5 posts tagged “gaming”

It's winter and gaming is on my mind so I'm going to be starting some running commentary about games for your reading pleasure.  This is the first of my running rant about Dungeons and Dragons, note that even though I personally can't stand this game, I have nothing against it's players or their opinions and will be happy to hear contrary opinions on the matter, though I can pretty much guarantee you won't be changing my mind.

My gaming is the outlet I use for telling stories.

I am a gamer.  It's my identity, and these are the gaming books that I take out to work with me.  This by no-means is my entire collection, but these are the ones that I like to have close.  The sad thing is each one of these books I have on PDF as well, but I like being able to reference to them fast.   Some of them are worn and slowly in-need of replacing, and some have barely had their spine's cracked and count among my regrets that I haven't got to read them fully yet.  Each one of them I value most highly, they are some of my most highly prized possessions.

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I have a project that started this week.  A friend of mine wrote a Role-Playing Game system several years ago, he's a genius and his system is the best I've ever come across.  I don't say this lightly because I'm a huge critic when it comes to RPG's.  Despite my love for them I'm very particular about the one's I bother with. 

A role-playing game (RPG) is an interactive story where the players take on the 'role' of individuals within that story, interacting with it as the plot progresses.  The individuals that the players take the roles of are called Player Characters (PC's).  Players act out their PC's actions, and dialog much like an actor would in a play or movie. 

This is the most simple definition of a Role Playing Game, there are many variables.  Some are pre-scripted as a computer program and characters are animated to be played on a computer game or console.  But others, the original Role Playing Games, are played out with a person running the game called a Game Master (GM) who tells the story while the PC's interact within that story in person and face-to face.  The difference between these two iterations could be likened to playing a game of online poker, and playing cards around a table with friends.  

Like a card game, a role-playing game has rules and items integrated into it's gameplay.  These rules are designed to act as a framework to determine whether or not a given action in the game is successful or not.  Usually dice are used to randomize the results of these actions, adding uncertainty to the outcomes and making things exciting.  Through the rules of the game the Players and Game Master can interpret the results of the actions within the game and the game master then rationalizes how these results effect the PC's while the PC's react to these effects.

And now... I give you a bit of music that's keeping me going right now.

Against Me - Thrash Unreal

Lately I've not been studying the world around me nearly so much, and have been pursuing lighter venues.  I'm back into the role-playing with a vengeance but there's a difference this time, for the first time in 3 years I'm finding I'm caught up in a story that's not my own, which is refreshing, challenging and to be honest a little intimidating.