"One rule you must follow is to purge yourself from any fictional source material. Stay away from movies, novels, and comic books. Why? Those sources are other people’s ideas of potential Game Worlds, Factions, special powers, and settings. These “franchises” are so culturally powerful they will subconsciously take over your game by their mere presence. The goal of SBRPG is to create something new.
It is probably fun to play “your version” of another author’s idea, and playing “what if” with the idea is entertaining. You could do many things, like changing the Setting, “It’s like the OK Corral - In Space!”; Theme, “It’s Alice in Wonderland - But with Soldiers!”; or Mood, “It’s a Comedic Version of Hamlet!”
Yes, all these ideas are imaginative; but you’re skipping a lot of the basic creation of a Game World that’s fun to do, and ultimately more rewarding. These authors created their own “Game Worlds,” and then set about telling their own story in them - just like you will.
Make sure your idea is not a copy of them either, and give yourself some “breathing room” between creating your world, and looking at something that inspires you. The worst way to make an original Game World is to start by watching a movie, or reading a book. Develop your idea in your mind, twist it around a bit, and present it to other players in the group. Try to surprise them with how original your idea is, and then work together trying to combine your inspiration with theirs."
I took this section from chapter 3, Playing the Game. It's pretty bold, but in essence, it defines what we tried to do. Popular culture is so powerful, the stock monsters and spells of other RPGs are so prevalent, the movie of the moment is so in everyone's heads; it takes a conscious effort to divorce yourself from those influences, and do something new.
It's not bad to play in someone else's copyrighted property, and we didn't want to leave that impression. If you are happy playing D&D, a game based on Tomb Raider, Star Wars, or any other property - more power to you! You are role-playing, and that's a good thing. But those worlds and idea have games written for them, or other games easily adaptable to them. We chose to purposefully NOT support that, and forced players to be creative. The rule was - you must create something original.
Reports from the field were cool, and it was always a blast to hear of people's wild creations. People made werewolf-hunting games mixing magic, swords and bullets; near-future spy thriller worlds; fantasy worlds with only two races at war; street racing games; original sci-fi worlds with exploration and conquest; and much more. It was a fun and creative time, and some of our players were inspired to write fiction about their creations. I hope their books worked out, and they were able to publish and share with others the things they made.
We had a quote later in the book about "SBRPG to roleplaying is like drawing in the negative space." Forcing people to get out of their element, away from pop culture, and to be creative and original was a fun design decision on our part, and it made many people happy. What would you create if someone told you, be totally original? People let go, it was crazy and creative, and everyone had a blast. Getting people to open up and share is one part of SBRPG that will always stay with me.
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