RangerWickett
Legend
Roleplaying is a different storytelling medium from most commercial media. It's not the same as a movie or a novel or comic book, and though techniques learned from those media can certainly help you run or play through an enjoyable RPG session, they were not developed specifically with RPGs in mind.
The major difference between common media and RPGs is that roleplaying is immersive. When you watch a movie or read a book, you experience from without, so often the writer tries to involve you in the story by making you empathize with a particular character. In an RPG, though, you are one of the characters, so the needs of storytelling are very different.
What I'm interested in discussing is the artform that is the roleplaying game. It's a field that, though there is some research about it from an analytical perspective, very little has been done to discuss its production. Where are the texts on Roleplaying Theory, the classes to train roleplayers in the techniques for both writing and performing works in this medium?
I'm hoping people will join in for a sort of seminar discussion, each thread devoted to a new topic as we try to develop a field of study about RPGs. I know Mark from Creative Mountain games had chats along a similar line, but I haven't seen him do one of those for a long while.
Some of the topics I have in mind include:
Who all is interested?
The major difference between common media and RPGs is that roleplaying is immersive. When you watch a movie or read a book, you experience from without, so often the writer tries to involve you in the story by making you empathize with a particular character. In an RPG, though, you are one of the characters, so the needs of storytelling are very different.
What I'm interested in discussing is the artform that is the roleplaying game. It's a field that, though there is some research about it from an analytical perspective, very little has been done to discuss its production. Where are the texts on Roleplaying Theory, the classes to train roleplayers in the techniques for both writing and performing works in this medium?
I'm hoping people will join in for a sort of seminar discussion, each thread devoted to a new topic as we try to develop a field of study about RPGs. I know Mark from Creative Mountain games had chats along a similar line, but I haven't seen him do one of those for a long while.
Some of the topics I have in mind include:
- What methods work well for different types of stories (action, adventure, drama, horror, even romance)?
- Are there different schools of 'acting' for roleplaying? What are the benefits of each?
- What is 'cool' in RPGs? In movies, you can show huge explosions or have nifty special effects, and in literature you can have intriguing wordplay, but what works for action games?
- What gamers want, and why it seems publishers fail to deliver. (Not that they necessarily do, but we sure complain a lot.)
- The hobby versus the job, and when to know you spend too much time gaming.
Who all is interested?
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