The Big Model

The Big Model is a body of role-playing game theory developed primarily by Ron Edwards. It serves as a capstone and organizing principle to the amorphous body of work commonly referred to as GNS Theory.
Structure
The Big Model attempts to contextualize the many different aspects of the role-playing game hobby in a set of meaningful, hierarchical relationships by organising these phenomena into four nested 'boxes'. The contents of each inner box are considered to be within the aegis of the outer box. A "skewer" that thrusts through the set of boxes identifies creative agenda.

The smallest box contains Ephemera, the actual events and statements made at the table; these are instances of Techniques, which are governing practices of behavior. Techniques are how players perform Exploration, the basic act of roleplaying, and Exploration is itself an expression of the Social Contract. The Creative Agenda is a pervasive concept that pierces through all four boxes, 'fixing' the mode of play in place.
Or to put it in simpler terms, a group of friends gets together (Social Contract) and decides to play a roleplaying game about superheroes in love (Exploration). They use a set of tools (Techniques) to do things in the game (Ephemera). The decisions that they make in terms of what things to explore and how to explore them compose their Creative Agenda.
Social Contract
The Social Contract is the context within which all of roleplaying occurs. This is an obvious but important point, since it recognizes that all actions at the roleplaying table are social actions and part of how the players at the table relate to each other as real people. The relationships between the people around the table affect everything else that occurs.
Exploration
The Big Model defines roleplaying as Exploration: the imagining of fictitious events, places, and people. Exploring fictional content is the basis and fundamental definition of all roleplay.
There are five "elements" of exploration, or five things that players will explore. All five are always present, although different games will emphasize and prioritize some over others. The five elements of exploration are character, setting, color, situation, and system.
Character
Characters are the people in the fiction of the roleplaying game. Often each player has one player character over which they have special authority and responsibilities; other characters in the fiction are called non-player characters. Players may enjoy exploring character by discovering what characters do when confronted with difficult situations, why they do the things they do, or how they do them.
Setting
The setting is the imaginary place and time in which the game is set. The setting may be "real" in the sense that it is based on a historical period or the modern day. Players explore the setting not only by asking and answering "what's over that hill?" but also by developing the relationships of setting elements like government, economics, interpersonal relationships, and the like.
Color
Color comprises all the details which give the game a certain flavor but do not affect the development of a situation; color might be rocketships and aliens, rapiers and musketeers, or the grit and grime of the streets of New York. Players explore color by invoking all five senses (the air is crisp, the room is painted in dark colors) as well as establishing and reinforcing relationships (a knight's blazon is displayed all over his castle).
Situation
With only characters, setting, and color, players will have a set piece which could do something interesting but has no reason to. The game's situation is an unstable juxtaposition of the other elements which sets the fictional events in motion. The situation of Romeo and Juliet, for instance, is "two noble households, both alike in dignity" and "two star-cross'd lovers." It's the stuff that is happening in the game. Players explore situation by discovering and developing relationships between characters, setting elements, and events, and by taking action to affect those relationships for good or ill.
System
Situation is the juxtaposition of elements in motion; system is the procedures by which those elements change and develop. System is best described by the Lumpley Principle, which states that "system (including but not limited to 'the rules') is defined as the means by which the group agrees to imagined events during play." Players can explore the system by working out the range of possibilities that are available to them.
Techniques
In simplest terms, techniques are what the players do at the table. This may include how players create the characters they portray in the game, how players roll dice to resolve the outcome of events, or how the situation develops as the game progresses. Techniques often differ greatly from one published game to the next; at its simplest, one may call for rolling dice while another calls for drawing cards. Each set of techniques directs the ephemera of the game and directly impacts the elements of exploration.
Ephemera
Whereas techniques describe the procedures of play, ephemera are the actual events at the table. Ephemera includes what the players say, what dice they roll, what the dice results are, how they react to each other's contributions, and much, much more. Ephemera is the "meat" of play, the medium by which the rest of the game operates.
Creative Agenda
Just as it is possible to tell multiple stories about a single series of events, it is possible to play multiple games about identical subject matter. Players in a game about the knights of the round table, for instance, might play for a number of reasons. They may want to become the most renowned knight of the realm, they may want to tell an engaging story about what it means to be a knight, or they may want to experience what it would be like to be a knight. Each of these reasons for play is different, and will affect what happens in the game and at the table. This "reason for play" is the creative agenda, and it is best understood as a skewer which pierces through all four boxes of the Big Model, connecting selected options in each level and fixing them in place.
The Big Model currently recognizes three kinds of creative agenda: simulationism, also known as "The Right to Dream;" gamism, also known as "Step on Up;" and narrativism, also known as "Story Now."
The Right to Dream
The Right to Dream focuses on the elements of exploration as things unto themselves. This creative agenda emphasizes appreciation for nuanced development of character, setting, and color to no other end than creating a holistically consistent experience. While one simulationist creative agenda may emphasize realism, another may attempt to emulate "four-color" superhero action. Whatever the target, the goal is to create an experience that neatly fits its parameters.
Step on Up
By contrast, Step on Up considers the elements of exploration as an arena for proving the abilities of the players. This creative agenda emphasizes clever use of tactics, resource management, and character victory.
Story Now
Story Now attempts to use the elements of exploration to create an engaging story that addresses a "premise" to produce theme. Premise here is defined in accordance with Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing and is usually framed as a statement (Friends are worth dying for) or a question (Are friends worth dying for?). In narrativist play, most or all of the decisions made by the players will reflect on the premise, proposing answers to the question.
Utility of the Big Model
The Big Model is primarily concerned with categorizing the elements of the roleplaying experience into a hierarchy, the better to understand the dependencies of those elements.
The main benefit of creative agenda is that it focuses play along unified lines. Players who attempt to play the same game with differing creative agenda run a very high risk of ruining each other's entertainment. The player attempting to Step on Up can overwhelm another player's narrativist decisions with misplaced competition; the player following Story Now can consistently take actions which are not optimal strategies, spoiling the other player's gamist decisions.

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