Episode 149: TRPG Survey Results Part 1
May 3, 2014 4:47:42 GMT -8
Post by guitarspider on May 3, 2014 4:47:42 GMT -8
Some thoughts on Lord of the Rings/Fantasy vs Science Fiction/Star Wars:
If you focus on just the first Star Wars movie, there's not a lot of "lore" there. Compare today, where we have hundreds of extended universe books alone, nevermind movies and games of all kind. The world is very straight-forward in A New Hope. Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, is full of allusions to stories that were only published after Tolkien died or were never explained at all. Imagination is THE thing about roleplaying, and Lord of the Rings is absolutely great when it comes to making your mind ask questions and fill in the gaps.
Same goes for the characters. By now Darth Vader has taken on mythic proportions, so it's easy to forget that he was a fairly simple villain in the original movie. There is no great depth to any of the characters, the movie has fairy-tale character, where that isn't required. Lord of the Rings is aiming for the older tradition of epic poetry (Beowulf for instance), where characters are more complicated, even if they are not exactly life-like (in that they don't have problems normal people have).
Star Wars was very good at offering simple characters in a simple world, but if you're going to sit down and play in a world that is not your own, most people will probably have wanted something that felt a little more open, with more bits and pieces to hang on to. Sure people could have sat down to play in the Star Wars universe, but they'd have had to make it all up themselves.
Second thought:
I wonder if the "perception of roleplaying games" isn't a very American thing. Not that people here in Germany know a lot about roleplaying games, but boardgaming is everywhere here, it's not only accepted, in many families it is one of THE ways to spend time together (For instance, I can't remember a time when I was NOT playing board games). Doesn't mean roleplaying is popular or anything, but personally I've never really met people who were grossed out or something like that. Most people don't seem to care either way.
If you focus on just the first Star Wars movie, there's not a lot of "lore" there. Compare today, where we have hundreds of extended universe books alone, nevermind movies and games of all kind. The world is very straight-forward in A New Hope. Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, is full of allusions to stories that were only published after Tolkien died or were never explained at all. Imagination is THE thing about roleplaying, and Lord of the Rings is absolutely great when it comes to making your mind ask questions and fill in the gaps.
Same goes for the characters. By now Darth Vader has taken on mythic proportions, so it's easy to forget that he was a fairly simple villain in the original movie. There is no great depth to any of the characters, the movie has fairy-tale character, where that isn't required. Lord of the Rings is aiming for the older tradition of epic poetry (Beowulf for instance), where characters are more complicated, even if they are not exactly life-like (in that they don't have problems normal people have).
Star Wars was very good at offering simple characters in a simple world, but if you're going to sit down and play in a world that is not your own, most people will probably have wanted something that felt a little more open, with more bits and pieces to hang on to. Sure people could have sat down to play in the Star Wars universe, but they'd have had to make it all up themselves.
Second thought:
I wonder if the "perception of roleplaying games" isn't a very American thing. Not that people here in Germany know a lot about roleplaying games, but boardgaming is everywhere here, it's not only accepted, in many families it is one of THE ways to spend time together (For instance, I can't remember a time when I was NOT playing board games). Doesn't mean roleplaying is popular or anything, but personally I've never really met people who were grossed out or something like that. Most people don't seem to care either way.