From a certain point of view… On RPGs.
What if, for the sake of discussion, everything that you believe to be true about roleplaying games were true, but let’s also note that that “you” is not the singular, but the plural. We can rightfully expect, I think, for the sum of all those perspectives to seem chaotic. Of course, not all that each … Continue reading
The Accidental “Lie” in RPGs
What if a friend of yours never found roleplaying games not because they didn’t like them, but because they had been misrepresented to them?
On Mending the Rift in RPG Culture
I’ve been a roleplayer for 41 years to date. That’s a very long time to maintain a hobby as a primary focus of my leisure and sometimes my working time, right? Four decades is a very long time, especially for a hobby as time and resource consuming as this one can be. I think that speaks to its importance to me and its ability to fulfill me in ways that other hobbies have not been able to. To say, that if I had been introduced to the hobby in the way it is conceived of now, I would have drifted away from it very quickly, is telling. How many others have already left, or opted not try?
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?
Casting Shadows 