On Games As Cultural Activity
Preface: I've got some fantastic gamers. Like, if they filled a table at dreamation it'd be a pretty dang good table fantastic gamers. So, take what I'm about to say knowing that.
Often, when I've picked up a new game and tried to run it -- even after reading it! -- there's something missing. Something crucial that the design knows to bring to the table, but that isn't translated in the text. This has happened with games from big awesome designers, and isn't meant to say their games are bad. Quite the opposite. I'm going to call out a couple, both by people who can take it.
Instead, the knowledge of how to play a game -- especially an RPG -- is transferred culturally by play.
I've heard of people who play Fiasco as a by the numbers enterprise in about 20 minutes, and are totally bored and don't get the point. The first time I played Ghost Court, it was meh. I did an entire run of Apocalypse World still thinking of it as mostly trad, and it was kinda lame. There was even a quest giver, though I kept hoping they'd shoot him.
This relates to kickstarter, of course. I don't need an autographed leather bound copy of a book. I need a paperback I can use and destroy, some pdfs, and a con slot. The games I know best I played at cons, or at least hung with the designer and talked about the game. Those are the ones I feel comfortable running, and where I am pretty sure I'm getting the most out of the design that I can.
Am I the only one?
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This is why I'm so suffocatingly exactingly clear (or strive to be) in my writing. I want to remove every assumption and give someone the text they need to play the game without being in on a culture.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the best way I learn games is by playing them. I tend to hate reading rulebooks to do so.
No. Many (most?) great games do not provide the context to run them correctly. Vincent Baker has done the best work on this front, though even he has written some very confusing things.
ReplyDeleteUntil very recently, the ability to chat with a designer directly would have been... something I’d never assume I could do. So prefacing my fun on that still seems a bit odd, for most folks.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I agree that in games that are very different from other things I’ve played/run, there’s details and intention that come across better when I’m seeing it/having it explained, than when I am reading a book. OtE 25 springs immediately to mind.
I will always remember trying to run pta on my own, then going to play it at my first dreamation. Like night and day.
ReplyDeleteOh, Rabbit Stoddard brings up a great point: it also works if someone from my crew goes to the con. That is, I can learn to play games by then bringing back the example.
ReplyDeleteIt's harder, but can happen.
Cultural transmission of how to play certainly has been a part of RPGs. However, just because something has been done some way doesn't necessarily mean in must be done that way. It's not at all obvious to me that text can't successfully convey how to play a particular game.
ReplyDeleteA challenge that I recognize (but have not managed to rise to) is this: Create a game text that lets people create a culture of play that, while almost certainly not the same as yours, is reasonably guaranteed to provide certain kinds of fun and experience.
ReplyDeleteThey might not like that fun, and that experience, but it's cool to see game texts where elements fit together in the bootstrapping of a new culture.
That said, I would pay good money to play Chuubo's with somebody who has played with a culture derived from the designer.
Robert Bohl I love paraphrase: I try to be clear in my game texts. Also, I hate reading game texts.
ReplyDeleteSam Zeitlin VB and MB have for sure done good work on this. For my money, Avery's work (MH, DA, Quiet Year) is easier to pickup and play well.
ReplyDeleteSam Zeitlin Gods. I need to play actual AW at Dreamation some year.
ReplyDeleteDan Maruschak Oh, sure. There's no proving a negative. And, as Tony says, it becomes a challenge. Is it one you want to rise to?
ReplyDeleteTony Lower-Basch Creating culture through text sounds real hard. There's a reason Mormon's go door to door, instead of just leaving the Book of Mormon on every door.
ReplyDelete"it becomes a challenge. Is it one you want to rise to?"
ReplyDeleteYes. Go playtest one of my games and send me a recording.
Dan, that's not you rising to the challenge. That's you claiming you've already met it.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols No, it's me claiming that an iterative development process is a reasonable strategy for attempting to achieve it.
ReplyDeleteIn that case, send me one and I'll bring it to my next open game night.
ReplyDeleteHere's one for 3 players: danmaruschak.com - www.danmaruschak.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/RustyFromDisuse0100.pdf
ReplyDeleteMy game Final Hour of a Storied Age probably has a more robust text but it's more of a commitment as it doesn't fit well into a one-shot.
http://www.danmaruschak.com/blog/final-hour-of-a-storied-age/
Need a one-shot. 3 players is workable. Next time I'm at the open thing, I'll pitch it.
ReplyDeleteMy gut is that RPG rules are like flavor crystals being rehydrated - but at each table with a different liquid. The goal of a consistent experience from group to group runs smack into the tradeoff between rules detailed enough to specify the intended experience on the one hand, and rules short enough that players engage with the whole set and don't leave whole sections ignored. (I see this happening also in psychodrama therapy, which as a body- and experiential technique is so much harder to transmit than more cognitively focused techniques.)
ReplyDeleteMichael Prescott I think that is exactly right.
ReplyDelete