Creating a Game (Part 17) - Grok

 To "Grok" something basically means to understand something fully.

grok

verb

INFORMAL•US

1. understand (something) intuitively or by empathy.

   "corporate leaders seemed to grok this concept fairly quickly"

   • establish a rapport.

     "nestling earth couple would like to find water brothers to grok with in peace"

There's a psychological concept that crosses through many hobbies and pastimes called "flow", it can kind of be considered a relative to the concept of "grokking".

flow theory—referring to a state of being in which people become so immersed in the joy of their work or activity “that nothing else seems to matter.” 

To be in a state of flow requires one to fully grok the activity they are engaged in. That often means having a set of rules that intuitively makes sense, which takes a supportive back seat when the storytelling is progressing easily, but is caoable of providing a helpful nudge now and again when the storytelling starts to get bumpy. The rules may be the elements written in words on the pages of a rule book, or they may be the social contract among players to avoid antagonising one anothet unless it will distinctly benefit the story and the enjoyment of other players. 

With a new and different set of rules, it can be hard for new players to grok the designer's intent (esoecially if they haven't explicitly played a session with the game's designer), this means it takes carefully written rules, and often plenty of play examples to show how things work practically.

I like having a group of players work through the various elements of the game, starting with them creating their characters, and any other elements of play... then working through simple gameplay examples (demonstrating the fundamental concepts), then some of the more complex examples.  

Sorry I've lost the momentum with posting this series... I've had my computer crash, literally...

So I'm finishing this post on my phone. Hopefully a new, or fixed, computer will let me get back to things soon. The fixed option is preferable because everything about the game is now on a hard drive I can't access.