Reflecting on four decades of roleplaying I've been thinking recently about the things in the background which shaped my early gaming experiences, forged strong groups and broke weaker ones, informed our aesthetic, demanded our attention.
Because the best groups I've been part of have always shared a lot of cultural influences, and it's interesting to think about how they've shaped what I choose to run and how friends and I chose to play.
Comics in early 80s Britain meant 2000AD. I barely knew anyone that wasn't at least familiar with it. Many of the characters, as well as the alumni earning their stripes on the comic, are now famous. But at the time 2000AD was a bit edgy, a bit loud and aggressive and punk, a bit subversive. Judge Dredd was often a satire on the authoritarian leanings of the UKs conservative government. Nemesis the Warlock was fighting space fascism. ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog. These were not shiny happy people. These were outsiders, misfits and wierdos trying to find their way in dystopian societies.
A bit later we got V for Vendetta and Watchmen by Alan Moore, Doom Patrol from Grant Morrison. Again, these were not stories about your friendly neighbourhood superhero. These were stories about morally ambiguous people making the best of dubious, or downright terrible, situations. Required reading might also include Cerebus the Aardvark, Love & Rockets, Swamp Thing, Flaming Carrot.
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.
What came out of our gaming as a result was, of course, limited by the RPG tech we had available. In fantasy, it needed to be low magic, high lethality, gritty, grungy and streetwise. We found systems which made that easy - Runequest & 1st edition WHFRP. There was a lot of low-level play in threatening situations, whether that was Pavis or Sartar or an unnamed village, where we rolled up commoners with spears and fryings pans, beset by zombies.
We played open-ended 'stay alive' type sandboxes using Twilight 2000, or Aftermath, or Pheonix Command, heavily influenced by Vietnam movies. Sometimes you'd create a character and then roll 2d6 to see how many rounds you had left for your main weapon, and go from there. You weren't any kind of hero - you were a grunt with a rifle, a few rounds, a few buddies and a bad attitude.
Vampire proved popular, partly because it jived with a lot of our shared music, film and clubland experiences - and in particular because the subject matter was morally ambiguous people making the best of dubious situations. The fact it was entirely GM led wasn't ideal, although that did at least make it relaxing to play with a beer and a smoke.
It's interesting to note that fast forwarding a couple of decades and Apocalypse World has been the best game for us for a long time - again a game of morally ambiguous people facing crises situations, although this time far more player-driven.
I think that gives enough flavour to be going on with. 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?
Because the best groups I've been part of have always shared a lot of cultural influences, and it's interesting to think about how they've shaped what I choose to run and how friends and I chose to play.
Comics in early 80s Britain meant 2000AD. I barely knew anyone that wasn't at least familiar with it. Many of the characters, as well as the alumni earning their stripes on the comic, are now famous. But at the time 2000AD was a bit edgy, a bit loud and aggressive and punk, a bit subversive. Judge Dredd was often a satire on the authoritarian leanings of the UKs conservative government. Nemesis the Warlock was fighting space fascism. ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog. These were not shiny happy people. These were outsiders, misfits and wierdos trying to find their way in dystopian societies.
A bit later we got V for Vendetta and Watchmen by Alan Moore, Doom Patrol from Grant Morrison. Again, these were not stories about your friendly neighbourhood superhero. These were stories about morally ambiguous people making the best of dubious, or downright terrible, situations. Required reading might also include Cerebus the Aardvark, Love & Rockets, Swamp Thing, Flaming Carrot.
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.
What came out of our gaming as a result was, of course, limited by the RPG tech we had available. In fantasy, it needed to be low magic, high lethality, gritty, grungy and streetwise. We found systems which made that easy - Runequest & 1st edition WHFRP. There was a lot of low-level play in threatening situations, whether that was Pavis or Sartar or an unnamed village, where we rolled up commoners with spears and fryings pans, beset by zombies.
We played open-ended 'stay alive' type sandboxes using Twilight 2000, or Aftermath, or Pheonix Command, heavily influenced by Vietnam movies. Sometimes you'd create a character and then roll 2d6 to see how many rounds you had left for your main weapon, and go from there. You weren't any kind of hero - you were a grunt with a rifle, a few rounds, a few buddies and a bad attitude.
Vampire proved popular, partly because it jived with a lot of our shared music, film and clubland experiences - and in particular because the subject matter was morally ambiguous people making the best of dubious situations. The fact it was entirely GM led wasn't ideal, although that did at least make it relaxing to play with a beer and a smoke.
It's interesting to note that fast forwarding a couple of decades and Apocalypse World has been the best game for us for a long time - again a game of morally ambiguous people facing crises situations, although this time far more player-driven.
I think that gives enough flavour to be going on with. 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?
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