Winner of the Role-Playing Poem Competition

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.