There are two things which prompted this post:
- This is the second time in the Comments of this post (which is about "cloning" other games and sessions) that someone mentioned being "uncreative."
- I wanted to refute the idea that it is "nostalgic" to play older RPGs. Although I think it is, kinda...
Anyway, the reason I'm doing this is because I grew-up playing music and I miss it just... just too much. The problem is that I haven't actively played in over five years and I haven't really tried to write anything in longer than that! Plus, now that I'm several hours away from Memphis, I don't know any local musicians and the ones I once knew are either too old (you know, have families, jobs, et.al. which preclude their playing) or too busy with their own projects to work with me. So, I decided to do it all on my own (not the first time I've done this, as the website attests).
I knew on the front-end that it was going to be a lot of hard work. Did I mention I don't play the guitar? Technically, I can "play" it, but it's a terrible thing to behold, and while I'm not too worried about "selling" anything, I'd rather I didn't become a complete laughingstock! (I know, too late...) Anyway, the idea is not original: I figure I can create songs through a series of samples and loops, and an over-reliance on percussion. So, I'll create some basic musicscapes of loops and rhythms, then add... just whatever - noises, screams, quips, etc. - anything which furthers or further establishes the music, then lay drum tracks behind all of this. For animators, think background to foreground - only, in reverse (the "musicscape" becomes the backing because almost everything is percussion, so the drum tracks become the "foreground," whereas, were I merely the drummer of a traditional band, the drums and bass are the background). If this sounds confusing, just think old Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Mindless Self Indulgence, Ministry, et.al. - that kind of thing. Like I said, it's not original; it's been done half to death, in fact, by many artists whose abilities simply awe me.
The problem is, I've never done anything even remotely like this! I grew-up playing in bands and that's where I shine. I'm doing the best I can here, and am enjoying it, but I have had a lot of bouts of "Maybe I'm just not creative enough to do this." Maybe I can't grasp this rather radical approach to, or form of, music; maybe I can't train myself to think this way; maybe this is all just a big mistake - a waste of my time and... just a really bad idea?
There are only two options here:
1. Stop the project
2. Shut up and get on with it.
Luckily, when it comes to RPG, #2 is always the right answer! I have a reputation to uphold when it comes to music; a lot of people expect a whole lot from me, musically, and I have a solid track record in the field. If I fuck this up, any musical "career" or goals are, at 35 years old, just over and done with; in a very real sense, this is my one shot at a "comeback" (even though I do underground music and am not famous, nor do I wish to be - just go with me here, okay?). That's just not the case in roleplaying.
A more direct analogy is the RPG stuff I publish here: no matter how good or bad it is, every time I publish something, I run the risk of making myself look like a jackass. This is true in both music (especially the music I do) and RPG because of the rabidly dedicated, as well as the just plain rabid, fanbases. But these are also very public forms and forums, and anytime you do anything in a public forum, you run the risk of embarrassing yourself. Also, we artists - writers, musicians, visual artists, whatever - sometimes become so enamored with a project or piece that we don't recognize its weaknesses, or that it is simply not... good.
In RPG, you may run a shoddy campaign or two, and you're certain to run many forgettable ones, but the handful of gems you're just as certain to have will always be the ones for which you are remembered. Because RPG is a hobby, not a performance art (I know, some players should learn that - but I digress...), and most participants enjoy gaming, plain and simple - they think of it like sex: even when it's really bad... it's pretty good.
As for nostalgia, that one's a lot shorter (thankfully): the late 1980s to early '90s were the hobby's heyday. That's as direct as can be. I believe there is a tinge of nostalgia there, but in reality, most of the best games, just plain ever, were published during that time. Since then, the industry burned itself out (by burning all of us with floods of shite product) and has gone back underground, where it began. Unfortunately, there have been no great games published since then; in general, if you want to play a great game, you're almost certain to reach for one published during this era.
I recently learned that, in D&D 4e, the players make lists of magical items and artifacts they want to get and the DM is required to "work them" into the campaign - and with a quickness! That's just downright antithetical to the form; that is - purely, plainly, and simply - the "dumbing-down" of RPG; that is an unabashed and pathetic cry for attention (read: sales) in the age of WoW.
Is it nostalgic that this makes me sad?
Probably, but the more important point is that RPG systems are no longer linearly demarcated; many "classic" games have been given remakes in recent years, and the major changes were to the system. In general, these changes were made to make the game more "accessible" to... fucking twits from the Web! Online people - chatroom "gamers" and virtual MMORPGers (or whatever the acronym is) - not actual tabletop gamers, like me. In this fashion, D&D 4e is no longer the "logical extension" of the previous versions - it's a completely different game!
Formerly, when a game got a new edition, it meant some of the system kinks had been ironed-out and new "official" rules for handling the situation(s) were available, certain areas had been expanded, and so on. Nowadays, it means the game has been "streamlined" for "faster and easier playing action" and so forth and so on, ad nauseam. What all of that really means is that the game has been cast aside and reworked into a unit ("product") meant to appeal to "The Internet Generation." And the Internet Generation is not going to play it because it's nothing more than a rip-off of the MMORPG they normally play.
I know I'm the one who called for an end to the community's secularity, and persnickety Nerdery, and so forth - but I don't mean we should just sell the fuck out! RPG is a distinct, unique, hobby - a particular form of gaming that shouldn't be abbreviated or adjuncted to any other form. And there is more than enough material out there on literally every, single aspect of RPG that can be used to inject as much "originality" into your game as your troupe can stand.
It's one thing to pick-up an old campaign, and it's certainly acceptable to "adopt" certain aspects of another game or campaign, but I advise against "cloning" or imitating anything. And I'll leave you with a very pointed, personal experience I had at a con, lo, so many years ago:
This cat was GM-ing a pick-up Shadowrun session in our room. Fellow con-goers understand: they had no place to crash, we had a room, so we wound up playing Shadowrun even though most of us didn't care for it. All told, it was actually a very fun and memorable game, but there was one, single episode which nearly ruined it all for me:
The GM blatantly ripped-off a very popular and well-established (now) sci-fi movie: he literally "cloned" an obstacle from a motion picture every gamer ever has seen at least 40 times and we were all wracking our brains, trying to figure out "the twist" he'd put on this particular concept... except there was none! The other guy in our room - one of this GM's regular players - stated that his character did exactly what the character in the movie does - and breezed through the obstacle in no time, flat. And it was cheap. And I'm not certain whether those guys had just recently seen the flick in question or it was a ploy to make us feel kinda stupid, but either way, it sucked.
Nothing "cloned" is worth a shit - q.v., Star Wars.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
2 comments:
Fascinating post! I agree it's much more than a comment. ;-)
I see where you're coming from, too. Con games and cloning Star Wars put a spin on the whole concept of cloning a past campaign. I think that GM could have handled his cloning better and made it work, but it's not really the same thing as what I had in mind with the concept.
Thanks for an interesting read. :-)
Hey, Martin - thank you for commenting! I meant to link to this in the comments section and I forgot. I'll get over there and do it sometime soon.
Thanks so much for all of your great articles, BTW - and that goes out to all the Gnomes. As I said, a lot of what I read there inspires me, or at least makes me stop and think. That's more than I can say for most sites!
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