RPG Player Tip: Great Stories Don’t Need Great People
Getting back on the regular track this week after Origins 2017 – con fatigue is a thing that is real, folks – there were two RPG player experiences I’ve had recently that taught me a valuable lesson. One is from the time-stamped video above that happened during Nerdarchy’s Open Legend RPG-sponsored live game Fridays at noon EST. The other is from my home group’s fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game. Both situations illustrated a poignant paradigm. As you’ve undoubtedly guessed from this article’s title, the lesson is that great stories emerge from less-than-great people.
Great examples of not so great people in RPG campaigns who drive the narrative forward and create great stories are everywhere. Critical Role’s Vox Machina will be the first to admit they’re often terrible people. Dice, Camera, Action’s Waffle Crew barely get along. Acquisitions Inc.’s The C Team aren’t exactly shining examples of heroism. And Titansgrave’s cast of adventurers were built from the beginning with inherent flaws. Yet all of them tell compelling RPG stories full of action, excitement, humor and drama driven by characters who are far from perfect. I’m sure anyone’s home game has plenty of examples, too.
Diversity in Dungeons & Dragons
Behind the scenes in the Nerdarchy writers’ chat group, there’s been some discussion about creating a repository of pre-generated character builds for our readers, new players, or maybe even for Dungeon Masters to have on hand to pass out for their games. One of the chief requirements we decided on (if we end up doing it) is to make sure that we’re “woke” about character options. While I’m not a fan of the actual term, I fully agree with the sentiment. I’m a strong proponent of diversity. People can easily turn their backs on something because they don’t feel they can identify with anything in it. Not having something they can connect to is very isolating. This is more than understandable. It’s very human for us to want to feel like what we do is reflective of who we are. As a society, I believe we don’t do as good of a job as we can to be inclusive, but I can’t control society. What we can do is to be more inclusive in our everyday lives, and including as much diversity as we can in Tabletop RPGs is one way we can do it.
Using Tabletop RPGs for Social Empathy
I’m not really going to go about proving that science fiction sometimes gets used as a tool to pursue social issues. It’s well documented, and I don’t feel like I need to prove it. Star Trek is practically built on it. Fantasy novels aren’t immune from it, either. Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series bleeds social issues, perhaps even to its own detriment.
Tabletop RPGs aren’t exclusively fantasy and science fiction, but it’s hard to avoid their significant presence in the hobby. After all, we already live in a world of Houses & Humans.
Why would we want to spend four hours a week (way more than that for GMs) steeped in daily chores and making sure you include the TPS report cover sheet? It’s far more fun to enjoy something far outside of ourselves, usually with at least some fantasy elements, be it a western, superhero, or a horror game.
There’s actually another reason for that. As children, steeping ourselves in extraordinary worlds helps us learn about the real world around us. We’re able to experiment in a safe environment. As adults, that still holds true. In fact, I would argue that it’s more important for adults.
Dealing with PTSD for RPG Characters
PTSD in gaming
Many Marines return to the states with vivid memories of their combat experiences, and the array of emotions they face internally may be hard to detect. While changes in behavior are more obvious, symptoms can also manifest in physical form. [Marines from Arlington, VA, United States/Wikimedia Commons]
Postmodernism in Dungeons & Dragons
Recently, Megan posted an article about how to reconsider evil characters the same day a video with Nate, Scott, and Kyle talking about whether the alignment system was still viable was uploaded. Along with a conversation I had with the Nerdarchy staff writers about postmodernism, I was inspired to write an article about applying postmodern principles into Dungeons & Dragons.
Gaming Within a Relationship
Well … it happened. I got to introduce someone I was in a relationship with to a table top roleplaying game I was involved in. I have actually done this several times, and have witnessed it from others. In my years I have actually learned a few things from what I have done right and what I have done wrong. Now I have no claim to be a relationship expert, or a love guru, but I do have a road map pointing out a few pot holes on this rather hazardous road. Some things here are from my experience, some are from those gathered from other gamers. Let’s delve into a few things shall we?
Five Life Lessons Learned From Gaming
A group of role playing gamers enjoying a night session. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There’s no lie that we nerds have our own little niche subculture. Get a couple of us together and we will just start geeking out and enthusing about things we love, and for those not in the know, it can sound as though we’re speaking an entirely different language. Sometimes, we have whole conversations in letters.
“Let me tell you about this amazing RPG experience I had where we almost TPK’d and I was hanging on by like 1 HP and we won anyway. The loot drop was amazing ftw.”
Are You Out There? D&D Face to Face Online
The other day I saw a post from someone in one of my online gaming groups, and he said something that really touched my heart because it was also something I have thought about many times myself.
He said, “I think it so odd that we all comment so much on posts from each other in this group of only about 400 people, yet I don’t know any of you and we have never played, I would love to actually play with you all sometime.” He went on to say he felt sad realizing we all look at each other’s comments, like similar posts, hold conversations through the feed, yet never talk or play at the end of the day.
Play Time: RPG Truths Revealed
On a serious note, were you once a child? Did you spend hours with siblings or friends passing the hours playing with toys, making up games, or obsessing over random strange objects just for the fun of it? “Make believe” was always the term I remember being used to describe these moments outside of reality. As an adult I like to call it “being in the moment” or “living in the now.” As a mother, I gain an incredible amount of inspiration and peace just by watching my two little ones create, and find joy, in the day-to-day moments.
Drawing Out The Poison: The unfortunate event of removing someone from your RPG party
This is a topic that can be quite touchy, being that everyone involved is usually quite uncomfortable or annoyed in some way. This past week I had the “super fun” job of voting out a player who was being, in the nicest way to say it, a complete fun sucker. As the silent eye rolls and constant questioning of all the DM’s decision-making slowly filled the room with an ichor of emotions and distaste, it became more and more apparent that this particular character was clearly unstable due to his lack of perception and understanding of everyone’s uncomfortable “energy/gamer vibes.” Usually the worst part of these kind of people is exactly that, that they are oblivious of others’ annoyance and blindly continue in there railroading gaming tactics.
The Gift Of Friendship with D&D
Here is our awesome group! We call ourselves the “Unicorns of love”… Inside joke, of course.
This is the the mural I painted on our living room wall. Tolkien inspired. 😉
This past week brought about some changes for our D&D group, and what almost turned into disaster or possibly the end of our gaming table ended up turning into the best possible thing that could have happened for our game! Our normal meeting place was denied to us by the runner of the local comic shop because of “liability issues,” the real reason being a couple of old, washed-up co-owners who glared at us across the room and obviously had a hard time with how much fun we were all having in our “satan worship” … lol!
Conscious RPG campaigning: Tyrant or Savior?
What do you fight for in your campaign? What cause is it that you strive for? Is it the meager treasures of the land or the pillaging and plundering of a city in order to fulfill selfish desires? Do you fight for a cause that is greater than your own? Do you fight to protect an entire race of people by destroying an evil tyrant who seeks to destroy an entire race of people all for his own selfish gains and ambitions? Or do you join forces to aid his fear mongering whims only to leave nothing for the creatures that follow in your footsteps? As we delve into these worlds and places in our campaigns, what is it that we are truly seeking to achieve? Why do we adventure? Why do we desire more than what we are, what we have or what we see? The act of a hero is that of selflessness and bravery in order to achieve the good of all. The acts of a tyrant are always the opposite. Do we seek to build or do we seek to destroy?
Why We Game: D&D, online gaming and real life
It’s crazy how many people I know who would be so freaking fun and amazing at playing D&D and they don’t even know it. There is always the usual self-doubt about not knowing or fully understanding a game, and there is the matter of time and space away from everything, ie. phones, family, work, chores, etc. Most of the people I know who would be great at it and don’t even know are usually self-doubters much like I was before I started playing. The idea of starting a new game can be quite an uncomfortable situation and one that often leads many to fleeing the hobby altogether.
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When first being introduced to DnD you will find a variety of classes that are presented before you and at first what draws attention to you might be something that suits your sexual orientation, masculine or feminine if you will. Most women might be more drawn...
Relationships and Dungeons & Dragons using your Imagination
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