My Robe and Wizard Hat

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This has been stuck in my head for the past few days.

By Connor Anderson

I actually haven’t been playing very much in the way of video games for the past couple of weeks, other than the occasional Mortal Kombat match and a couple of iPhone/iPad games. Normally I’d get really introspective about this, but honestly the main reason is because the weather’s been nice the last few weeks and I’m enjoying it.

That being said, one thing I HAVE been doing a lot more lately is tabletop gaming of various kinds (RPGs, wargames, etc). I’m involved in… four different tabletop games currently, play another sporadically, and am thinking of running my own. It’s interesting, because the experiences are completely unlike what I can get in video games.

Storytelling and Theatre

It really amazes me that, for all of the advances we’ve made as a culture, and all of the amazing forms of entertainment we’ve been able to come up with, it’s still very, very hard to beat someone simply telling a story aloud. It’s a form of theatre, but the most intimate kind there is, where the storyteller and the audience are working together. The storyteller sets the stage, and the audience steers the story through what they want to hear about.

It makes me think of a parent or grandparent telling a story, while the excitable kids interrupt with questions and comments. There’s the fun of interacting with the story for all the players, and something eminently satisfying about making all the players happy as the GM.

Short post this time, just commenting on what I’ve been thinking about lately.

1 thought on “My Robe and Wizard Hat”

  1. The biggest struggle with Tabletop Roleplaying is getting everyone on the same page. Most of the games I’ve been in have failed because everyone wanted something different from the game. Some of the members wanted to explore the GMs interesting game world, some wanted to cultivate their own character’s story and forge personal relationships with other in game entities, some wanted to engage in a challenging tactical contest, and others just wanted to roll dice and crush face.

    Setting player expectations prior to the game starting is important to roleplaying games.

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