An Experience of Expression

Roleplay as Experience

The roleplay hobby, while still a young medium of about fifty years has plenty of room to grow and blossom. My intention is to push such growth, by breaking out of the confines from being a mere game, to explore the human condition within the possibilities of expression that can be found in all forms of art.

Of course the traditional games of the hobby will remain an option. Thus if this does not spark any interest, the blue pill to enjoy the hobby in the current form can be selected. Nobody is faulting anyone for that choice. But should a different culture of play sound like something to try out, then join me on this journey!

This brings us to what this blog / newsletter tries to accomplish and why it got named the The Roleplay Experience. Usually people refer to the hobby as role-playing games, even the ones that are primarily focused on narrative, even though they might be called storygames. This never sat right with me, especially since the characters and the fiction that emerges in play get usually valued higher than the rules.

The problem resides in the paradigm that most systems operate in, a legacy from the early days. With the first role-playing games an outgrowth of the wargaming space, competency was more important than identity, thus characterisation reduced to abilities. And while the culture of play rarely limited to the character sheet, the player skill remained a central competency as well.

But in other media of fiction the characters are usually more defined by who they are than what they can do. And there have been attempts made, like having backstories, which occasionally clashed with game mechanisms, which lead some systems trying to put these backgrounds into rules. Yet they remained barely relevant and thus often droppe out of play quite quickly. Worse, they never lead to any meaningful character arcs.

Thus the dominant culture of play carries an aura of ableism around, focusing only on the competences of players and/or characters. Leading to emergent narratives of conquest and getting rich. Which might the the dream in a capitalistic world, but the human spirit goes hungry.

Project Heartbleed

The system in development to create such an experience of expression holds currently the working title of Heartbleed. Which might be a horror if later actually used because of the SEO nightmare it clearly will cause, but that worry belongs in the future.

In Heartbleed many best practises from other media get investigated an revaluated on how they can applied to a more meaningful experience within the roleplay hobby. As such it can be taken apart or added like a saddle onto existing systems.

Living Story

Just like with normal / traditional play in the hobby, the narrative remains an emergent property. But it is less depended on the player making good decisions or having successful dice rolls. Instead the fun and drama is often based on the complete opposite. The players letting their characters deliberately suffer and exploring the characters when they are down on their luck.

While the theatre kids, like me, or fan fiction writers might rejoice, people with less inclination towards drama-first or intense emotional play probably will stick to their systems of choice. Since this requires imaginative engagement and does not allow for mere entertainment — creation, not consumption!

Hopefully this will do as an introduction. More elaborations on all of that ca be expected in future posts. So, feel free to subscribe here, no need to pick a monetised option yet. I am just glad to share thoughts and have conversations about the hobby. I understand that this might interest only a small minority and thus have only a niche audience. But maybe this little prick of dissatisfaction dwells within already? In such a case maybe more to come will help to make play more memorable and meaningful. Stay tuned!