roleplaying » Free Spacer

Escapism & Suspension of Disbelief

Mar 162010

Ever since film school I have disliked the terms: Escapism and Suspension of Disbelief. I believe that they are used to dismiss philosophic and speculative pursuits. These ideas have a direct connection to rigorous thought on Roleplaying Games.

Escapism is defined as using a mental diversion, as an “escape” from the banal aspects of daily life. Who has not heard RPGs, Sci-fi, or Fantasy referred to as Escapist? My retort is that no hobby, pastime, or other work can be essentially escapist. Any activity, no matter its perceived essential nature, can be used by an individual as an escape and therefore any activity, no matter its perceived banality, can be used for non-escapist reasons.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the phrase “willing suspension of disbelief” to explain how the viewer can enjoy, identify, and believe fantastic plays, films, novels, or games. His idea is that the viewer must mentally convince themselves to believe the fantastic before them that they would otherwise disbelieve. I think this is exactly the opposite of the truth. In reality, viewers automatically believe whatever is before them.

In his work The Allegory of the Cave, Plato postulated his theory that education and wisdom would allow the viewer of the world to disbelieve that which was presented to them and see the world for what it was. Although Plato is talking about the eternal forms, rather than the separation between fantasy and realism, the point is there. It is education that brings disbelief, rather than the ability to believe. Ask any older brother, little kids believe anything you tell them until they learn better.

A great example is Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, when this film was first shown to a live audience the popular legend is that some in the audience ran away so not to be hit by the train. So even if we just suggest that the audience was shocked, it seems that a viewer/listener automatically believe what is put in front of them and it is their own active disbelief that tells them otherwise.

JRR Tolkien also disagreed with Coleridge; Tolkien wrote his essay On Fairy-Stories suggesting that the author must develop an internal consistency to avoid jarring the viewer/reader from their fantastic world. This seem like the proper approach, besides who am I to disagree with Grandfather Tolkien.

So fight back and save your hobbies, never call them escapist and don’t use the term suspension of disbelief. If you must, you can counter with the term “suspension of belief.” When it come to roleplaying never be a sceptic.

Why I am making an RPG?

Community, Game Design No Responses »

Feb 162010

My journey to the world of Game Design has been a long and windy one. I started playing Roleplaying Games in junior high with 1983’s red boxed Basic Set of Dungeons & Dragons. It was great, I played with my best friend Shawn. We would play all the time, even without dice or rules while doing his newspaper route. I still can’t believe he never gave me a cut of his paper money. After I moved I continued to play when I could.

After years in the Royal Canadian Air Cadets chasing my dream of being an test pilot and astronaut, I found out that not only did test pilots not become astronauts without being engineers, but that my eyes weren’t 20/20 and I was therefore unqualified. So I worked and traveled and came home with a new plan, Film.

In 2002, I graduated from SFU with a degree in Film production and job at Electronic Arts as Video Game QA. So now I bounce around the Vancouver video game industry as a game designer and love designing games. So the question becomes, why am I creating a traditional pen and paper RPG as my first major solo work? Especially in what many people consider a dying industry.

My short answer is usually in the vain of, “RPGs are my first love” or “It is a great circle, I have finally returned to my routes”, but these are not complete answers.

Why not video games?

I still love video games. My Xbox 360 get a quite the workout, but develop video games is not easy. Programmers or at least scripters are a necessary part of development. Although I am a decent scripter, I cannot simply sit down and build a game, no problems. Even with 3^rd party solutions, like Unity or Flash, creating a video game becomes more about technical development and less about design.

Why Traditional Roleplaying games?

Traditional Pen & Paper RPGs combine two of my favourite things, game design and story. Since before I played my first game of D&D, I loved to tell stories. I learned Game design from mentors like Tyler Sigman while working on more than five video games titles. I believe that there is still a real Market for RPGs and that many in the community are looking for a Space Science Fiction RPG like Free Spacer. My hope is that many people will play Free Spacer and at the least it will be an incredible demo of my design and storytelling abilities.

Most importantly I have always loved RPGS and I don’t know why it took me so long to get here.

Just Right

Community, Game Design No Responses »

Feb 102010

Recently, a friend saw a presentation from on the founders of Pixar that talked about what made them so successful. The presentation focused on people, they posited that good ideas don’t always make good games, often they don’t make anything at all. The right people on the other hand can take a plain, mediocre idea, and through correct execution make something good.

Now, I’ve heard this argument many times, when I was at EA I heard it all the time and you can’t really disagree with it. Ideas are easy to come by. Who doesn’t come up with ideas everyday of things that could be amazing? Obviously, most of these great ideas don’t become anything. So, on a simplistic level it is the people. If all the right people are out there making good games from mediocre ideas, then why are there so many mediocre games? Are some of these people the wrong people? Or is it something else?

First, what factors make one better at creating RPGs then the next? Is it one’s number of years experience playing games or the number of different games one has played? Could it be one’s education in games, math, or specific subject matter? Is it one’s involvement in the RPG community or ability to market the project? Could it be one’s experience at big companies like White Wolf or WoTC or the amount of money spent on the project? Perhaps as the romantics believe it is the one who cares the most or works the hardest?

When put this way it seems that it has to be a little bit of each: idea, experience, education, money, community, marketing, passion and hard work. All of the above is usually the right answer, but I’d have to add timing and luck to this list.

Perhaps, it all has to be just right, but I doubt any of us can say what that looks like.

What is a Roleplaying Game?

Community No Responses »

Dec 082009

Nearly every Roleplaying Game book has a very strange section in it; called “What is a Roleplaying Game?” Like most gamers I just took this for granted, but when I started to plan Free Spacer, I started to wonder if this section was even necessary. I’ve never run across a novel with a “What is Narrative literature?” section or a Cookbook with a “What is a Recipe book?” section. Although, back in the day they had a similar chapter in Choose your own Adventure books; so does this mean that “What is…”sections are only for oddities? Are Roleplaying games so strange that every book requires a section to explain itself?

Is it evangelism? Are we trying to spread the word and bring others into the hobby? Still doesn’t make sense that RPG books have a “What is…” section. You’re already holding the book, perhaps you looked at it out of curiosity in the store, but are you going to flip to the “What are…” section?

So yes, Free Spacer won’t have a “What is a Roleplaying Game?” section. Instead it will have a treatise on Science Fiction RPGs.

Although I still don’t know why so many people want to tell you what a Roleplaying Game is when you already bought the book, I to tell you here, first the Dictionary Definition, then my definitions:

RPG or TRPG; Referring to Traditional Roleplaying games, Table-Top RPGs or Pen & Paper RPGs. A TRPG is played by a group of people each taking the role of a Player Character (PC) with one as the Game Master (GM). Each player declares their actions and dialogue as it pertains to their characters role in the world and story. The GM is responsible for describing the fictional world, people, and creatures around the PCs and the results of their actions.
Story Games; these are also sometimes called RPGs, but have a much simpler game mechanics centred on giving players more narrative control.
LARP; Live Action Role Playing refers to a RPG where players get up and act out their roles. Game Mechanics are even simpler than Story games and players often dress in costumes and use props.
Wargames; never called RPG, but important to know about. Wargames are the genesis of RPGs; Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson invented RPGs as a way to play out battles and tell stories with a single character rather than an army. Besides their historical link, some RPGs use miniatures in the same manner as Wargames do.
CRPG; Often inaccurately called RPGs, Computer Roleplaying Games require little roleplaying, but trace their mechanics back to the TRPG.
MMORPG; a Massively Multi-player Online Roleplaying Game is basically a CRPG that you play online with massive number of players. MMORPGs usually have less story, but online player interactions.

Do you want more definitions? Try John H. Kim’s excellent “What is an RPG?” website or if you like Podcasts you can try Fear the Boot’s seven part series on RPGs for “non-gamers”: Ep#1, Ep#2, Ep#3,Ep#4, Ep#5, Ep#6, and EP#7.

Dawn of a Space Roleplaying Game

Game Design No Responses »

Nov 262009

It all began Christmas 2008, I was Game Mastering and modding so much that friends we’re asking, “Why don’t you just make your own game?” I am professional game designer in Vancouver (Ex- EA: Blackbox and Backbone Vancouver) so I understand the consequences of making my own game. Knowing, somewhat, what I was getting into I decided to jump into the void and build Free Spacer.

Now, eleven month later, everything is going to plan. Honest… of course, I didn’t have a plan when I started, except the lofty goal of creating the Science Fiction Roleplaying game, I‘d always wanted. There is a lot more to designing a RPG than a lofty goal.

Currently I am on Stage 7 on my ten stages of game design:

Idea; this is the fun part. Brainstorm and come up with a list. Answer the question, “What do I want in a Game? What do I want in a RPG world?”
Validate; Eliminate the junk and find a core concept. Remember it is a game, not a story. It needs to be the cradle of great things, not the baby. If you want to have babies, Game Master, we all need more Game Masters.
Structure; Create a skeleton with your core concept as the base, design goals as the limbs, and your core mechanic as the spine.
Build; Build up from the core concept toward you design goals. You mechanics should support the needs of your game. Is your game about underwater combat? Parliamentary Scheming? Create game mechanics to do what you want characters to do in your game.
World; Develop a game world or setting that supports your desired Gameplay. Create a vast underwater battlefield for your underwater combat game or a complicated Bureaucracy of intrigue for your Parliamentary Scheming game.
Playtest; Once you believe your game works get people to start trying it.
Repeat stage 4 to 6; Expect to change things, but change them to stem from your core concept and fulfill your design goals, as long as you hold on to that skeleton the strange places solutions take your game can only make it stronger.
Write; It is fine to have a great game, but you need to make it clear, concise, and understandable. Explain it well and you’ll discover holes.
Edit; Yes, fix spelling and grammar, it is embarrassing if you don’t, but make sure everything you need is in the game and nothing that isn’t. You can always make supplements or split the books like D&D. The most important thing is a clear understandable core book.
Layout; You are going to need to layout your book for print or digital distribution. Layout will make it understandable and easy to read as a whole.

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