Cultural influences in roleplaying

[hawkeyefan]

I love The Wire. Stunning characters, great integrity and observations in the writing, wonderful and subtle performances. But I think I'm the only one in my group who is (was) into it, so there wasn't that shared overlap with friends. And it's almost too good, too sophisticated, to aim for in an RPG! So in that sense we used Firefly more as a template - nowhere near as great as a show (in my opinion), but a viable template for 'troupe' type play and something everyone had seen.

The OP was particularly around formative influences as well - it's not comprehensive and there was a lot of stuff I was individually into - but I was trying to think about shared music, film, graphic novels - and the attitudes in them - that helped glue my groups together. For me the timescale was a time between, say, 1982 and 1992, although it's purely illustrative to get to the question.

Oh yeah, The Wire is more specifically a personal one for me more than for my group. Sadly, despite my urgings, only one of my regular players has watched it. It just popped into my mind as I’ve been considering this topic, and so I figured I’d mention it.

Also sadly, I left musical influences out of my initial list because I don’t think my group shares much there, certainly not as an influence to our gaming. I have my own, and I’d say they inform my games but perhaps less overtly than other influences.

I probably also left off cartoons of the era (or prior to it that we saw in reruns)that were influential to our group, and others mentioning them made me realize that. He-Man, Thundercats, Thundarr the Barbarian, GI Joe, Voltron, Robotech… those all certainly influenced each member of my play group.

In the Pirates of Dark Water, the alien world of Mer is being devoured by the Dark Water (or rather, the Dark Dweller). It was a pretty transparent narrative about pollution and global warming, but with high seas adventure.

I remember liking this as a kid and being sad that it was only around for (to my knowledge) one season. It seemed a bit heavier than most cartoons of that time.

 

[Aldarc]

I probably also left off cartoons of the era (or prior to it that we saw in reruns)that were influential to our group, and others mentioning them made me realize that. He-Man, Thundercats, Thundarr the Barbarian, GI Joe, Voltron, Robotech… those all certainly influenced each member of my play group.

I honestly have no idea how science-fantasy in the vein of these IPs from this era are not much bigger in the TTRPG market.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One thing that's struck me about the British RPG scene is its punk influence. There's a strong satirical, antiauthoritarian attitude. Heck, even look at Warhammer Fantasy's Trollslayers with their iconic mohawks, tattoos, and piercings.

Musically, this was all reinforced by a lot of punk, post-punk and early grunge - Clash, Bowie, Stranglers, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Pixies. Major film influences amongst my group included Blade Runner, The Terminator, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Predator, Alien, Aliens, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, The Godfather, Reservoir Dogs, Akira. The films of Mike Leigh - in particular Life is Sweet and Naked - were admired.

If I had to look at my cultural influences for when I started gaming, it'd be a stew of Asprin's Myth series, the Thieves World anthologies, Tolkien, Star Wars, 80s Sword and Sorcery films, Norse folklore, and Nintendo games. Music would've been whatever was playing on MTV at the time.

 

[MGibster]

I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned D&D itself as a cultural influence. When introducing someone to a new game, I can often cite how it's different from D&D in order to get them to understand something quickly. (Note: I don't bad mouth D&D when I do this. I just point out how this game is different.) In my years of gaming, I've found many players will often play the game as if its D&D and this is especially true of fantasy games. I remember having to explain to players in Legend of the Five Rings the looting the corpses of their enemies just isn't something they'd do because of the strong cultural taboo against touching the dead.

 

[chaochou]

One thing that's struck me about the British RPG scene is its punk influence. There's a strong satirical, antiauthoritarian attitude. Heck, even look at Warhammer Fantasy's Trollslayers with their iconic mohawks, tattoos, and piercings.

Absolutely. This was something I tried to capture in the OP - there was a bleed from the punk attitude of comics and music in the UK into the RPG scene.

It was there in the artwork of Brian Bolland and John Blanche and Carl Critchlow (who drew Thrud the Barbarian in White Dwarf and also worked on 2000AD, and later provided art for 3E and MtG). It was there in the writing of Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman.

I mentioned once to @pemerton that the UK roleplaying scene of the time felt like its own little subculture of punks and goths and artists and misfits and malcontents. It wasn't 'nerd' culture - it was a broader melting pot of subversive and (as you say) satirical attitudes.

 

[payn]

I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned D&D itself as a cultural influence. When introducing someone to a new game, I can often cite how it's different from D&D in order to get them to understand something quickly. (Note: I don't bad mouth D&D when I do this. I just point out how this game is different.) In my years of gaming, I've found many players will often play the game as if its D&D and this is especially true of fantasy games. I remember having to explain to players in Legend of the Five Rings the looting the corpses of their enemies just isn't something they'd do because of the strong cultural taboo against touching the dead.

I have noticed that too. Due to D&D's outlandish influence in TTRPGs, folks tend to export the playloop into every game they play. Although, that is the culture of mechanics and not so much the flavor/ambiance/setting.

 

[Xamnam]

I wish my memory on this specific front was better, but I can't think of a specific novel or series that has given me my primary Generic High Fantasy Setting™. I was a voracious reader in high school, and so it's a mélange. Tolkein, C. S. Lewis, Diana Wynne Jones, and Tamora Pierce are the names that come to mind, but it's hard to credit any one over the other, and I'm sure there are names I'd smack myself for forgetting.

That said, as far as mood, I doubt I can name anything more influential to me than the Legend of Zelda series, especially Ocarina of Time and onwards. A magical land, full of entrancing worldly wonders, varied cultures and peoples, and a sense of adventure and heroism that still allows for some non-urgent side questing. Other games worth mentioning, both for flavor, and for the sense of journey in a bit different sense than Zelda, are Final Fantasy X, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, and Skies of Arcadia. In this sense, I do tends towards a fair amount of tropes/Hero's Journey when it comes to the idea of a party questing together and eventually saving the world. Haven't burnt out on that yet.

As @Aldarc mentions, the works of Studio Ghibli are also hugely inspirational on both the setting and mood front. Even their "real-world" works find ways to make the mundane fascinating, and I devour the details of their fantastical ones.

The adventuring party I do think I pull more from television and film, and honestly, I would primarily point mostly towards Cowboy Bebop. Folks who would describe themselves as scoundrels and self-interested, but for the most part, can't help but seem to do well. Mostly thrown together by circumstance, with plenty of bickering, but loath to actually leave. Firefly, Community, and Star Wars 4-6 come to mind as well.

And of course, I would be remiss to not mention both Terry Pratchett and Monty Python (honestly, more show than Holy Grail) for my drive to fill the worlds with characters who are hopefully just slightly more engaging and entertaining than infuriating to interact with.

 

[MGibster]

I have noticed that too. Due to D&D's outlandish influence in TTRPGs, folks tend to export the playloop into every game they play. Although, that is the culture of mechanics and not so much the flavor/ambiance/setting.

I think it's flavor, ambiance, and setting as well. I described a giant in my fantasy game (Savage Worlds) and one of the players kind of tuned me out and assumed it was a D&D style giant about 15-20 feet tall. No, this dude was a Time Bandits style giant that could wear a ship for a hat. And then they ran into goblins and some of them automatically jumped to the conclusion that these were bad guys. Nope, these dudes just wanted to trade and get along.

 

[GuyBoy]

In late 70s/early 80s UK, the punk scene was hugely important to me (though I no longer have green spikes hair nowadays!) but it’s influence on my D&D was probably more in terms of attitude ( as @Ralif Redhammer suggests) than in actual gaming culture.
I leant a lot on the books I’d read, particularly LoTR and REH, but also Dunsany and Alan Garner. Traditional wargaming certainly played a part with many of my D&D friends, though less so for me personally. My team sport (rugby) informed much of my approach to playing and, as a kid from a tough background, both financially and in other ways, the experiences I got from army cadets was crucial.
2000 AD was also pretty important.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So the question is what are your artistic and cultural influences from film, music, art and comics, and what themes and patterns from them have you noticed in your roleplaying?

I know for a fact that certain films, tv shows, plays, photos, pieces of art, architecture, design, music, fiction, science and history have all been major or minor inspirations for characters, scenarios or even whole campaigns. If I have experienced something, odds are good that it has influenced my actions in RPGs. The one exception I can think of is that I haven’t been inspired by anything culinary.

Of those, I’d have to say the biggest influences have been music and art.