Sean Äaberg
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THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER - 128 - LOW DRAMA
🕑 Added 2024-12-20 18:24:45 +0000 UTCI’m going to launch the Dungeon Degenerates Role Playing Game this year - tentatively called Low Drama. I’ve been thinking a lot about what the point of role playing is, what makes it fun, how it relates to all the advances in video games & what that means for the genre. I’m specifically not a rules person, but I’m used to making my own rules. I know that for others, they need a clear communication of the rules & the rules need to be in service of the players & the intended experience. So, as we know Role Playing Games grew out of Wargaming & as the medium has gotten older, the wargame elements have seemed way less important & the actual role play elements have increased in significance. From there I think about why role playing is significant in people’s lives. I eventually looked on role playing as a shared imaginative story with rules to give it some structure, so the shared experience makes sense for everybody. The point of this is to bring people together, share stories & have fun. I see role playing as a game form of improvisational theatre, but instead of acting in the physical space, the action takes place in your mind & on scraps of paper with dice used to randomize results. As a kid I was attracted to D&D specifically, because I love sword, sorcery & monsters & was intrigued by the idea of a game that you play in your mind, using books, dice & paper. It seemed like something magical, unreal. I’m at this point in life where I don’t play games anymore, I haven’t for a long time - but my art has turned into this world where you can go into it, roll around & be part of it. I can’t thank John Blanche & Games Workshop enough for making it clear that these game worlds can be art. Like Constructivism emphasizes, it is art into life. I like this because it gives art a purpose beyond just existing, I like that, being useful is important. As a hobby, this emphasis on art & the inclusion of the idea of role playing being a form of improvisational theatre brings these things into people’s lives & increases their importance. It’s with that, that I am going into this project.
x SEAN
