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General Tabletop Discussion
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Is RPGing a *literary* endeavour?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7595757" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Literary work and artistic performance have something in common - the goal to evoke a response at least in part through the quality of form. (The two can overlap when the performance is, say, a play.)</p><p></p><p>Word choice, and meter, and assonance, and sentence length, and the like, are formal features of language that affect how a work evokes a response. Here are two opening sentences, by two different authors (REH and EM Forster). Each has a certain "something" to it:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">One may as well begin with Helen's letters to her sister.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Torches flared murkily on the revels in the Maul, where the thieves of the east held carnival by night.</p><p></p><p>We learn that there is a character called Helen, who has a sister, to whom she writes letters. This establishes expectations, and - together with the construciton "one may" - sets a certain tone (<em>middle class</em>, for lack of a better term).</p><p></p><p>We learn that the events are happening in "the east", at night, presumably in some sort of urban area (it has a proper name - <em>the Maul</em>) but on a pre-modern street (it's lit by murkily-flaring torches) with sordid partying taking place - drunkenness, streetwalkers, pick-pockets, daggers in alleys are not mentioned, but we can certainly anticipate them turning up.</p><p></p><p>There are other ways to convey the same information. For instance:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">These events concern Helen, and her sister. The easiest way to get a handle on them is to consider the letters the former wrote to the latter.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">These events take place in a mediaeval city in the east, in an area called the Maul. At night, the streets are lit by torches. The Maul is a favoured place for thieves and similar sorts of people to hang out, and at night they really live it up.</p><p></p><p>From the point of view of <em>literary endeavour</em>, the difference between the quoted story openings, and my restatements, is big. My view is that from the point of view of <em>RPGing</em>, the difference between the quoted story openings, and my restatements, is small.</p><p></p><p>In a written medium, it's harder to convey the same point about performance, but I'll try. Consider the following two episodes of narration:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">These events take place in a mediaeval city <pause> in the east <pause> in an area called the Maul. <pause for audience uptake> At night, the streets are lit by torches, which <increasing volume/emphasis> flare with murky light! <pause for audience to form mental picture> The Maul is a favoured place for thieves and the like to hang out <pause> especially at night when <increasing volume/emphasis> they really live it up!</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">These events take place in a mediaeval city in the east. <pause for breath> The area of the city is called the Maul. <pause for breath> At night, the streets are lit by torches. <pause for breath> The Maul is a favoured place for thieves and the like to hang out. <pause for breath> At night, they really live it up!</p><p></p><p>From the point of view of oratorical performance, I think there is a difference between these two - I hope I've managed to convey that, and to make it clear why the first might seem a more engaging performance than the second. Again, my assertion is that <em>from the point of view of RPGing</em>, the difference is not all that significant.</p><p></p><p>The writer's purpose is to lure the reader into the <em>work</em> and compel him/her to read on. I think both REH and EM Forster have successful openings in this regard. Moreso than my retellings.</p><p></p><p>But in my view an RPG is different. The player isn't being invited to <em>read on</em> - to learn more about this engaging work. The player is invited to adopt the perspective of the PC, and from that perspective to <em>make a choice</em>. This is a completely different from of engagement. From that point of view neither of the openings is a success, because neither invites action from a protagonist.</p><p></p><p>In RPGing, the fiction is engaged with qua <em>fiction</em>, not qua <em>work</em>.</p><p></p><p>Here's another sentence from The Tower of the Elephant, a little over a page in:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">A touch on his tunic sleeve made him turn his head . . .</p><p></p><p>From the literary point of view we have multiple alliterations (<em>touch</em>, <em>tunic</em>, <em>turn</em>; <em>his</em>, <em>him</em>, <em>his</em>, <em>head</em>). We also have a series of short, mostly one-syllable, words that bring out this alliteration.</p><p></p><p>If we rework this as a piece of RPG narration, here are two possibilities:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">You feel a touch on your tunic sleeve - their's somebody behind you.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">There's a pull on your shirt sleeve. You can feel that the person who's pulled on your sleeve is behind you.</p><p></p><p>These are different works. I think they have different literary qualities: neither is anything special, but I nevertheless think they can be ranked from the literary point of view.</p><p></p><p>But from the point of view of RPGing they convey the same fiction and invite the same engagement by the player. My view is that when we think about things from the point of view of RPGing, this common invitation to engagement is much more important than the issue of which has more literary merit.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7595757, member: 42582"] Literary work and artistic performance have something in common - the goal to evoke a response at least in part through the quality of form. (The two can overlap when the performance is, say, a play.) Word choice, and meter, and assonance, and sentence length, and the like, are formal features of language that affect how a work evokes a response. Here are two opening sentences, by two different authors (REH and EM Forster). Each has a certain "something" to it: [indent]One may as well begin with Helen's letters to her sister.[/indent] [indent]Torches flared murkily on the revels in the Maul, where the thieves of the east held carnival by night.[/indent] We learn that there is a character called Helen, who has a sister, to whom she writes letters. This establishes expectations, and - together with the construciton "one may" - sets a certain tone ([I]middle class[/I], for lack of a better term). We learn that the events are happening in "the east", at night, presumably in some sort of urban area (it has a proper name - [I]the Maul[/I]) but on a pre-modern street (it's lit by murkily-flaring torches) with sordid partying taking place - drunkenness, streetwalkers, pick-pockets, daggers in alleys are not mentioned, but we can certainly anticipate them turning up. There are other ways to convey the same information. For instance: [indent]These events concern Helen, and her sister. The easiest way to get a handle on them is to consider the letters the former wrote to the latter.[/indent] [indent]These events take place in a mediaeval city in the east, in an area called the Maul. At night, the streets are lit by torches. The Maul is a favoured place for thieves and similar sorts of people to hang out, and at night they really live it up.[/indent] From the point of view of [I]literary endeavour[/I], the difference between the quoted story openings, and my restatements, is big. My view is that from the point of view of [I]RPGing[/I], the difference between the quoted story openings, and my restatements, is small. In a written medium, it's harder to convey the same point about performance, but I'll try. Consider the following two episodes of narration: [indent]These events take place in a mediaeval city <pause> in the east <pause> in an area called the Maul. <pause for audience uptake> At night, the streets are lit by torches, which <increasing volume/emphasis> flare with murky light! <pause for audience to form mental picture> The Maul is a favoured place for thieves and the like to hang out <pause> especially at night when <increasing volume/emphasis> they really live it up![/indent] [indent]These events take place in a mediaeval city in the east. <pause for breath> The area of the city is called the Maul. <pause for breath> At night, the streets are lit by torches. <pause for breath> The Maul is a favoured place for thieves and the like to hang out. <pause for breath> At night, they really live it up![/indent] From the point of view of oratorical performance, I think there is a difference between these two - I hope I've managed to convey that, and to make it clear why the first might seem a more engaging performance than the second. Again, my assertion is that [I]from the point of view of RPGing[/I], the difference is not all that significant. The writer's purpose is to lure the reader into the [I]work[/I] and compel him/her to read on. I think both REH and EM Forster have successful openings in this regard. Moreso than my retellings. But in my view an RPG is different. The player isn't being invited to [I]read on[/I] - to learn more about this engaging work. The player is invited to adopt the perspective of the PC, and from that perspective to [I]make a choice[/I]. This is a completely different from of engagement. From that point of view neither of the openings is a success, because neither invites action from a protagonist. In RPGing, the fiction is engaged with qua [I]fiction[/I], not qua [I]work[/I]. Here's another sentence from The Tower of the Elephant, a little over a page in: [indent]A touch on his tunic sleeve made him turn his head . . .[/indent] From the literary point of view we have multiple alliterations ([I]touch[/I], [I]tunic[/I], [I]turn[/I]; [I]his[/I], [I]him[/I], [I]his[/I], [I]head[/I]). We also have a series of short, mostly one-syllable, words that bring out this alliteration. If we rework this as a piece of RPG narration, here are two possibilities: [indent]You feel a touch on your tunic sleeve - their's somebody behind you.[/indent] [indent]There's a pull on your shirt sleeve. You can feel that the person who's pulled on your sleeve is behind you.[/indent] These are different works. I think they have different literary qualities: neither is anything special, but I nevertheless think they can be ranked from the literary point of view. But from the point of view of RPGing they convey the same fiction and invite the same engagement by the player. My view is that when we think about things from the point of view of RPGing, this common invitation to engagement is much more important than the issue of which has more literary merit. [/QUOTE]
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