Not a Conspiracy Theory: Moving Toward Better Criticism in RPGs

[FrogReaver]

Well sure I have, but within the confines of the system (in my case D&D), not to change or refine the system itself. Generally speaking, I don't have time for that, even if I wanted to or had the right expertise.

Common areas I’ve seen changed - death rules, perception rules, stealth rules, environmental rules for a homebrew area, what kind of potential consequences can occur due to a failed skill check, feat and spell changes, etc.

 

[soviet]

I've self published a game, I imagine there are quite a few people here who've done the same. It's a common thing on any RPG forum.

 

[Emoshin]

I mean, that's a great data point I didn't have before!
It helps, at least for me, explain the intrinsic motivation for putting up with all the friction that you seem be encountering here.

 

[JAMUMU]

Agreed. I’m trying to point out that we don’t even have an initial set of important lenses that are beneficial to view rpgs through.

Other areas of criticism seem to revolve around a few main lenses (not that others are invalid) just that certain lenses are agreed upon as extremely important. We are no where near that with rpg criticism.

If i had my druthers and decided to start a blog about Criticism & RPGs my first articles would be:

1) examining ttrpgs as a site where the interpassivity of capitalist realism is both reinforced and resisted, rpg gamer as consumer vs rpg gamer as producer
2) Enter the Murderhobo: the structure of ttrpgs as a critique of post-Fordist economic conditions
3) an interrogation of social class as it appears in ttrpgs, and the implications of this for ttrpgs as a site of class struggle vs the often more conservative social markers found in fantasy fiction
4) How systems/players deal with the GM as Lacanian "Big Other" vs the "little others" provided by settings/rules
5) Towards a Revolutionary Dialectics of Homebrew: House Rules as Radical Literary Movement
6) Movements such as the OSR and "old school play" as nostalgic reaction and progressive critique of neoliberal "austerity"

Now I just emptied my head there and came up with some of that list based on where my interests collide and to give examples. Someone else is going to have an entirely different set of lenses they want to use. But as was said upthread, what lenses are actually important (so most useful) to discussing the ttrpg space won't be discovered until people start applying the tools from other areas of study to RPGs themselves and the experience they provide.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Ha, fair enough. That's not quite what I was meaning to say, though. And I don't think it works with tools the same way as texts.

The problem is that at least the mechanical parts of RPGs are tools from where I sit, and need to be assessed accordingly. There may be other elements that can be addressed other ways, but you have to have a pretty minimalist rules set before I tend to think that needs to be assessed first. At the very least for suitability to the job they seem to be intended to do, which applies even to extent rules sets that are repurposed for certain specific settings and genres.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Well, we've been making comparisons to literature and film and although I'd agree that universal agreement is beyond us, I'd think it's possible to list some of the seminal works in the RPG medium, just as it's possible to list such for film and literature, or any other medium.

And who gets to define them? By what criteria?

That's the problem here; in general when you get into film or novels, its long been shaken down, and often not in a neutral process (look at the discussion of Western European fiction for the latter for example). Here, there's no such established canon, and as such, you either have to convince other participants to accept yours, or work out a mutually acceptable set.

To which I say, good luck with either of those.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Except, the problem with Storyteller is that it was more like D&D than it claimed.

I'd argue that's not correct. The problem with it was it was more like it than it should have been for what it was trying to do.

There's an important difference there. It gets back to the usual question of whether system matters.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You seem very invested in this of all things. And you joined on Tuesday?

My tarot reading says you're into novelty socks.

Mod Note:

Using divination in FRPGs? Smart and useful. Maybe even advisable.

Using divination in conversations about FRPGs? Neither of those things. So definitely discouraged.

 

[Umbran]

Or maybe you think the whole thing is ridiculous because 8 1/2 is "art," and MCU movies aren't.

"Pop-art is still art."
-Andy Warhol, in deed if not in word.

 

[Umbran]

I'd argue that's not correct. The problem with it was it was more like it than it should have been for what it was trying to do.

I do not see a glimmer of light between that, and what I said.