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I've been thinking about this since I started poking around for examples of psychological examination type role-playing.  My search lead me to think about psychological aspects of roleplaying all together, and gave me some good grist I thought I'd share.

In the thread Trust and Communication:


Good gaming wisdom=Good gaming design
What Tony cites is an example of paying attention to the social or psychological aspects of the experience of role-playing.  Design elements like this can help create cohesion in game groups, which may allow more harmonious and synergistic play to arise.  Techniques like this are used in theatre, dramatherapy and LARPing.  They support and take advantage of patterns of the human psyche.  The following diagram outlines a pattern much like the three-act structure of drama: introduction-engagement-resolution.  This pattern underlies not just human involvement in narrative, but also how all puzzles or problems are tackled.  It's also like the flow of sex.  Not surprisingly, if an activity follows this pattern, it is also likely to be experienced as satisfying.  Some gears that get ground in trpg may be due to a lack of attention to  normal desires and expectations on the part of participants based on anticipation of this flow.



source: www.therapeuticspiral.org/references/pdterms.html

Check out that "Act-Completion, Catharsis" bit. In psychodrama or dramatherapy(specifically therepeutic roleplaying and drama), this is a moment where the personal issues that are being addressed see some release or transformation. In fiction, this is the climax--when all the forces put in motion for the plot come to a head and become resolved.  The intensity builds over time, then diminishes. Also note that in fiction, too little resistance=an unsatisfying climax.  GNS-Narrativism uses this flow in a big way.  Gamism as well. The question of how Sim does might be a good question for another thread.

What can be lacking in trpg design is conciousness of the Warm-up and Integration phases.  Warm-up is team-building, allowing the players to get used to one another, learn what the boundaries are with respect to task allocation and proprietaryship of in-game elements, and just to relax enough to be able to enjoy themselves.  System explanations, and especially character generation generally occupy this role in game-play, but this means it is generally only done at the very begining of a campaign and then informally, without the purpose of creating group cohesion.  In troupe-style play a "check-in" with all characters could function this way--helping the players orient themselves to remember what has gone before and also to get back into their characters.  More standard introduction type activities could also be done--imagine a check in about what people are interested in getting out of play, or what their take on their own or eachothers' characters are... Silly or serious there is a lot of room for activities to initiate play that would bring the players more fully into engagement with the game and eachother up front.

The first example of Integration I thought of is, of course, cashing in XP's for character advancement. The outcomes for characters in My Life with Master also formalize integration.  The trust setting phases in The Mountain Witch allow players to reflect and integrate scenes during the course of play. Informal after-game discussion most likely often fulfills this role.

Examples of Techniques used in other Fields:

Old School New Wave
Back in the dark ages of 1992, the Australians free-form community had incorporated certain social-dynamic principles into their free-form (LARP) play.  John Hughes' essay New Directions in Oztralian Roleplaying gives examples of games and techniques used.  A lot of emphasis is put on the Warm-up stage:
(My paraphrase of structure and techniques employed)
i. prior prep: module worked out fully with playtest, gm fully prepared, etc.
ii. make sure players are prepared/will match with module.
iii. physical setting, secure, appropriate, supportive etc.
1. briefing (warm-up): introduce module, intent, parameters.
Share players/characters names--write on blackboard.  
Establish boundaries: physical contact ok? etc.
Have players introduce themselves in character.
2. start slowly: bring players in gradually. Allow players to "find" characters and get into groove.
3. Establish atmosphere: sight, sound, noise, movement. play and describe in 3-d.
balance elements:
"Action--gesture and movement, the prose and poetry of action
Visualisation--all that comes before the eye, costume, props images.
Voice--the spoken word and what it tells us about each other. "

Dramatherapy

As discussed in this Dramatherapy site another important element of the Warm-up period not noted on this diagram is Boundary Setting. Boundaries are set in trpg in explicit or implicit phases of social contract establishment.  They are especially important in a therapeutic context, but clear boundaries help everyone relax regardless of the situation. At least IME.  

Warm-up techniques used in Dramatherapy include free association, physical tension relievers (ie chain back-rubs), mirroring movements, symbolic play (improving use of an object for various imaginary tasks) and "monster" roleplays (in pairs people pretend to walk down an empty hallway, encounter a monster and run away from it).  These have varying goals from group bonding, to breaking self-consciousness  to beginning to identify the issues to be addressed by the participants.  I've incorporated Free Association into the character development phase of my game, Breaking the Ice,  because of the subconscious possiblities it presents. As the players "freely" associate, things are given the chance to arise organically from their subconsciousness that their conscious mind might not yield so quickly.  Character generation in narrativist supporting games could seek out the "monsters", or questions, the players are interested in engaging.  

Integration techniques used in dramatherapy include Role Reversal, Behavioural Practice, Sharing and Discussion.  The last two are most likely a natural part of a gaming evening but could be incorporated mechanically.  Role reversal is where a person steps into the role of their antagonist, to help them integrate all sides of an issue they've had strong feelings about, and hopefully release it.  Behavioural practice is roleplaying similar situations to the initial problem to help the person have a sense of how to do things differently next time--to embody the change. These techniques might not mesh with all groups' intentions, but they could be used to good effect if personal exploration was part of the goal.  

Then there are a gaggle of other techniques used to accomplish the action phase/engaging with the resistance and coming to completion: doubling (having someone provide support, explanation and suggestions for a protagonist), surplus reality (acting out daydreams or fears), chorus (other participants repeat words or actions done by a protagonist to emphasize them), mirroring actions (having someone else play out your actions), replaying (re-enacting actions with better/different outcomes), and others found at this site.

This may relate to Chris Lehrich's work looking at rpg as ritual, but it also offers concrete techniques and perspectives that offer us ways to design more effective and fun games.

best,
Emily Care

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Neat!  I read this last night and was hoping a big conversation would have started by this morning.

I'm still digesting, but an annecdote came to me in the night while thinking about this.  In 1989-90 I was assistant managing a really small comic and game shop.  The owner was a popular GM.  He did all kinds of "weird" stuff (and sometimes charged cash money for running his games!).  

One of his popular events while I was in contact with him was to run a horror  game set in the middle of the woods.  He and the players boarded a bus at our store with hiking and camping equipment.  They drove out into the middle of the Mark Twain National Forest (this was in Missouri) and hiked into the woods.  Each day they hiked for six or eight hours, helping each other as needed to get along.  Then after setting up camp, he'd run the game around the camp fire untill late into the night.  I'm sure the game itself wasn't anything special, but the environment, the activities, the bonding, really changed the way they played.  I think it ran for three days like that.

I wonder how the warm-up -> action -> integration curve worked for them.  I'm thinking it was repeated each day and had more to do with their whole situation-activity then with the game play per se.  But I'm not sure where the climax falls in their daily routine.  Or maybe the whole trip was really one big curve.  Or both.

I'm going to keep thinking about warm-up and integration in the more typical RPG setting.  It seems like there are any number of things we can implement for warm-up, but integration beyond just hanging out to chat seems like a tougher nut to crack.  I wonder what value the working through: activities have for our recreational gaming.

Chris

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After reading through this twice I was pretty sure it was well above me in terms of things I had personally experienced or could intelligently add to the topic.  Then I settled down and let my supper digest and this morning took a fresh look.

It occurred to me that I do have something that MIGHT be relevant to the conversation.  So here goes.

The first thing is something I will call the Faux Doom Speech.  Prior to many of the games that I run, I assure the players that their characters and indeed their fun is doomed, so they may as well give up now.  On occasion as a player I will assure the judge that their best laid plans and terrifying encounters are doomed to fail and they may as well give me my experience so we can all go have a beer.

Now I have done this with friends and strangers and even though I can dead-pan with the best of them, I always manage to give them a smile that says "nah, just kidding, we are going to have a good game." I do it for myself and for the others so that they are aware that I know its just a game and they can count on me to be a good player / gm.  I am not exactly sure HOW this works but its part of almost every initial game session and has served me well over the years.  I have noticed many people do the very same thing but for some its not a Faux Doom Speech so much as a Doom Speech, letting everyone know that, yes they intend to break the game so sit back and watch.  You can view the above behaviors quite a bit in "Living" campaign conventions where often your playing with / gming for strangers.

Breaking off from Role Playing, I think similar warm ups happen in sports and more then likely on military / paramilitary operations.  I know when I played organized sports we had practice of course but before every game there was a period of warm up / psych up / and getting into the Zone as it were.

Now organized sprts and military / paramilitary activites have built in prep (practice and traning) but Role playing mental prep technicues tend to be ad-hoc.  A game like Sorcerer (I use Sorcerer cause I have run it and am somewhat familiar with it) suggest that first session prepatory step.  Yet most designs are not enabling for people getting psyched up or getting into that Zone.

What techniques might be useful and how can they be implemented INTO design?

Hope I am not going into left field here, taking the thread in a wrong direction.


Sean

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Thanks guys!

Chris--I bet the trip was one big curve.  That's an advantage of doing something as a retreat--you take the participants out of their normal routine and the separate space creates a deeper immersion into the activities.  You don't get distracted by the phone ringing or housemates coming home.  The main transitions would happen when you enter and leave that liminal space.

Sean--You're completely on the money.  Sounds like your "Faux Doom" speech puts people at ease by getting rid of self-consciousness or expectations about the game.  Humor is probably one of the best ways to break the ice.

Warm-ups could fall into one of two groups: 1) social ice-breakers and 2) player investment in the game.  

For social ice breakers, a simple go-around of peoples names and some simple facts about themselves could get a lot of mileage. It matters if you feel like you know who you are playing with. Is this something that's done as a matter of course?  It hasn't been in my experience.  I can see it being helpful especially in  convention situations where the players don't know one another.  Playing a short silly game prior to a longer one gives people a chance to loosen up and be likely to open up more in the meatier game.  At Tom's gathering we played Great Ork Gods prior to RuneQuest, and I thought this worked great.  

Sorcerer is a game that pays a lot of attention to the warm-up/intro phase with respect to getting players invested.  The incorporation of player input into setting gives everyone a chance to contribute and have their preferences incorporated into the campaign.  The way that characters are constructed as a group, playing off of one another, creates an atmosphere of collaboration from the get-go.

What other techniques would work? And, as Sean asked, how can these things be included in design rather than simply added on in play? (Though consciousness of them in running a game is a good thing too.) Do you see this as already adequately accounted for or as lacking in current games?

yrs,
Emily Care

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Emily, I like your two categories, largely because they break things across different lines than I would have done.

I would think that there are warm-ups that work toward skills (limbering up the imagination, building social coherence) and those that work toward (re)constructing the imagined space (recaps of the previous game, chatting in-character).

I think that there is room to promote warm-up and integration in each session, as well as in stories or campaigns as a whole.  I sometimes feel that my face-to-face group jumps into play too abruptly, switching directly from socializing to "You're in a graveyard, there's a vampire, go!"  It would be nice to have some time at the beginning to put the fourth wall back in place, and some time at the end to take it down.

I'm building a game based off of comic books, and I have stolen the device of the Lettercol (letters column).  Comics have a long tradition of filling pages at the end of the book by having the writers and editors respond to questions that eager fans send in.  Since these fans are often young and obsessed, their ability to distinguish fantasy from reality is hazy at best, so that lettercols occupy a strange limbo between fiction and reality, where the writers often speak as the confidants of the characters, not as their creators.  I'm going to encourage people to field a few questions (maybe one for each player) from the other players in that mode, as a way of depressurizing in gradual steps.  Have to see how it works out.

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Emily

Again hope I am not going in a different direction here. Pondering the idea of getting this warm up stage into the design of a game I was thinking of how we approach our language when talking to a person who is reading our game. Language and tone are important and maybe overlooked elements of design. Especially for Non-Mechanic, Mechanics like the Warm Up Stage.

Two Approaches:

Academic: “On page 31, Chapter 4, subset 9, you will notice that to engage the cerebellum to jog the brain into producing hormones that…”

Barroom: “Hey buddy…. Who me? Yeah you… I’m talking to you, so like when you are all sitting around the table see…”

I think ethan_greer may have touched the point in his rant. We need to remember to not assume anything about the person reading the book or PDF, what have you.  Engaging the reader and thereby helping them to pass enthusiasm onto others, through things like the Warm-Up stage that stand outside of mechanical consideration.

However, maybe subtle manipulation of learned behaviors is the answer. If Warm Up is written into the system in a way that suggests that is a mandatory part of the process, people will likely start to add it into their game preparation.



Sean

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