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In another thread, Jonathan saysquote:Posted By: Jonathan M I think it may have been Judd who, in the tone discussion for Flaming Taft, said, 'I don't want to be in another game where I gently caress my mother.' And one of my wife's professors once said to her that 'repression is good - otherwise we'd all be loving our grandmothers.' (I paraphrase in both cases). That said, I also don't see as there's anything particularly wrong with the occasional engagement with your fantasies, power or otherwise. Isn't it the hallmark of liberalism to be able to do so? It seems perculiarly catholic to conflate the deed and the thought. I'm pretty happy to accept that much mainstream gaming is associated with power fantasies (although probably not Call of Cthulhu much at all or Traveller quite so much) but it seems to me that one of the strengths of Indie gaming is the variety of experience it produces. Steal Away Jordan, Dogs in the Vineyard, Grey Ranks and others give rise to much more complex character motivations But is it ever possible to play Heroic Fantasy without it being a fantasy of murderous heroism?
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Mar 16, 2009 22:13
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Yes but at least that dude hates Burning Wheel so he isn't all bad.
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Mar 16, 2009 23:57
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OK, so when I when I first ponied up that $1 to buy Sea Dracula, I justified it as just buying it to have something to talk about. But today, I finally got to play it! It was crazy. Here's how it went: Shining Rave Super Housecat accused my client of "Tomhatchery" (what this is, I have no idea, but I was assured it was a very serious crime). I, Rambunctious Walrus, was prepared to defend my clinet, Ryu Ryuson, to the bitter end in a legal battle to end all legal battles! Wild dogs, 1-up mushrooms, eggs, red cloth headbands, and storm trooper rifles were all presented as evidence throughout the trial, which at times devolved into a shouting match (with pretty much everything being shouted being OBJECTION!!! accompanied by an outstretched pointing finger). Such crazy tunes as hot hot hot, what is love, and soulja boy were danced to, a recess was objected, and in the end my client was convicted and sentenced by the judge, Posterior Rex, to a lifetime in peanut butter prison, due to my unfortunate inability to properly dance to rave music.
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Mar 21, 2009 12:06
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Okay, before I start this, I need to tell you about this restaurant at Carolina Beach in NC. It's called Bowman's, and it's one of those places that serves up heaps of fried seafood. And when I say heaps, I mean it. You walk in, and they bring you a mighty hill of hushpuppies with real butter. For a very reasonable price, you get a heroic platter that's had golden brown delicious sea critters SHOVELED on until you're afraid that upsetting this mountain of food will cause it all to topple. And it's all really drat good seafood, too. The Maid RPG is the Bowman's Admiral Platter of the RPG world. I buy this thing for eight dollars. Eight friggin dollars got me a game engine I would never have imagined using, a ton of really great content, and a surprisingly hilarious narrative that's woven into explaining the game. 220 plus pages of just plain fun content. Making characters is a snap, and half the fun is seeing what those wondrous random tables spit out and then turning all that stuff into an actual character. I love how conflict resolution works, and the fact that this RPG is willing to try poo poo I'd never imagine in a hundred thousand years. Having a characters stress explosion be acted out in real time? Such crazy genius. The extra content, like a Bowman's meal, borders almost on the excessive. There's so many sample characters, sample scenarios, just samples of stuff that like staring down that massive pile of fried food, I'm thinking "I do not possibly need all this!" But then I take it all, and it's great, so it's okay. The replays were especially entertaining, and showed just how versatile the system really is. Holy geez, what an awesome find. Thank you Andy K, Ewen, and Kamiya san for this. 
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Mar 21, 2009 12:30
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I'd love some input from those who have read ritual theory here. I'm thinking about how we create magic in role-playing games. That is, how we get to those points where everyone in the room is sort of golden, where we seem to share a vision of a different world, where we're throwing ideas and words into the air and catching them and spinning them. It seems to me that to get there, we need a ritual. And I wonder if one of the things that keeps many of us in this hobby is that we are ritual-minded people. We somehow need the structure, the community, that we get from role-playing. How does this fit in with, or compare to, other rituals? Do all people have the same need, desire, or potential for ritual action/interaction? For instance, why are some people totally uninterested in role-playing games with their structures and game masters, while they'll happily join an online freeform game about Harry Potter? Could it be that they just don't want the ritual aspect?
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Mar 21, 2009 17:53
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I'm very interested in the topic and personally have a view of the hobby as a shamanistic pursuit. That conception drives my GMing. That said, pardon me for being brief and in a bit of a hurry, but.. The act of gaming is infused with ritual. If we go looking, we might miss the things that are right in front of us. Specific phrases, etc. are all good to consider, but the very basics are already ritualistic. We have ritual objects. The dice resolve things for us and are invoked in a very ritualistic manner. We have sacred texts which outline how we conduct our ritual. We have holy days when we attend ritual (oddly, our gaming group has one solid gaming day and it has always been sunday). We have ritual roles. It's just there in a very strong sense. Also, to theorize (and brazenly over-generalize), roleplaying is part of nerddom and often in being a part of that culture you reject certain normal rituals. You don't go to the football/icehockey/local sport games. You fail at the regular manhood rituals. Not a rare thing to hear in those kinds of circles. However, to affirm their identity and nature, to oneself and others, everyone needs rituals. There's lots in nerddom in general and as outlined, there's lots in role-playing. Just a thought - and I freely admit the over-generalization. There is overlap to role-playing and nerddom, but one is not the other, either. More than that though I look at role-playing games as sort of modern mystery religions, vision-questing or even magick. We teach/learn/experience through ritual what is not immediately apparent to the uninitiated, but which requires (mutual and ritual) effort and imagination (intent) to contrive and reveal. What folks take out of the imagined lives of our characters (we are channeling archetypes here, right?), the symbols present in gaming, the divination tools that reveal the sacred lives of those characters (yeah, dice, dude), etc. varies from person to person and game to game, but it is clear that we get more out of it than simple on-the-spot enjoyment. We get a sense of community with our fellow gamers by spending time with them and engaging in ritualistic behaviour. By acting out stories, we get a sense of continuity and personal connection to our myths and history. We dip into insights into human nature and about ourselves. So, by exploring the Otherworld, we bring back the Elixir. We don't just imagine heroes, we become them.
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Mar 21, 2009 18:02
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I've been wanting to write a game based on Yotsuba-to! for a while. A "fantasy of perfect childhood" game, basically. That seems like a good idea. I've also wanted to make a game that can be played one player or more. So you have the Girl. She's five, not yet in kindergarten, and totally into everything. She goes out, meets friends, and has adventures. You have the Dad, who the girl tells about her adventures and sometimes goes with her. You have Friends, who vary by adventure. Basic adventure should be "go to a place, do several activities, go home." You should be able to have scary things happen and also to fail at some things, but not at everything. Failure should be a chance for more role-play, not less. If you have one player, you have the Girl, alone, going out on an adventure. If you have two players, you have the Girl and her Dad when she's at home, the Girl and one Friend when she's away. With three or more players, the Dad can come along or can change roles so you can have more than one Friend at once. Something which worked well in my game about ninja's is questioning about the environment. We'll submit to patriarchal authority and say that the Dad player also gets to answer questions about the environment, and other people answer questions about their internal world. The Dad's internal world is mysterious. For the one player, of course, the one player has to do all the asking and answer herself.  oh moon land~
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Mar 26, 2009 23:09
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So, I had an idea in the shower. When, in the course of knife fight, you are having a heated discussion with another person, you should at the same time in the same thread whisper them a joke. The purpose of this is to remind both parties that we are all human beings here, human beings who like one another enough to be a part of a community together. Example. Me: Bounder! Spartan Dog! Graham:Cad! Athenian Swine! Me (whispered to graham): Hey did you ever here the one about the Protcologist at the AA meeting? Graham (whispered): 'Rectum, I drat near killed 'em?' of course I have. You need newer jokes. Me: Well, I guess, you might have a point, even if you are a spartan dog. Graham: And I rather like swine...on a sandwich with tomato and lettuce! Ect.
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Mar 28, 2009 22:51
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A friend of a friend of a friend in the vegan community named Josh Harper, is currently serving a 36 month prison sentence at the Sheridan Federal Detention Center for in his words "the horrible crime of organizing legal protests, delivering lectures at colleges, and giving unapologetic vocal support to the illegal tactics of others." He is kept under 21 hour a day lockdown but occasionally has the opportunity to blog through his friends. His latest blog post, he talks about how he is learning to cope with the pain of his current situation by playing D&D 4E in prison. Apparently there is a thriving underground role playing scene in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. quote:Yes, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has a thriving underground role playing scene, and I'd like to think of myself as its shining star. I started Dungeon mastering a game a while back, throwing greedy capitalists, earth despoilers, and imperialists as the villains. And all the virtual food the players eat? Totally vegan, dude. I should write a cookbook called "Swords and Soycery," heh heh. Good times. Anyhow, the hardened criminals I play with got really into it, and you haven't lived until you've seen a heroin addicted bank robber with a Firearms Enhancement say, "I ask the Dwarvish cleric if he has any potions of vitality for purchase while I discretely flash some platinum pieces." Sweet. Anyhow, having proved myself to the Scofflaw Fraternity, I was invited to play a character in one of their games. They didn't have to ask me twicce. I now have a 4th level Dragonborn fighter named Lim Torrinson. Jealous much?
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Apr 2, 2009 18:33
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Ribbon Drive Friday, 10am-2pm Ribbon Drive Type of Game: Roleplaying Game Players: 2-6 You, me, this highway. This mix tape. Ribbon Drive is a slowburn game of self-discovery and letting go upon the open road. Inspired by Everything Is Illuminated, Wristcutters, Little Miss Sunshine, y tu Mama Tambien, Thelma & Louise and Two Lane Blacktop. Bring to the session a titled, themed mix CD (40-80 minutes in length) with a printout of the lyrics for the first two songs. Be prepared for a pretty experimental play experience. Special bonus from the same guy aka King of Moon Land: quote:Whenever I fantasize about running away, my destination is always Cold War-era New York - but a fictionalized one, one populated almost exclusively by artists and detectives and trouble and crooked dames and hip cats and junky-poets. I meet a guy in a jazz club who gives me a postcard, or perhaps I help a fallen italian to his feet and it turns out he's the godfather, or I make the correct remark about a certain art installation and the artist is standing nearby and he is suddenly enamored with me, and just like that I'm in. And I'd know people, and the heights would be dizzying, and we'd be doing amazing things with our art. Not merely with our poetry or our music or our sculptures, but with our art. And we, ourselves, nude and mortal as we were, would be art. The days would spin dizzy and out of control and amidst the threat of the bomb and communism and racial tensions and a million other woes, necks would crane to see us.
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Apr 2, 2009 19:42
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When I arrive, either Steve or Dave usually offers to make me tea. Usually, it's Steve who makes the first cup of the evening, and Dave who makes the cup after dinner. There is a list, inside the door of the cupboard, which explains how different members like their tea. They are idiosyncratic: one likes a tiny amount of sugar, approximately a quarter of a teaspoon; one likes their tea black. I personally like herbal tea, for which I receive an appropriate amount of stick. I think it is because of my preference for herbal tea that I am not trusted to make real tea. How do you arrange tea-making among your group?
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Jun 17, 2009 22:49
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I'd like to disagree with the emotionally squalid comment as well. Sorcerer doesn't have to be about that... There just has to be a tension between what the player wants and what the demon wants. It doesn't mean it has to be a soul sucking exercise. I wrote Nausicaa up as a Sorcerer setting. The tension there is about doing the right thing, even if burdensome. Its difficult to show compassion in a time of war and misery and that is where the conflicts arise, just as in the manga.
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Jun 17, 2009 22:57
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One of my favorite characters was created by Brendan Adkins at GPNW II. He made a kid who was the sole survivor of one of the Children's Crusades. He went to Mythic Norden in order to make this and all land pure for God's children. He wielded a giant hammer, and was so touched by purity that his feet never touched earth -- it was too impure for him. The part that made this badass -- this Mythender, this badass font of purity with his hammer of god -- was six loving years old. Just imagine playing someone who takes a look at this child and know, without a doubt, that this hero of six years has seen more horror and hell that whatever NPC your playing has, and knows that this kid, if he so wishes, can end your village with a thought. I love playing NPCs in Mythender, because I love highlighting the raw power by playing people completely scared of them. I wish I got to play an NPC opposite of Brendan's character in our game, because, hey, uncompromising, battle-scarred, all-powerful six year old.
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Jun 17, 2009 23:06
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quote:This one I'm about to share has been a pivotal moment in Mythender's creation. At GPNW II (same game as above), Joe McDonald was playing a Mythender who won a gold violin in a contest against the Metatron. He's fighting a dragon and the earth itself (represented by a sentient mountain). In the previous turn, the mountain harmed & encased Joe's character. That was so cool. Seriously, it was one of my favourite moments that I've ever been responsible for. I was encased in a clay coffin, buried alive. I die. Suddenly, a shaft of light falls upon me from above. I break through the clay, raised into the sky by some invisble force. Cough. Cough. Sputter clay across the dragon and the mountain. Begin breathing again. For the first time, instead of being angry at my God (I was a reluctant and spiteful hero), I'm angry at my enemies. And I reach down for my violin...
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Jun 18, 2009 00:03
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It seems obvious that roleplaying is particularly pregnant with ritual. The procedures themselves are ritualistic, and using them to create a Shared Imagined Space is about as ritual an act as I can fathom. I say, from behind my rune-emblazoned screen, "an Orc burst through the doorway and attacks!" I toss my die, consult it, and declare, "he hits!" And here's the key part: everyone at the table totally buys that this "happens."
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Jun 28, 2009 22:36
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 ~Synnibarr~
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Aug 29, 2009 00:12
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Drox posted:Wasn't there a western-themed game that used playing cards as the base mechanic?
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Aug 29, 2009 10:34
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That Gang Rape LARP is an example of Jeepform aka weirdo Scandinavian LARP. It's more like improvisational acting than throwing beanbags and shouting 'LIGHTNING BOLT' but it tends to be just as funny as far as I'm concerned.
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Dec 19, 2009 17:02
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