Zak S. wrote an excellent post on his blog regarding the role of violence in role-playing games. Violence in games is important because violence is important outside of games. It’s all around us. There’s systemic violence, there’s physical violence, there’s psychological violence, there’s fear of violence. Role-playing games give us agency in the face of violence, and that’s important.
=> violence
Natalie also wrote an excellent post about death. Not many things have value if you die, even if some people would like to tell you that there are in fact values worth laying down your life for. I’m not so sure and I sure as hell am happy that I’ve never been asked to do it.
=> death
Anyway, Zak Smith. Violence. Natalie. Death. Important things.
At the same time, the Burning Wheel family of games or the Apocalypse World family of games have us roll dice for things other than combat. A duel of wits, a play book with other moves, all of these things make me wonder whether we can make non-violent things interesting and tense moments at the table. So, Ryuutama: can travel and exploration be tense and interesting without dungeons and dragons?
Further reading:
=> Why D&D Has Lots of Rules for Combat: A General Theory Encompassing All Editions | How To Keep Keep Simple Combat Interesting | Death Is A Plot Hook | Kinds of Fights | Combat as Sport vs. Combat as War: a Key Difference in D&D Play Styles...
And what prompted all of this:
#RPG #Indie
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