How can you add items to your inventory when it is full? You cannot. You must first empty it. FKR is not added to your gaming tools. FKR is the tool that unmakes all others. In this light all other systems and tables serve it and it serves you. But only if you are willing to learn. And for that, you must empty yourself.
Pick up a book, any book. In there you will find worlds and fragments of worlds. Split them and tear them to pieces. Take what’s left and glue it in your notebook.
One is not able to immerse fully in a system. But one can be drenched in a world.
“But I NEED to get the best edition of the current game to be a good Game Master!”
“Don’t get it. Everyone will then expect more out of you.”
Cast your mind back to when all you had was worlds to create, worlds to inhabit. Hours upon hours of drawing on scratch paper, pacing your room, starting every other sentence with “what if?” And then seeing what happened next.
The innocent player is victim to this indoctrination: he is told he can do anything and MUST do anything. An irresistible pressure is being put on him in total paradox:
“What can I do?”
“Anything you want.”
“Well, where do I start?”
“Anywhere!”
Limitless freedom and the demand for spontaneous behavior is crippling. It comes out forced.
One student asked a master “Where do I start with FKR?” The master mumbled. The student leaned in close. “Get thee to a library,” the master whispered. The student left disappointed. He wanted a game recommendation.
Your created worlds have too much symmetry to them. Factions and lands in perfect tension in equally measured areas. Look to the planets. How lopsided is their arrangement? It smacks of haphazardly intentional design. Much more believable, I daresay realistic.
Once a phone started ringing during a gaming session. The game master took out a revolver, shot at the device and missed. The table roared with laughter, crying into hysterics. Then they went back to playing.
When the outcome of a game is certain, we call it quits and then begin another. Therefore, never let the position of the player characters be certain. The wheel never stops turning.
An FKR master uses all sources. Even a coloring book is a wellspring of game ideas.
When you catch yourself philosophizing about gaming, return to play. Play is the inhabiting spirit of the game that keeps it young and limber.
During a game a player stopped the game master “You ripped this off! I’ve seen this story before!”
The game master smiled. “And where do you suppose they got it from?”
The less authority given to the rulebook, the more authority given to the shared logic of the world.
“What if your dad retired next month? Like, what would happen next?”
“Well, maybe he and mom would take that roadtrip they always wanted.”
“That seems likely. Then what would happen?”
“They might come visit us that next summer.”
“Seems likely.”
“But would they want to see the Grand Canyon?”
“Maybe. I think they might want to go to California more to see dad’s brother.”
“I think you’re right.”
“But the odds are pretty close.”
“Should we roll dice to see which would happen next?”
Seek not the master who has played one hundred games, but one hundred worlds.
If you really practiced FKR style, you’d stop proselytizing systems and actually play the game.
We are gulping down undigested experiences as fast as we can stuff them in. And so we jump from one game to the next, flitting from idea to idea, never to land on solid ground.
“Back in the old days we gamers all played in Greg’s Redvale game with blindfolds on. It was more immersive that way.”
“How did you see the dice? Or your character sheet?”
“Our what?”
Meditation emphasizes the breath and posture. FKR does the same for play and worlds. Conversation is play, questions are play, reading and writing are play, daydreaming is play. Books are worlds, movies and TV are worlds, maps are worlds, poems are worlds.
If you encounter a game that calls itself FKR, kill it.
DREAMING DRAGONSLAYER 