PUSH

PUSH: NEW THINKING ABOUT ROLEPLAYING, Volume 1 (2006) was the first and only published volume of what was originally intended to be an annual journal of analysis and experimental games. The contents include:

1. Collaborative Roleplaying: Reframing the Game by Emily Care Boss, still be one of the best introductions to GM-less / GM-ful play available, though this was before later games such as Microscope and The Quiet Year.

2. Immersive Story Methods for Tabletop Play by John H. Kim, a discussion of play techniques, with examples drawn from his "Water-Uphill World" campaign.

3. Mridangam by Shreyas Sampat, a gesture-based dance-inspired game, based on an imagined alternative history of roleplaying games. Some of the ideas later reappeared in Mist-Robed Gate (2008).

4. Against the Geek, Choice by Eero Tuovinen, an essay about translating My Life with Master (2003) into Finnish and how this was a political act. It also includes a discussion of the tabletop scene in Finland and a criticism of "geek culture."

5. Waiting for the Queen / Tea at Midnight by Jonathan Walton, a simple game inspired by the same old school text-adventure games that Jared Sorensen drew on for Action Castle (2009) and the other Parsely games.

Commentary by Victor Gijsbers, Jessica Hammer, Brand Robins, Annie Rush, Paul Tevis, and Moyra Turkington

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