Friday, July 23, 2004
Make my fantasy interactive
Odd as it is, I've always been attracted to fantasy roleplaying games. That is, roleplaying games set in a fantasy world. Dungeons & Dragons, Palladium Fantasy and others stock my shelves, and although they are far outnumbered by the varied science-fiction games I own, it's the medieval-style fantasy games that I play the most.
Why is this odd? I mean, most roleplaying gamers are into medieval fantasy games. I guess the biggest difference is that most of those gamers also indulge in fantasy novels by the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, R.A. Salvatore and the slew of others that exist out there. I've never really been into fantasy novels (as is probably obvious from my pathetic attempt at generating examples of genre authors off the top of my head). I have a few on my shelf, and I've read a fair number, but I just don't really like them that much. For the most part, they end up being almost as formulaic as Harlequin romance novels, and you can usually guess the ending before you even sink your teeth into the meat of the story. Worse, most of them tend to be rip-offs of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. While ripping off literary works is fine for a roleplaying game, as it's done all the time to give people ideas for running their own adventures and creating their own settings, retelling the same story again and again for fifty years (and counting) in novel form gets a tad dull. And I never liked LOTR in the first place, so I sure as hell don't want to read a veritable shitload of rip-off books.
Somehow, though, I end up being attracted to interactive fantasy settings by way of roleplaying games. I've conducted and participated in more D&D sessions than I could count. Compare that to any of the various sci-fi games on my shelf (Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020 -- heck, even Star Wars), and many of those games have barely been touched. Some have never been run. However, I'll admit that I enjoy reading sci-fi novels and can pick out favourites if asked (William Gibson's Neuromancer springs immediately to mind, as does Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep).
I don't think there's much of a point to this post. Just rambling while waiting for one last interview to come in on my last day of work before vacation.
Why is this odd? I mean, most roleplaying gamers are into medieval fantasy games. I guess the biggest difference is that most of those gamers also indulge in fantasy novels by the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, R.A. Salvatore and the slew of others that exist out there. I've never really been into fantasy novels (as is probably obvious from my pathetic attempt at generating examples of genre authors off the top of my head). I have a few on my shelf, and I've read a fair number, but I just don't really like them that much. For the most part, they end up being almost as formulaic as Harlequin romance novels, and you can usually guess the ending before you even sink your teeth into the meat of the story. Worse, most of them tend to be rip-offs of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. While ripping off literary works is fine for a roleplaying game, as it's done all the time to give people ideas for running their own adventures and creating their own settings, retelling the same story again and again for fifty years (and counting) in novel form gets a tad dull. And I never liked LOTR in the first place, so I sure as hell don't want to read a veritable shitload of rip-off books.
Somehow, though, I end up being attracted to interactive fantasy settings by way of roleplaying games. I've conducted and participated in more D&D sessions than I could count. Compare that to any of the various sci-fi games on my shelf (Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020 -- heck, even Star Wars), and many of those games have barely been touched. Some have never been run. However, I'll admit that I enjoy reading sci-fi novels and can pick out favourites if asked (William Gibson's Neuromancer springs immediately to mind, as does Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep).
I don't think there's much of a point to this post. Just rambling while waiting for one last interview to come in on my last day of work before vacation.
// posted by Chris @ 3:09 PM 
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