Posts Tagged ‘story games’

The Secret Lair Episode 29: Storygaming

I’m proud to share this link because, well … I’m going to urge you to follow the link and read what Kris Johnson writes because he explains it in that distinctive K.J. way that I dearly miss.

For my part, suffice to say I went to Cleveland, got kidnapped by the Overlords of the Secret Lair, and this link will take you to the recording of their interrogation of me, wherin I go way past name/rank/serial number and spill all sorts of  passionate thoughts on my experiences in the tabletop roleplaying hobby over the past couple of years, drop all sorts of names, push all kinds of buttons, and throw down some “this is how I see it, your mileage may vary”  proclamations about why I love to play dirty hippie story games.

And the other thing about this historic event is that after recording over 40 episodes of a podcast together, this is the FIRST time that Chris Miller, Kris Johnson, and I have ever recorded a show while actually sitting around a real table, face-to-face.

BOO-YAH!

Every once in awhile, someone shares something that makes me go “Wow, I feel almost exactly the same way as this person”, and it makes me feel connected in a rather satisfying way. Several times over the past year or so, ‘this person’ has been Rob Bohl. Here, on Story Games, Rob writes an OP that has me feeling quite connected in a satisfying way:

Story Games – Why I Don’t Like Board Games from Rob Bohl.

Joe McDonald has some very interesting things to say. His blog Buried Without Ceremony has quickly risen to the top of my must-read list. In this entry, he not only somehow captures much of the ennui I felt this year at GenCon, but also tosses in some compelling ideas about identity politics and inclusion/exclusion that really made me think, while at the same time driving home just why the annual congregation in Indy is such an upper – or downer – for me, depending on who’s there to hang out with.

I am play games. [SWTO] – from Buried Without Ceremony.*

*Note: [SWTO] is Joe’s tag for “Stories We Tell Ourselves”, his series of posts that explore aspects of our shared narrative/shared interpretation of the everyday world.

A few days ago, I caught a post from John (jenskot) on Story Games that I found cute and clever.

Story Games – Sometimes RPGs are like food.

Cute and clever, yes, but I would never have thought to make something out of it. Earlier today, though, I was editing and fleshing out some of the posts I hope to publish on the Monkey this week, and it struck me as interesting that taken at face value, many of the things I post seem to be all over the map. Sometimes I imagine it seems like I’m even contradicting myself. And when I explore ideas from other folks I enjoy following, you’re sure to catch me saying that I agree with two or more opinions that seem incompatible. When it comes to espousing a particular ideology, you could easily accuse me of coming off like a waffler.

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Check this out! Mike makes many great points, and presents them with clarity. I especially liked his rationale for why it is worthwhile for us to make our own stories rather than just consume (and imitate) the stuff handed to us by the corporate “professionals”:

Recently, I’ve had several discussions with fellow gamers around the topic of play-styles and the kinds of things that I find fun – or not so fun – at the table.  I’ve also written about and talked about that same topic fairly often via the digital aether.   And I’m willing to bet that if asked, most people who are aware of my roleplaying musings and habits would identify me as a guy who puts “story” above pretty much everything else. I’m always harping about players having “narrative authority” and how much I get a charge out of “collaborative storybuilding”.

But after reading something recently from John Harper’s blog The Mighty Atom, I feel like it might be important to clarify what I think I mean when I talk about this “story” stuff. Here’s the gist of John’s post:

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Story Games  – You are your favorite game’s only promotional avenue.

Joshua AC Newman reminds us of something that you’d think would be obvious, but obviously isn’t.