Thanksgiving Advent, Day Four: Role-playing Games

[swan_tower]

Almost forgot today's post! Well, I'll take my inspiration from the thing I'm about to run off and do, and say I'm thankful for role-playing games.

Yeah, you heard me; I'm about to go spend my Friday night being a gamer. (This is not at all a surprise to some of you.) RPGs are awesome, man! The way I approach them, they're collaborative storytelling, and let me tell you -- it is freaking amazing when stuff comes together, totally unplanned, into the perfect bit of story. Emergent narrative, to don my academic hat againt for a moment. I loves me a well-written novel, too, but when that stuff happens half by accident, it's extra cool.

And playing gives me a chance to explore different kinds of characters, in ways I can then bring back to my writing. So aside from the benefit to me, there's a benefit to you.

Now if you'll pardon me, I have go to pretend to be someone else. :-)

Comments

[chrisondra.livejournal.com]

Those are all the reasons I love roleplaying! Especially the collaborative kind. And when things fall together, it's amazing.

I agree. RPGs are something for which to be very very thankful.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

It's actually not my entire list of reasons, but I was in a rush to get to game. :-)

[aishabintjamil.livejournal.com]

This is so very, very true. Gamers can also be a great place to test your world building. If you've got a logical flaw and given them a loophole they'll find it and demonstrate it by taking shameless advantage of it.

But more than that, I find that creative interplay between a good GM and a group of good roleplayers really stimulates my creativity when I go back to writing, even though what I'm writing may have nothing at all to do with the game.

Sadly I really need to find a new game. My current groups just don't really see the game as a priority. I think we spent half of last night's session on stupid digressions about movies and TV and politics.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Gah, I hate that. I played in one game that tended to waste a lot of time beforehand -- but we played on Sunday afternoons, running as late as we needed to, so at least we still had time for actual play.

[dawn-metcalf.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! I love gaming, too & you nailed it: co-created stories are incredible chances to expand! When someone comes up with an idea or solution I would have never come up with in a million years, that's the kind of magic I thrive on as a writer.

Have fun!!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Oh, it definitely stretches my mental boundaries. Otherwise I tend to fall into the same patterns over and over again.