thread: 2013-09-24 : What even IS the object of an rpg?
On 2013-09-29, Mads E. Kirchoff wrote:
In the Fastaval/Danish con scene we have an named genre for games that lie or hide facts about the basic premise of the fiction, and quite often lying about the object of the game as well in process. Very much in the same vein as GcL's example with the train game, it's all about providing a very mean or disturbing, plot twist and giving their actions consequences they couldn't foresee. The genre is aptly named "mindfuck". It's reasonably popular, perhaps due to our almost masochistic taste in roleplaying, but it's recognized as problematic among a good amount of the influential designers. There's a dissertation here if you can stand some google translated danish.
One important point is that lying about the fiction or object of the game trains the players in anticipating these twists, not only making it less effective henceforth, but also in general damaging the social contract if you anticipate the rug being pulled from under you. Perhaps more relevant in a scene where players are likely to play multiples of such games, though.
