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Is RPGing a *literary* endeavour?
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<blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 7596016" data-attributes="member: 57112"><p>I'm sure it's been said multiple times by others in this thread, but it really depends on the nature of the campaign, really. There's a wide gulf between beer-and-pretzels-kick-down-the-door-dungeon-crawling and diceless-thespians-it's-<em>role</em>-playing-not-<em>roll</em>-playing and that's only one of any number of possible spectra that could define a campaign, though it's probably the one most germane to this discussion. Where one campaign might fall on other spectra, such as: Is the campaign serious or silly? Light-hearted or grimdark? Sandbox or railroad? etc... these might have impact on the inherent artistic quality of the endeavor, but aren't, I think, ultimately determinant. Not in the sense of "roll-playing vs role-playing", in any case.</p><p></p><p>The thing is, this particular forum (and, I would wager, most large general RPG forums) has a significant bias toward Dungeons & Dragons, and particularly old school D&D, which lends itself towards styles and aesthetics of play that naturally lean away from (without entirely precluding) a "literary" (or more accurately an "artistic narrative") spirit. There is little doubt that this question would have a markedly different response in a forum that more heavily biased towards, say, FATE, or PtbA. System of preference has a significant impact on what I would consider to be the potential for artistic narrative expression of a quality that would be considered high enough for the purpose of the OP's question. In all of its iterations D&D and its many clones has always focused more on the "game" and on overcoming challenges; many PbtA systems, meanwhile, have a more deliberate and explicit focus on crafting strong narrative and good storytelling. Neither of these are prevented from being one or other, mind you, but it's often a case of fitting a square peg in a round hole.</p><p></p><p>From there, the artistic quality depends largely on both the GM and the players. The GM has been the willing and able to place a strong emphasis on storytelling while also adept at incorporating player actions into an ever-evolving narrative, while the players generally have to be both game for the endeavor and strong enough storytellers in their own right to contribute to the fiction. It might even require players making sacrifices, whether that means making "sub-optimal" choices in character building to flesh out the character, or being willing to take actions that might lead to better fiction in spite of or because they make it harder for them to achieve their goals. It's not easy, but it's definitely possible.</p><p></p><p>And then there are livestreams and podcasts, which (at least when done well) deliberately takes an outside audience into account in its production. For the audience, the experience is literary in the pedantic but not-too pedantic sense where it only refers to written prose, and there are plenty of examples of such events producing emotional responses in their audiences.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gradine, post: 7596016, member: 57112"] I'm sure it's been said multiple times by others in this thread, but it really depends on the nature of the campaign, really. There's a wide gulf between beer-and-pretzels-kick-down-the-door-dungeon-crawling and diceless-thespians-it's-[I]role[/I]-playing-not-[I]roll[/I]-playing and that's only one of any number of possible spectra that could define a campaign, though it's probably the one most germane to this discussion. Where one campaign might fall on other spectra, such as: Is the campaign serious or silly? Light-hearted or grimdark? Sandbox or railroad? etc... these might have impact on the inherent artistic quality of the endeavor, but aren't, I think, ultimately determinant. Not in the sense of "roll-playing vs role-playing", in any case. The thing is, this particular forum (and, I would wager, most large general RPG forums) has a significant bias toward Dungeons & Dragons, and particularly old school D&D, which lends itself towards styles and aesthetics of play that naturally lean away from (without entirely precluding) a "literary" (or more accurately an "artistic narrative") spirit. There is little doubt that this question would have a markedly different response in a forum that more heavily biased towards, say, FATE, or PtbA. System of preference has a significant impact on what I would consider to be the potential for artistic narrative expression of a quality that would be considered high enough for the purpose of the OP's question. In all of its iterations D&D and its many clones has always focused more on the "game" and on overcoming challenges; many PbtA systems, meanwhile, have a more deliberate and explicit focus on crafting strong narrative and good storytelling. Neither of these are prevented from being one or other, mind you, but it's often a case of fitting a square peg in a round hole. From there, the artistic quality depends largely on both the GM and the players. The GM has been the willing and able to place a strong emphasis on storytelling while also adept at incorporating player actions into an ever-evolving narrative, while the players generally have to be both game for the endeavor and strong enough storytellers in their own right to contribute to the fiction. It might even require players making sacrifices, whether that means making "sub-optimal" choices in character building to flesh out the character, or being willing to take actions that might lead to better fiction in spite of or because they make it harder for them to achieve their goals. It's not easy, but it's definitely possible. And then there are livestreams and podcasts, which (at least when done well) deliberately takes an outside audience into account in its production. For the audience, the experience is literary in the pedantic but not-too pedantic sense where it only refers to written prose, and there are plenty of examples of such events producing emotional responses in their audiences. [/QUOTE]
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