The Split/Party Framework
or How I Learned That Loving Games Requires Accepting You Will Play Them Wrong
So, we kinda dropped our mission statement for this newsletter last week. But what is the critical framework of Split/Party?
1. Every Individual Component Is The Best
In our analysis, we consider every individual artistic element of a game the best; we don’t find bad or good useful. So, the Split/Party framework assumes it is the best art, best layout, best writing, best design. This is an acknowledgement that nobody makes “bad” art on purpose; any given element is the best art that could have been produced at that point, restricted by its material conditions and constraints of time and effort. This is also because saying something is good/bad art is the most useless criticism that can be given. In practical term, this section is for things we will not touch on the review but merit acknowledgement.
We love games and the people that make games; the common quantitative and qualitative frameworks focus too much on Products. The first assumption of the Split/Party framework is to regard every individual element as the best manifestation of something. We respect the creators and have confidence in their choices: they made all the best choices
At this step, we also make the distinctions between the transformation between game-as-tool into game-as-art. The game becomes art when it is played, when it enacts its transformative potential by having the player become a creator by using the game-as-tool. This means there are certain obstacles to become a participant in art.
Accessibility is a big issue at this point; accepting the game as its best and its choices, we linger on choices that may be exclusionary, or additional hurdles/accommodations that may condition your willingness to take part in this particular piece of art.
Or putting it simply:
What will you need to do and get through to bring this game to the table, so you can choose if and how you going to try.
2. Meet The Game At The Level It Is At
Each game comes with certain expectations and tone. To properly breakdown, we have to meet the game at the level it is: not lament its choice of premise and wish it was something else, nor resent for not conforming with our politics, not letting “missed opportunities” stand in our way of applying the critical framework relentlessly. It also includes not working with the game as marketed or how it exists in our desires, but as it is.
It is easy to give in to wishful thinking, to go with the hype and the dream game that exists in your head; this is extremely unfair - and useless- when approaching a game made by human beings, limited by the material conditions of the collapse of neoliberal capitalism.
People have produced these games, working on art with great effort, cost and sacrifice. It is the least we can do to measure their games by their own criteria, goals and the type of art they seek to create.
This is where we explore the assumptions of the game, the things you have to accept when interacting with the game. Some of these are specific genres and tones, others are entire schools of designs - for example, old school roleplaying (OSR) or story gaming. But the most common assumptions are minutia of the hegemonic imperial culture that is propagated senselessly and makes those of us in the fringes go “¿ah?”.
This is usually when we discuss the politics of a game, what it seeks to propagate. Most of the time there is not much to do but an acknowledgement that it reinforces the status quo here or there.
3. Identify What The Game Says It Is About
Games are about things. Usually. Mostly. That is often the same thing they market themselves as. This often means to establish the relationship of the game with systems, mechanical frameworks, genre, etc. This is how games establish exceptions about the nature of play and establishes a common space for creation.
Games often say what they are about, but they may say a lot of different things on marketing, how they sell itself, have evolved pitches, etc.
And sometimes they are weirdly coy.
4. Uncover What The Game Is REALLY About
What the game says it is about is not always what the game is about. This is where we look at all the weird interactions, examining the system that game creates, how the way mechanics interact with the text and art, how it exists in a given context, how well parts flow together or get in the way. This creates a much richer environment that the original design could ever imagine once a game hits the table.
Tabletop roleplaying games are complex pieces of art, where systems are created between mechanics, text, art, layout, negative design space, signifiers, assumptions, etc. And then, it has to go through the interpretation of all these.
So, no matter your intentions? There are so many interactions nobody could predict; no game ends up being what it proposes itself to be.
5. Disassemble Engine
Games have a flow, which, when you hit, the game pretty much runs itself. It is extremely satisfying. After examining the interactions of game elements, we single out the most important - the one that sets the pace of sessions, or even campaigns. We focus on how that engine works, how it makes the game move along, and what to do to make it do what you want to do - and how to keep it running clean.
Engines are pretty cool; they are that part that rally makes the game enter the zone. We try to figure out which parts of the game take you to the zone and make the art basically create yourself.
After all, that's when the magic happens, right? This may be why we are so focused on figuring the roads there.
6. Essentials For Session One
So, you got this game; you going to play it, but you don’t have the time to read everything. Or even worse, you have read it and now it is all jumbled together. Here we break down the things that you absolutely want to get right and/or hit during your first session, so you get the feeling of what makes this game stand out from similar art.
Tabletop games need a lot of work to organize and learn. We try to see what is the balance between the minimum you need to learn for the first session of the game and knowing just enough to hit the most interesting features of the game's goals.
7. Playing The Game Wrong
Games are played wrong. Rules will be misunderstood, interactions will be confused, the importance of certain tech disregarded; etc. This is good, and it is good to acknowledge for: you cannot have the designer at your table, and even if they were, they would be just another player - and entitled to play it wrong. After identifying stress points of the game, things that don’t connect that well, we think of the things that are more likely to be (or have been) “played wrong”. What happens when you forget a line on page 273 clearly saying this is impossible?
Tabletop roleplaying games are weird things, part-tool, part-art, whose manifestation as a more encompassing expression of art requires completion at a gaming table.
No matter how thought you think is, no matter the number of learning tools, no matter your intent, you are not packing yourself with the game. The play culture a game can contribute too, the use of negative space for design, the interactions created by point 5., they all come together - or not.
Here we focus on the nots: things that may fly to the way-side, do not work that well, are not connected to the engine or any system, and things that can be easily misunderstood or forgotten - and the type of chaos that can create.
8. What to Steal
Experiencing good art is the most important step in making good art. We look back at the things that worked and did not work about this game, see what we learned for design work, interesting tech and just a general overview of things that we will take from this game and bring into others. Or more honestly: since many of us may not play this game and we have it in our library, this way we can get some use out of it.
The best way to improve at art is to experience more art. Tabletop roleplaying games tend to have amazing gains because teaching how to use them for art is a requirement for playing them.
Which is useful even we don’t have time to play all the games we want to play.
In this section, we list things that inspire us to create, alongside this and that other designers may want to check. We also list things that players can easily export to other games.