Situation

The Big Model
Social Contract
Exploration
Techniques
Ephemera
Creative Agenda

You've got a character - floating there in a void, represented only by your character sheet. The game has a setting - huge, sprawling, detailed.

In play, however, your and the others' characters are located somewhere in that setting, interacting with the features and individuals right then and there.

The Situation of play is exactly that: this narrowing of focus right upon the characters' circumstances and points of view, an extreme specification of their general or abstractct identities as created entities and of the setting's broader scope.

In other words, you don't really play your characters, full stop, but rather, you play your characters in specifically this situation.

Situation's origin

Internal: characters have conflicting, dynamic problems which make them proactive

External: the location brings conflicting expectations and dangers upon the characters, forcing them to react

Immediacy

in media res

assignment; including Mission-based play

pressure; including Blood Opera

fully emergent

Jargon

Dynamic interaction between specific characters and small-scale setting elements; Situations are divided into scenes. A component of Exploration, considered to be the "central node" linking Character and Setting, and which changes according to System. See also Kicker, Bang, and Challenge.