Day 18: #RPGaDay 2018 – “Inspire”
Weekend 3: Inspiration Prompt 18: What art inspires your game?
This prompt for #RPGaDay2018 is spectacularly difficult! It seems easy, but as I have mentioned in the past, art and imagery in game books or elsewhere have little to nothing to do with the sources of my inspiration. I am inspired more by concepts, such as “No one has known we were among you… until now,” or “What would you do if you had the power of a god?” or “A beast I am, lest a beast I become,” or “Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.”
That is not to say that I am unmoved by art, but only to say that I am more often and often more powerfully moved by ideas than images.
To answer the question, though, I appreciate vistas more than close-ups. I am intrigued by horizons, and empty streets and spaces. If our play is to discover what happens and our characters are to whom it happens and part of the reason why it happens, then I do not want to see images of characters or character types – I want to see the spaces and places that they will occupy and explore. I find that inspiring.
A strong example of that is a battle image from Age of Rebellion by FFG for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Re-used as ad copy for the game, that image used the simple phrase, “You could be here” with an arrow pointing to a starfighter’s cockpit as blaster bolts and capital ships show the stakes. That is inspiring.
Tomorrow
We continue our third weekend and its theme of support and inspiration for gaming sessions. The prompt for Sunday, Day 19 of #RPGaDay2018, is to discuss music’s role in our games.
YouTube
As has been my habit since the second year of #RPGaDay, I am also keeping pace with the prompts on video. The content of the videos and the blog overlaps, but is not exactly the same, and where the greater emphasis on detail resides varies from day to day.
#RPGADAY 2018
This ends the third week of the fifth iteration of the monthly roleplaying gaming celebration launched by Autocratik for all forms of social media. Share your responses however you prefer to share. If you want to get involved, grab and share the infographic with the prompts and jump right in!
Casting Shadows 
Ditto