ON ROLE PLAYING

Explore the evolution of role-playing from a shared campfire tradition into an immersive, living art form , a philosophy that directly drives the story-first mechanics of the LowLife RPG.

Pieces on “what is role playing?” are ubiquitous in role playing games. Some argue that people already know what role playing games are & don’t need another explanation. Sure.

However, this medium is still young enough & changing all the time, so this kind of assessment is necessary. This self awareness is probably needed no matter how old you are. As long as the self-consciousness doesn’t turn into paralysis.

The point is to define who we are, what we’re doing & where we came from. This is something that must be repeated because if it is not repeated, it will be forgotten.

In working on LowLife, I’ve been thinking a lot about what the point of role playing is, what makes it fun, how it relates to all the advances in video games & what that means for the genre.

I wasn’t a rules person but, through a lot of talk therapy & playing Magic, the Gathering with my family, I’ve broken through barriers that developed when I was a teenager & have accepted that I can both learn & create rules.

If we dig into the past, Role Playing Games grew out of Wargaming & as the medium has gotten older, the wargame elements have seemed/become way less important & the actual role play elements have increased in significance. From there I think about why role playing is so important in some people’s lives.

I came to understand role playing as a shared imaginative story with rules to give it some structure, so that the shared experience makes sense for everybody. The point of this is to bring people together, share stories & have fun. Role playing is a game form of improvisational theatre, imagination with rules.

Instead of acting in the physical space, the action takes place in your mind, in books & on scraps of paper with dice used to randomize results. You can use maps & miniatures as aids in visualizing what’s going on, but we never did.

The miniatures were separate, totemic objects to have around your room & remind you of the rich world of imagination that contrasted with dull reality. These weren’t game pieces, they were magic items.

As a kid I was attracted to D&D specifically, because I love swords, sorcery & monsters. I was beyond intrigued by the idea of a game that you play in your mind, using books, dice & paper. It seemed like something magical, the unreal becoming real.

At this point role playing games are old hat (50+ years, the same age as Punk. Two major forces in my life). Role Playing is an oral tradition & a present-day incarnation of something people did around the campfire thousands of years ago.

Computer RPGs, card games & board games have all absorbed & evolved so many of the early mechanics of RPGS. All of this development has made clear the central reasons to roleplay; to explore in a low-stakes environment & have social, dramatic & storytelling potential.

The strength of your imagination is central. We aid in this by presenting as strong of a theme as possible & mechanics that are fun, engaging & don’t feel like button-mashing or homework.

It is because of these factors that LowLife emphasizes the story & theme, while all mechanical aspects are to be fun, in the background & not distract from the yarn being spun.

For me, the central motivation is in sharing this world. Being immersed is of primary importance. Everything else is secondary to being dunked in the rich world of DUNGEON DEGENERATES.

When I was living in Eugene, Oregon I realized that each piece of art I produced was a magic spell. These pieces were a concentration of my will, projected out into the world. I started to see my art becoming real. This changed my long game.

My art has always been about augmenting reality. Since expanding my output into gaming, anyone can play, roll around & be part of it.

I can’t thank John Blanche & Games Workshop enough for making it clear that these game worlds can be art. Like Soviet Constructivism emphasizes, it is art into life. Games Workshop was the best at it in the late 80s.

I like the “art into life” approach because it gives art a purpose beyond just existing. Being useful is very important. Art, while being very important for people, is something that’s constantly in the background. It being focussed on is a recent development.

As a hobby, this emphasis on art & the inclusion of the idea of role playing being a form of gamed improvisational theatre brings these things into people’s lives & increases their importance. It’s with that, that I am going into this project.

X SEAN

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