Playing Pretend

I don't have any particular article ready to post tonight, so I thought I'd just write about what's on my mind. And what's on my mind is roleplaying games.

I've always thought of myself less as a devotee of a particular type of game than as a lover of all types of games. It doesn't matter if it's played with sticks or controllers or just words and actions - I'm fascinated by structured play. But obviously some areas get less attention than others. Of all the genres I've neglected, I'm most disappointed that I've never gotten heavily in roleplaying games.

Not for lack of trying, though. In high school, some friends and I bought the core Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 books and played a few adventures. It was fun, but none of us had the desire or wherewithal to be the Dungeon Master and so we never got into more extended sessions. After graduation, 4th edition came out and we tried again. That time, we ran into the same problems, compounded by newly differing schedules and living situations. Over the years, I've sporadically been involved in a couple other games, but again, nothing stuck.

The urge to play RPGs has never left me, though. The concept is inherently appealing: mixing my love of improv acting, game systems, bullshitting with friends and genre fiction. I wish I could get a group of friends together and pretend to be adventurers or cyberpunk detectives or superheroes with them. But there are so many obstacles: it's a time commitment, everybody needs to buy into the premise, somebody needs to create and direct the scenarios for the group. It's hard to get all the dice in a row and make a campaign, or even a single session, happen.

Part of the problem, though, may be that I've focused on the wrong games. D&D, or similar systems like Pathfinder, always seemed like the giants of the genre, but as I've learned more about the scene, I've realized that maybe more focused systems would be a better fit for me. D&D always felt bloated - it wanted to be everything for everyone. But a game built around a specific type of story can ignore a lot of irrelevant rules and situations, creating a smoother play experience. So maybe I should try out something like Apocalypse World or TechNoir - games that allow for more collaboration between players and the Game Master, with a focus on storytelling over precise rules. Single-session games like A Tragedy in Five Acts or Dog Eat Dog might be a more effective place to start, since they require less of a commitment.

I'll confess that this interest isn't solely from a desire to play RPGs. I have a lot of ideas for roleplaying systems I'd like to design myself. But not having played many, it's difficult to know what works and presumptuous to think that I've got solutions to all the problems of the genre. So I'd really like to expand my palate.

But mostly, I want to play pretend.