Story Creation Engines: A perspective for table top RPG design
‘Role-Playing-Games’ can be defined as an engine composed of rules that encompasses interactions of game, experience, and story. The rules, (mechanics; that take an input and deliver an output; and directives; instructions for how and when to use them) can be further classified into two categories: Meta- ; things or references to things outside the fictional narrative. And mesa- ; things or references to things within the fiction narrative. Meta-mechanics allow interaction with the story from outside the narrative. They are mechanics that reference things being done to the game, story, or experience by the players or an arbitrary constraint, not the characters or the fiction. For example, FATE points or 1/session limits. Meta-directives direct the actions of the players. Most commonly, they indicate which players are responsible for setting terms, or difficulties, or scenes. Meta-directives can limit meta gaming by saying things like 'players should not read any f...