One of the great corny running jokes in the early days of gaming was the idea of a game in which people would play white-collar workers. The standard format of the gag would involve a bunch of dwarves or elves sitting round a gaming table making “saving throws against income tax” and suchlike.
The gag is a neat summary of assumptions about the gaming hobby. Firstly, it’s escapist, and enjoyable because of its escapism. But also, the people who play it are – or are going to become – accountants, computer programmers, admen, etc. There was very, very little counter-cultural about the early RPG hobby. It shared visual style and iconography with 70s head shops and underground comix but was a lot squarer, nervous (to say the least!) about the chemical and sexual pursuits the underground embraced, and it’s one of the few areas of late 70s/early 80s cultural activity where it’s extremely difficult to detect any kind of punk blowback. more »
Tom in FT • 4 Comments
Live role-playing is a great idea. YES IT IS. All the stuff 95% of gamesmasters are really terrible at – verbal scene setting, establishing who is where when, getting across the physicality of the gameworld (and, indeed, the physics) – dealt with at a stroke. No more having to find synonyms for “damp” or “shadowy”, no more arguing over who was at the back of the party when the bugbears attacked – and from the players’ point of view, no more having to depend on the whims of the referee. Live roleplaying (and now we’ve been introduced, let’s call it LRP) should be a shot of pure fantastic intensity – as close as you can get to that initial goal of the RPG hobby, a “let’s pretend” for grown-ups.
But. But but but. more »
Tom in FT • 3 Comments
We resurrect I Was A Goblin to bring you a link to this visionary post: “Personal Branding is a Real Life RPG”.
“Every person on this planet is playing the same game as you – the game of life. We are the ones who realize this and are thus able to take advantage by actively leveling up so that we can become the strongest players possible.”
Indeed! Life is like a RPG in more ways than the author enumerates. For instance, some players start with no gold, skills or weapons, while others have immediate access to vast resources and huge numbers of magic items. They must have used a cheat code.
But I can spot one flaw in the analysis – he doesn’t specify which RPG life is like. Oh sure, he airily mentions WoW and Final Fantasy. But what if life is a different RPG entirely? more »
Tom in FT • 3 Comments
I was suspicious of Live Action Role Playing for a long time. I had three excellent reasons: it couldn’t possibly work, it verged dangerously close to SPORTS, and most of all White Dwarf strongly hinted it was a stupid idea. At the time I took White Dwarf very seriously. There was a whole underworld of role-playing fanzines who saw White Dwarf as the enemy of all that was righteous in the hobby, intent on straitjacketing the minds of infant games with their barely disguised pimping of glossy, shallow Games Workshop products. These fanzines were broadly right. But I didn’t read them: as far I was concerned, the Dwarf was mega and skill.
Games Workshop – White Dwarf’s publishers (hence the pimping) – had placed certain bets on the direction the HOBBY OF THE 80S was going to swing in. Their bets involved carefully painted dioramas rather than minibus rides to wet caves, so the magazine spent a lot of time taking the piss out of LARP. Some of this was also the unslakable thirst of the nerd to find someone they can look down on – sad we may be, but we don’t wave rubber swords around (we only paint lead ones). And some of it, it must be said, was justified. Like a lot of geek businesses in the 80s, LARP attracted a few thrusting young Thatcherites whose bold entrepreneurial spirit was matched only by their willingness to scarper with the money at the first opportunity. It gained a reputation for spivviness. more »
Tom in TMFD • 8 Comments