Casting Shadows

For me, the key to today’s prompt of ‘obscure’ is not to think about the perspective of the world, even the part of it that plays games that non-gamers have heard of, but rather to think of grail quests for those limited-run or long-out-of-print items by that subset of gamers who curate a library of games. The items they cannot find in any form are what I think of when I think of the question of rare or little-known games that I have had a chance to play.

Day 30: What is an obscure RPG that you have played?

Ten years ago, the RPG I was looking for with the most energy was The Riddle of Steel. Among gamers it was not what I would call unknown – certainly in the group I played with then – but it was very hard to get, typically priced as a rare item, and not available legitimately in PDF. It was one of those games that got mentioned in conversation by game design enthusiasts and those gamers who enjoy playing lots of games, but that no one in the conversation had typically managed to play.

I would not get a copy of it for another three years.

During that time and since, a growing number of people of my acquaintance have played The Riddle of Steel or one of its successors or clones. The effect of this expansion of connections into what is still a comparatively small circle of people has made this particular “obscure game” feel as common as many of the old games in my library – which is to say, quite common. The perception is that ‘everyone has played it’ when the truth is that it’s just that many people with the same interests that I have, have managed to play it. This is very much a forest obscured by trees experience.

My response ten years ago was that in comparison to the big name games that tend to serve as the on-ramp to gaming, most of what I play are obscure games. This is largely true even today, despite the growth of visibility within the hobby and the added space that allows for game companies to get noticed by more of the masses. While obscurity is sad for the publishers, for sure, it is a huge positive for the individual gamer, I think.

That you, despite what you play and how rare it might be, have found people who enjoy playing it with you – people who will get up at 5am just to get the chance for an hour or two of online gaming with you – is the secret that gets obscured by a focus on the games.

The real treasure is the relationships we form at the group level.