In 1987, the first commercial Norwegian-made RPG was published. It was written in English, and called “MEGA”. Mega was fun, rules-heavy and focused on realism. Due to some misadventures in business the game never reached a bigger market, and it’s fairly obscure even in Norway.

But apparently, in 2002, the authors wrote down a simplified set of rules - sort of a “Basic MEGA” system - and called it Amar. That system can be found on Geir Isene’s ::artweb pages, as a free download. It’s a labor of love, and it looks really nice!

This was just posted over at Story Games by Erling Rognli, one of the judges!

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RESULTS

Adjudicating the Role-playing Poem Challenge proved to be a challenging task in itself. There are many entries, most of which are very good poems, and the jury did not agree completely at first. Some entries are simply solid pieces of work, although not quite original enough to warrant a Firkløver. Others are extremely innovative, but seem somewhat lacking in playability and fun-factor. We have, as instructed, based our judgements on the requirements of fun, originality and adherence to form.

We have interpreted fun and playability in a wide sense. Interesting, emotionally evocative, thought-provoking, beautiful, and personally challenging are all herein treated as synonyms of fun. In judging playability we have had a particular eye for strong, simple method, clear instructions and realistic timing. Some poems, we believe, stretch out certain moments of interaction beyond what will prove to be fun in actual play.

Originality has been an important deciding factor. We have looked for new method, innovative presentation and striking concepts. Innovative use of well-known method also counts as originality in our view.

Adherence to form is necessarily the criterion most open to interpretation, as the form is recently developed and its boundaries are still being explored. As we see it, the here-and-now experience of moods, situations and relationships lies at the heart of role-playing poems. Too strong focus on developing narrative is usually a weakness of design, in our view, because the limited time-frame constrains the development of the story too much. In role-playing poems, narrative usually works best when it serves the experiential aspect of the poem, rather than being an end in itself. Tight, focused design with a specific (although not necessarily describable) experience in mind is another core quality of role-playing poems, as we see it.

We have selected a winner, and two runners-up. Many more deserve mention; those not among the top three may rest assured that the margins were rather small. The quality is generally very high, and we hope many of these excellent poems see a lot of play.

First runner up:

THE BELIEVERS by Chris Bennett
This poem is an excellent example of using narrative to support experience. In form it lies closer to traditional verbal role-playing than many other role-playing poems, while maintaining a very tight focus. It employs the same soft, suggestive direction of play that has proven highly effective in M. Jakobssons “Until we sink”. The ending is pointed and touching. A solid design all in all, that scores a lot on fun and playability.

Second runner up:

BOREDOM by Lasse Lundin
This poem is drily funny right from the start (”choose the most boring person to read the rules. This is boring.”), while building up its mood at the same time. It employs a strong, simple method (taking turns in suggesting an activity) which supports the main experiential goal of being bored together. It scores a lot on playability and adherence to form. It is not original enough, however, to win.

Winner of the Firkløver bar:

HOUSEBREAKER by Jackson Tegu
A poem that both adheres very well to the form as well as expanding it in a new direction. The poem masterfully balances originality with playability. The use of prose to explain the game works very well. The use of synchronised timing and a phone call maintains a vital measure of interaction, and represents a new design tool that may see further use. The clever use of frantic searching helps maintain the desired state of mind. Most importantly, this poem gives the players a wonderful opportunity to interact with their own everyday lives, and to relate to it from a new angle. Housebreaker is a prime example of role-playing poetry, and a deserving winner among many other excellent poems.

We’ve started a competition for Best Role-Playing Poem. It’s pretty simple. Here are the rules:

Competition rules

The challenge ends on June 20. At that time, a jury of Norwegians (picked by me) will select the Bestest Role-Playing Poem.
The criteria will be: Fun, originality, and adherence to the form (bloated monstrosities lasting 20 minutes or more, for example, will have a hard time winning).
The winner will be announced at Story Games, and on the Nørwegian Style website.
The award: A bar of Firkløver, most Norwegian of all chocolate!

If you want to join, send an e-mail with your game to:
matthijs1000 (a t) hotmail (d o t) com

Or if you want to, you can post it at Story Games. (There’s some entries there as well!)

Description
One player will portray Catherine. The other player will portray her dad, Chris. Catherine has Down’s Syndrome. Chris is a single dad.

I have two children. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if one of them were different.

Author
Matthijs Holter

Download
Rules

A role-playing poem.

Author
Matthijs Holter

Rules

Lasse Lundin and Erlend Bruer sent me these three poems!

Tesco Hell is a light-hearted, fast-paced game about walking around in the Tesco store and trying to avoid cursed groceries.

Mystery loves Company is a sitcom-like game about the superheroes Mystery and Company, their kids, and their arch-nemesis Disgusio - master of disguises!

A Trip Through Time Seen Through The Eyes of a Fir Tree is a slow, immersive game about trees telling a story. One of my favorite role-playing poems.

Download them here:

tesco-hell

mystery-loves-company

a-trip-through-time-seen-through-the-eyes-of-a-fir-tree

]]> http://norwegianstyle.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/three-poems/feed/ http://norwegianstyle.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/the-endless-meta-spiral/ http://norwegianstyle.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/the-endless-meta-spiral/#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:04:34 +0000 Matthijs http://norwegianstyle.wordpress.com/?p=75

Author

Martin Bull Gudmundsen

Description

The winner of the 2008 Role-Playing Poem Slam at HolmCon. A quote from the text: “Play yourselves as you were two minutes ago. After two minutes, M. says: “We’re sitting down to play this game. It’s two minutes ago.””

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Rules

At this year’s HolmCon, Tomas Mørkrid arranged a “poetry slam” - an unformal competition where participants designed one role-playing poem each in one hour. The results are so far only available in Norwegian (here), but highlights include:

- The Endless Meta Spiral, where players play themselves two minutes ago. Two minutes into the game, they play themselves two minutes ago, playing themselves two minutes ago. Two minutes later, they… well, you get it, right? Challenging and fun, and with an unexpected ending.

- A Trip Through Time Seen Through The Eyes of a Fir Tree, where players are big trees, talking slowly and making whooshing noises. Very much an experience; very little a game.

- Løken Committee to Evaluate Cultural Grants, where players are bureaucrats in the Committee, discussing relevant questions - first, of course, cultural grants; but later questions can be “Why doesn’t anyone want to make love to me?” or “Is there life after death?”. All questions are discussed in the same detached, bureaucratic tone. Wonderful.

Andie Nordgren has started up a blog with the ambitious name “Nordic Scene”. While we can always debate what the word “scene” means, whether there is a Nordic scene or just a bunch of people doing stuff, what the scene’s about, who’s in it, whether there is an “in” or “out” etc etc etc, I’m getting really tired of those debates, so I’m just going to be pragmatic and say WAHEY! Cool site! The Nordic Scene is mostly about larp, but it seems the occasional tabletop-related post may pop up as well - and anyway, the Finns don’t seem to care too much about the distinction between forms, so what the hell.

Check it out here!

Author

Michael Stensen Sollien

Description

You take on the roles of the crew aboard the spaceship Omnibus 79 who are just about to wake up from a three year long hypersleep.

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Rules