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Feedback on PALARONG MAKINISMO

I love a good academic paper. Having a couple of references is a nice touch as well. I kind of agree with a lot of the stuff that you’ve written about the way a TTRPG is basically a mechanism that turns creative outputs into experiences and stories for the players to relate once the moment has passed. There are elements here that remind me of the seminal “clouds and boxes” posts by Vincent Baker which ended up leading to Apocalypse World (and its gaming descendants). I like the way how you’ve suggested that both “crunch” and “fluff” are a part of the mechanisms and feedback loops that drive the game experience. I’m kind of not sure where I sit with the idea of the creative void, or the intentionally placed “spaces”… to me that feels like lazy game design in a lot of ways…shifting the heavy lifting from the designer to the player, which can be unfocused at best, or problematic in a lot of situations at worst. I can see where you’re coming from with the terminology you’ve used, and it’s wonderful to be introduced to new terms, but I’m trying to resolve how those ideas fit in with my own game design ideas at the moment. It feels like there’s a lot of similarities in the directions I’m aiming, so I’ll be interested to see where your future designs head.  

I don’t even know if you wanted a critique or discussion on the manifesto, but I’m going to try to add some ideas to every entry that gets posted.

yea bakers how to pbta series was a big influence lol. re: ur thoughts on intentioned spaces, i dont necessarily disagree lol - personally, the games i enjoy, find interesting, & seek to make r all tightly-bound play experiences wherein prameya-danda is minimal. i only devoted a section to it bc to make an actionable model for ttrpgs as a whole, i cant just ignore major scenes in the indie space that follow such a philosophy i.e. osr/nusr & the like.  this does make me realize i mb shoulda included paragraph or two on the forge's concept of "fruitful void" bc itd be a v useful comparison/contrast to intentioned spaces - all games (and i mean all of them) are designed with a central void that is filled in the moment, which we call play; i think the question just comes down to whether it is lead by game instruction or by the Player themself

Agreed, there's a lot to discuss here, and many types of games under the wide umbrella of RPGs. That's kind of the reason why I aimed my manifesto toward my own methodology at the moment, I've got a friend who has been working on his own taxonomy of TTRPGs, and has a set of structural ideas about what these types of games traditionally have been and what they could be. He's hoping to add a manifesto here shortly. It's a really interesting topic that shows how RPGs (whether live-action or tabletop) are so different to other types of media or social activities.