I was listening to some random Yes the other day and I recognized it as a song from their Pop era. And it got me thinking about how we react to others who may be fans of a band on either side of significant change. The band Genesis is another good example and Metallica is another. Some folks won’t acknowledge 90125 or anything after. Others don’t give a shit about that progressive stuff.
I had a hard time putting voices to songs and bands when I was young. Michael Jackson, Glen Campbell, and of course Stevie Nicks… and then there was everyone else. It made me feel embarrassed to be honest because everyone and I mean everyone knew a lot more about music and bands than I. I was the worst six or seven year old in terms of understanding instruments or lyrics, but I knew what I liked. At least I had that, but I lacked the ability to tell anyone why I loved Stevie’s voice. Above all others (even today).
Is it nostalgia? Was it my age? Things I was going through at the time? I also noted that for the most part, I could not engage in the culture or community of the bands I liked. And maybe not being old enough to find and use cocaine wasn’t such a bad thing, right? I don’t feel left out, but man those folks who got to live the party have stories!
It was not until my sister met her future husband who turned me onto the Classic Rock station 100 GRX (RIP), that I began to be able to form better opinions on why I liked what I liked.
Okay, by now I hope you see somewhat where I am going with this. I could have easily asked the question like this: When did you first come across Runequest? Are you a Shadowrun 1st or 3rd edition fan? How much did the community you were (or were not) in affect how you think of good design? For myself even though I started playing RPGs in 1981, I did not have any community until 1989. Eight years in which I played, yes, but the play had no common variable except for me.
The sociology of it all seems relevant even if only for self reflection on why we play what we play, and why we design what we design. Where we started from, what were the conditions? What relationships were we in? With that reflection in hand I know I feel better able tackle more complex ideas of design and to move on from bad habits or misconceptions, without killing the joy of any particular past play. And to focus on playing right now, understanding how the journey is seasoning the present.
A couple of personal examples, I think I am not intimidated by any design I have come across, though some present more of a challenge. Nor am I afraid of doing it wrong. On the other hand I do not have (much) discernment in terms of what I will play, reprehensible or deliberately anti-social designs being exceptions of course. I feel like I have good technique as a games master, but that can sometimes lead to short circuiting play.
I am curious if your entry point into play has had a lasting effect, either way, on how you play and design right now?
2 responses to “When Did You First Hear ‘Yes’?”
I was introduced to roleplaying via a friend’s friend’s homebrew in ’89 in high school (at age 16 or 17).
The game had been going for a few months so the other guys already had plenty of war stories. Energy levels were high and taking a turn at GMing was encouraged, so I very soon ran adventures as well. It would be many years before I used a published module.
In ’90 we rebelled against the rules – with little regard to the primary GM/designer’s feelings, which I regret today, and he left – because they felt increasingly ‘unbalanced’ as our characters advanced.
We switched to a published RPG, though we soon changed subsystems, and some time later tried out new systems and our own homebrews.
Our designs were often ill-considered such as when we tried to improve the rules for weapon breakage — by the end of the first session, everyone was carrying several replacement weapons…
I am more careful today, trying to run something as intended first, before making changes. I ran a wonderful session of *Dust Devils* a few years ago and in the run-up, I considered defusing the harm rules for ostensibly harmless conflicts with non-lethal intent.
But as Eero Tuovinen pointed out, “it is hellishly difficult to use a big gun to make a confrontation safer, while it is rather easy to make sure that somebody goes home with injury. A drama game that empowers the players to win without injuring their foe takes this moral conundrum away from you”. Wise words, and I am glad I heeded them!
The DIY spirit has been with me from the very beginning and has never left me. I am grateful for that.
I’ve come full circle.
I heard about RPGs in wargames magazines about three years before I got to see one. Towards the end of that I got fed up and tried to design one of my own, combining wargames campaign procedures and one of the rules sets I owned.
It didn’t work. Combat was too lethal to allow a protagonist to live long enough to be interesting, and I couldn’t see a way to address this. (I was 15/16). I set the experiment aside.
Before I could get back to it, I got hold of a copy of Traveller, and thus moved into mainstream gaming.
Now, of course, I am designing and playing (solo) games using the same approach, although not literally from the same starting point.
Funnily enough, the tactical skirmish rules I was using was a cut down and period agnostic version of the Western Gunfight rules that were arguably a pre-D&D RPG. I didn’t know that at the time.
I might look at them again. I’ve got a copy of the full rules now, which might have fixes for some of the problems I ran into. They mightn’t, since they include the rule that “Personal Characters” don’t actually die permanently and can be reused in subsequent games!