Are RPGs Watchable?

[Neonchameleon]

Spinning off from the Perkins thread. RPGs are fun to play, often great to read, but are they actually watchable? Can you watch an RPG being played (live or on video)?

What's the game and who are the players?

Tabletop killed at Fiasco. One of their best sessions ever. But:

1: That was an entertaining group that knew how to play to the camera. Actors and screenwriters. Playing to the audience. (Compare with the WotC videos)
2: That's a limited duration game. In Fiasco you're done in only an hour or two. In most modern Storygames it's half a dozen hours. In D&D a dungeon can take half a dozen sessions and a campaign years.

Fix 1 and 2 and yes, it's about as worth watching as Improv Drama. Without? Ehhh.

 

[Samloyal23]

Drama is just real life with the boring parts cut out. If you want to make a show dramatic, it has to be edited properly. It should not be a slog-fest to watch, it should be the exciting highlights held together by a narrative thread. Trust me, the RPG is an art, if done right it can be very watchable...

 

[Zaruthustran]

I have to admit, I'm curious if those responding with "I'd never watch an RPG / that sounds awful" have ever seen any of the Acquisitions, Inc videos.

Because man, that's some compelling content.

I agree with what others have said: random people playing a random game isn't interesting. Entertainers playing a game run by a triple-A Dungeon Master is interesting. There's no great mystery here; way more people attend a Seattle Sounders soccer match than go watch the local rec league at a park.

To me, what makes Acq Inc so good is that it shows D&D at its best. It focuses on what D&D actually is: friends sitting around a table, having fun.

Someone above mentioned the necessity of an audience: I disagree. Acq Inc started as a podcast, after all. It was still good. The live games add more spectacle but again the core content is friends having fun together, playing D&D. And it's the podcasts that first introduced Aeofel.

Podcasts: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/podcasts/acquisitions-inc (click "see more podcasts" a million times to get to the first series).
Live games: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/livestream-games#submenu (click "see more" once to get to the early games).

Oddly, WotC doesn't link to the first live Acq Inc game, from PAX Prime 2010. The one that saw the return of Aeofel. Fortunately a user named Blackferret cut together a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp0PgnXXf_A .

 

[GMMichael]

2) The exception to this is when the DM and all the players are professional (or at least know what they're doing) performers for camera. However, in that case, what you see is a mix of an RPG and professional improvised comedy.

Emphasis added. I can join any local game to see people making wisecracks, talking out of character, and using player knowledge. If I'm going to watch an RPG, I want to see people actually roleplaying.

And it's nice to see one of those GMs who looks like he was born for it. You know, the kind with 20 handouts, a difference voice for each character, and enough in-game details to make you wonder if he's a professional adventure writer.

 

[Samloyal23]

I would love to see a regular campaign run on tv with celebs like Lexa Doig, Wil Wheaton and Vin Diesel, people who actually game, with some RPG industry writers and artists like Ed Greenwood and Todd Lockwood. The game needs eccentric players to display eccentric characters, people who are good at playing to an audience and not afraid to screw up in front of fans. I think it would be interesting to have one celebrity newbie getting schooled in RPGs, too, maybe someone like Taylor Swift who can be humble and funny about their mistakes. Let us watch a whole party like that take on a classic dungeon crawl so we can see who makes it out alive...

 

[Morrus]

I would love to see a regular campaign run on tv with celebs like Lexa Doig, Wil Wheaton and Vin Diesel, people who actually game, with some RPG industry writers and artists like Ed Greenwood and Todd Lockwood. The game needs eccentric players to display eccentric characters, people who are good at playing to an audience and not afraid to screw up in front of fans. I think it would be interesting to have one celebrity newbie getting schooled in RPGs, too, maybe someone like Taylor Swift who can be humble and funny about their mistakes. Let us watch a whole party like that take on a classic dungeon crawl so we can see who makes it out alive...

That's what Tabletop is doing next. An RPG campaign. I wouldn't expect Taylor Swift, though....

You'll get Wil Wheaton for sure!

 

[Samloyal23]

That's what Tabletop is doing next. An RPG campaign. I wouldn't expect Taylor Swift, though....

You'll get Wil Wheaton for sure!

YAY!!! Who will be playing? When is it airing?

 

[Morrus]

YAY!!! Who will be playing? When is it airing?

Dunno yet. They did a Kickstarter for it earlier this year. Raised a million dollars or something like that!

The game is Dread, though. That much I know.

 

[Zak S]

There's a documentary called "Hands On A Hard Body" about a contest a truck dealership ran to see who could keep their hand touching a truck longest without sitting down. The prize was the truck.

It went on for days and is the most boring contest in the world--however, the documentary is FANTASTIC and funny and sad and beautiful because it interviews all the people involved and gets their ideas about their tactics and what the stakes are for them and, just, generally works really hard to get to the human story behind the events you can see.

On "I Hit It With My Axe" I was always trying to convince the people funding the show to let us do THAT. Because people become invested in things because of quirks of their personalities, and people are inherently interesting.

 

[JamesonCourage]

What's the game and who are the players?

Tabletop killed at Fiasco. One of their best sessions ever.

I've watched the whole episode in the past. It was not good (to me, obviously). Mind you, a lot more "watchable" than other RPG videos I've seen, but still. I think even with the tricks it used (music, actors, editing, etc.) it was not a lot of fun. (I just watched it because it was better than most RPG videos, and wanted to see the game in action.)

I have to admit, I'm curious if those responding with "I'd never watch an RPG / that sounds awful" have ever seen any of the Acquisitions, Inc videos.

Because man, that's some compelling content.

I agree with what others have said: random people playing a random game isn't interesting. Entertainers playing a game run by a triple-A Dungeon Master is interesting.

I have the opposite opinion (and it's just that -an opinion). I find the players terrible, and they make it hard to watch. But it doesn't help that outside of finding them obnoxious, I have some major differences at my own table. (We say "I do this" and not "Aeofel does this"; I find using voices, either from player or GM, pulls everyone out of immersion at my table, so we avoid it; based on the videos, I rated Perkins a 5/10 in a thread recently, and put him far from a "triple-A Dungeon Master"; etc.).

But that's just opinion. It's still probably easier to watch than the vast majority of other RPG videos I've seen.