At some point in the last year or so I became a roleplayer, I suppose I was always in a precarious position and vulnerable to such sociable means of generating stories… and roleplay at its core draws from a desire to weave or partake in a collective fiction.

I was more a miniature wargamer than anything but with rising prices and evil monopolies afoot I found it an increasingly horrible arena, not to say that roleplay is much different in some respects… the geek and nerd markets have long been abused by grossly high pricing, which to a degree I can understand when sheer variety makes it hard to actually turn over a profit (not to mention factors my ignorant mind has not even yet contemplated).

I was seduced by a fellow wargamer who also happened to be a fine storyteller and GM, drawn tentatively into the webs of roleplay and a year long campaign of such high adventure that I have found myself trapped ever since… I think that the roleplayer stereotypes are unfair on the whole and this may be because this part of the world has a weirdly skewed geek populace where attractive female roleplayers can regularly outnumber the male. I don’t see the problem with partaking in what is essentially a more imaginative outlet for the entertainment you get playing a computer game or watching a film… If you enjoyed Lord of the Rings you can hardly throw mud at the local roleplayer!

The one system I have disliked has been the d20 but it tends to be any system that weaves mechanics that detract from the story and put too much focus on dealing with players who are negative towards the enjoyment of everyone present. People have been complaining so far as I can tell about them dumbing d&d down with 4th edition… where they take issue I for one am hopeful.

Most encouraging is the character sheet examples I’ve been seeing, they look positively inspiring in comparison to the dismay I have found trawling the character sheet for a WoW RPG game (OGL licensed d20). The web client for play reminds me of Fantasy Grounds and will be welcome since I will be moving away from friends in the near future and likely devoid of my new found hobby.

Tags: d20, Roleplay

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.