RPG - Ludological Preparation vs. Social Improvisation vs. Storytelling Narratology
Channel: thespiritcoyote
Date: 2012-02-14

A response to the Prep vs. Improv topics is tacked on to the end of yet-another-discursus of thoughts about RPGs and the common toxicology in popular abuse.

This time I attempt to Categorize what a Narrative is within the context of  TT & LARP RPGs... and with that how I see the TT & LARP paradigm fitting in the broader categories of Narrative Artistic Mediums.

_My (as objective as it gets) definition of the term_.
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*Narrative:*
In tight specific terms, is a sequence, or a sequencing, of events in an _imagined, metaphorical, or fictional environment_, involving the *_artistic expression_*, _characterization, and dramatic hypokrisis_, of the environment and elements of the environment.

More broadly, it is the overall total sum of the parts and the structure of the *_artistic expression_*; _story, events, characters, environments and components of environment, discourse, manifestation, structure, medium, method, venue, and performance_.

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That's as good as it gets, after removing all self reference.
It is an _artistic term_ that typically sits at the highest hierarchical position in the function of _storytelling_, and can thus be interchangeable with the oft perceived most crucial elements of it's self... which lends to an _appearance_ of self referencing within the speech of those initiated to the field, and confusion by the reset of us. 

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_For comparative reference_,
Narrative is all about the Dramatics and Expositions, in the very Greek sense of _those_ terms.
No, you can not claim correct usage of this term, when warping the context to apply to chess — even should the particular form of chess have no physical components, and be played entirety in a theater of the mind —; doing so is assuredly a fools game.

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Given to a globally unaware culture for dismemberment and abuse, with the following legal provisions to the Natural Law of Cosmos that is unbidden to any sovereign body:

File as: CC0 BY-NC-SA
- in Approval as Free for Cultural Works -
(Just send me a hamburger... no wait, it probably wouldn't survive the courier service... oh n/m... you will do as you like anyway...)