Would you & your group roleplay on camera?

[Rel]

Who knew that my offhand (though heartfelt) comment would inspire a whole new thread?

Our group would probably go for it and in fact we've done variations on this in the past.

For several years running I put on this event that was part roleplaying and part puzzle solving that I called "The Challenge" and I videotaped it each time. After it was over (it took most of a long weekend to run for all teams start to finish) we would have a party and show the video and everybody seemed to have fun laughing at ourselves.

On another occasion a woman who sometimes plays with us (for a rare one-shot) audio-taped one of our sessions for use in a Speech class she was taking in grad school. I'd say that folks were a bit more guarded than usual for the first hour but loosened up to normal after that.

And then about two years ago a friend brought over a video camera he wanted to test out and he taped an hour or two of one of our sessions. I don't think the rest of us ever watched it and it was a fairly typical session so that hour was probably not earth-shattering gaming.

Nowadays I'm in the videotaping business so I tend to see opportunities for things like this. As far as the documentary thing goes, I'd probably go for it so long as I had a clear sense that this was not to be used to the detriment of the hobby or edited to intentionally embarass those in the group. It would probably only work well if they did it "Real World" style and filmed you every session for 2-3 months so that the players could all get used to the camera being there and start to ignore it. Also, they'd probably have more success with three or four cameras in fixed positions (on tripods or mounts of some kind) rather than trying to steadcam you right up in your face while you're trying to game. Actually gaming in a studio with the table set up in the middle could be the way to go but that's getting well outside my area of expertise.

But regarding the original theme of my post in Piratecat's other thread, I would genuinely be willing to spend some amount of money to watch videotaps of PC's sessions along with some "GM Commentary" about his techniques and methods that have everyone who's ever gamed with him raving about what a great GM he is.

(And on an unrelated subject, Tav, I've not forgotten about the project we talked about. This turned out to be a busier than expected week and my whole family now has a cold. So I'll get back to you in the next few days. Speaks With Stone greenlighted the idea we talked about.)

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Only if we didn't have to wear pants.

Hong?

 

[Templetroll]

One of my original group was in Film Studies so he needed to do a documentary. Our group did a short, slightly scripted run where we did some basic D&D things, got into a room and he announces the appearance of a dragon and ended with a nice flourish, "What do you do?" then pointing into the camera, "What would you do?"

It was cool, since I knew the guy creating the film and that he was supportive of gaming. Now, with someone I don't know well, I would be leery of participating since the effect of the film would be done in the editing and whatever voiceover the person adds. Have you talked to the person making the film what their opinion is of gaming? What will be the theme of the film? If they hesitate at all then say no.

I would not be offended to be asked to participate.

I had gone to a LARP a friend held at his house in Florida for a few years. He videotaped some of the events and had tapes done for participants; once, he had a pro do the taping and edit it into something more than an ordinary tape. That was cool, and again, I knew who was doing it and trusted them and the use it would be put to.

 

[Ace]

Well said. Add me to the "Hell, No" category.

And Me

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Only if we didn't have to wear pants.

Ok.

But I can't promise I won't lick the screen.


And sure, I'd do it. Why not?


Well, so long as it was well edited - I won't be responsible for inflicting hours of numbing, badly-shot tedium on the world at large. I'll leave that for the Sci-Fi Channel.

Patrick Y.

 

[Maggan]

Done it

I've DM:ed for a TV-documentary on RPGs that aired here in Sweden in november last year. It's had reruns about five or six times at odd hours (just like everything else).

I spent two hours with the crew, and they cut it down to five minutes (my part, then they had fotage of LARP and other stuff as well, half hour show total).

The major difficulty was getting across what the hell we were doing. I went through the chargen, and set up some basic encounters, and we played through that.

But the difficult thing is that rpg:ing does not really lend itself to the TV medium. To those that watched, it just seemed that we were playing any old game. RPG:s is a participatory experience, and it's very difficult to convey the fun to a spectator.

But it was fun being on TV, and I'd do it again.

Cheers!

Maggan

 

[Raloc]

I'd do it, I don't know about either of the groups I game with, however. I would insist to have in writing that I'd be allowed to view the edited version of the film in full and disallow it to be used if I found it to be used in a mocking way. I wouldn't mind doing something like this myself (a documentary) because I think knowing the game would aid in the editing process extremely. I actually think it would be rather cool to film a whole session with maybe three encounters, then edit much of the OOC and such out, make it much faster and snappier than the game really is.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Apparently you can also make money doing this

http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn090.htm

 

[Mark Chance]

If you consented to be videotaped during your gaming session, you could be as cool and famous as these people

One of the girls at that table is Jamie Gertz. She seems to have done well for herself.

I'd not mind my group being taped, but the camera would have to focus on me a lot. Plus, how much would we get paid?

 

[randomling]

Quite aside from my hatred of getting on camera, I'd have concerns about doing something like filming a game session, because IMO the cool stuff isn't going on around the gaming table but in the imaginations of the participants. The reason something like The Gamers worked well was that it was all about the contrast between the real and imagined world. What wuold a video of just gamers playing (without any realization of what was going on in the imagined world) be for? What would it accomplish?