Lucifer’s Lexicon: On RPG Concepts and Terms~
No Ambrose Bierces were harmed in the making of this post.
The bones of this post actually date back to the launch of this blog in May of 2010 though the content is much older. I had a few conflicting ideas about the blog in those days as it was inspired by the loss of my friend Tom (a genius) and the sense of dismay it sparked to know that there would be no more talks about games, life, or onion soup with him, and to know that a person like that was gone from the world. Worse, all the conversations we had had about gaming were now only the version in my memory – and of the two of us, he liked and got along with people much better than I do.
RPGs: not just happy accidents
Often, in our zeal to define the nature of RPGs, gamers can get caught up in those specifics and forget about – or worse deride – those enjoyably investigating some other part or parts of the elephant.
RPG’s are a Conversation?
Are RPGs a conversation, really? The short answer is yes, but in the many years (over 30) that I have been having conversations about this conversation, the topic has been able to race off in a lot of different directions. While that has been good for my personal experience in thinking about the abstract and concrete aspects of the topic, it has also demonstrated that the whole idea can be slippery and, of course, even small parts of it can strike some gamers as being useless. What I have found is that coming to terms with this idea not only helps with playing RPGs for enjoyment, it helps with understanding what they are, why a game works well in some contexts but not others, what is and is not worthy of your time as a participant, how to match games and interests, and even for playing them for other purposes, such as education. Not bad for a throwaway line like, “RPGs are a conversation,” right?
#RPGaDay 2018 – Day 30 “Learned”
Week 5: Share Prompt: Share something learned about playing your character Continuing on from my choice of alternate question about characters, today’s official question for #RPGaDay 2018 fits right in. Today’s prompt asks us something specific we have learned from playing a character about playing that character. While it might seem on … Continue reading
#RPGaDay 2018 – Day 29 “Alternate”
Week 5: Share Prompt: Share a friendship you have because of RPGs I am going to choose an alternate prompt for this 29th day of #RPGaDay 2018. The official question is about RPG-related friendships. There are too many for me to mention that are a result of RPGs as this is, as noted at the … Continue reading
Casting Shadows 