Toys please

RPG texts are like toys.

Toys are invitations to imagine. Building blocks, useful but not necessary.

When we play, some toys are the centre of attention; big, bright, and colourful. Others rest contentedly in the background, a piece of something larger. Toys are what they are, and our play is what we want it to be.

Toy making can be professional, but even the most rigorous toy maker knows they make toys, not play. Play is what happens to toys, around or with them, maybe in spite of them.

I don’t think RPG texts are toys. I think they’re texts. But if we’re using similes, toys is the one I’d choose. Not elegant, experience-manifesting systems, not refined, problem-solving tools. Toys please.

Date

November 19, 2021

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By design Say I am a game designer, and I have designed a game. And that game for now exists as a memory or a possibility, something I experienced, or hope