see, though, there's a lot of options and no definite answer. Depending on what you mean by Story Game, maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

It's definitely focus designed, developed by the Forge/Storygame crowd and influence, it's different in some ways than traditional games (especially in the GM advice/hard rules for GMs, as well as the improv nature) but it's very traditional in the way it treats player/GM power divide and events.

Is it narrativist? I know Apocalypse World is, but that's because AW pushes hard moral decisions and character exploration, while I haven't had a chance to look close at Dungeon World's details to say.

Story Game vs. Storytelling Game

"Storytelling" is a term used nearly everywhere, and it, too, has a bunch of definitions. Overall, the problem is you're asking for hard definitions from terms people just kind of throw around and mean a lot of different things with.

On the other hand, "storytelling" doesn't have the same connotations as "Story Game" for the people who use the latter the most. Given how poorly they're both defined, neither do a lot for really telling people what kind of game they're going to be getting into most of the time.

"Forgeite" refers to users and game designers who frequented and followed design theories of a site known as "The Forge," found at http://www.indie-rpgs.com ^{[Internet Archive link]}. While the site is now defunct, it had a profound effect on game design and theory among independent game designers, with two of the the most notable being D. Vincent Baker (Dogs in the Vineyard, Apocalypse World) and Ron Edwards (Sorcerer).

Ron Edwards is also known for the GNS model of role-playing games, which suggests players fit into one of three categories based on which approach to role-playing they take: Gamist, Narrativist, and Simulationist. The theory discusses game design with these approaches in mind. I am not really qualified to go into detail on this model, but it spawned a lot of debate and heavily influenced many games which came out of the Forge and many Forgeite designers.

The most profound effect was on game design itself. One of the hallmarks of games from the Forge and its designers is the highly focused mechanics designed to promote and to fit within the premise of the game. This isn't true of all indie or Forge-inspired games, but this design theory found its way into many games of the time and current games.

The OP mentions Dogs in the Vineyard, a game about wielding authority to serve the greater good. The mechanics of this game are designed with the goal of pushing conflict into ever more risky levels, encouraging players to consider the increased risk at every turn. You start in discussion, and can escalate through several levels, until you have to decide if a matter is serious enough to warrant use of deadly force, with all its attendants risks. The game is all about "how far will you go?" and the rules are designed to force that question as often as possible.

Another effect, which is only my opinion based on observing the market, is that The Forge helped create the wide open RPG market we have today by fostering and encouraging many designers to put their works out into the world. The advent of electronic publishing helped here too, but it takes more than just an easy avenue of distribution. It takes a lot of encouragement to get many to take that first step, and the Forge had a hand in that.

Regarding the emotional component, I don't really see that as a common primary goal among Forge and Forge-inspired games. Some games seem designed to explore certain emotions, but I see such as typical of the specific focus; in these games the narrow focus, supported by specific rules, is the exploration of emotion.

For example, Emily Care Boss wrote games which explored various aspects of romance. The rules (and fair warning, I've read two but never played any of these), appear designed to explore those emotions associated with romance on various levels: "Breaking the Ice" looks at new romance; "Under My Skin" explores secret feelings, hidden passion, etc. The emotion is the focus in these cases, but the narrow focus is what marks it as a Forge-inspired game.