Casting Shadows

For such a small word, today’s prompt for #RPGaDay2019 packs a powerful punch. The prompt for August 4th is ‘share’ and whether taken as a command, or as a talking point, or however else you interpret and present it, this idea is a foundational one to the hobby in essentially all but its solo iterations. Even there, in a real sense, sharing is taking place in the relationship between game creator and game player, and – hopefully – in the recounting of outcomes afterward with friends.

My 2-minute video for today looks at the idea of ‘what is really going on’ in regard to character portrayal, presentation of and reaction to the setting, and all those things which occupy the spaces between the words we say and the things we imagine together.

Our imaginations are one place on which the game secures a foothold. It is a secluded place which only those we choose can gain even limited access. What we share, if we share, is often shrouded in subjectivity, the interpretation of the private dance that twines one person’s words around another’s mind, and the carefully or randomly metered flow of details we allow to take shape in what we say.

In my fondest game group memories, the pursuit of insight into what the sessions mean to each other player, their theories and their suspicions, their reasoning and reactions… is among the headier brews distilled from gaming and friendship.