blog 2: real-playing

Im changing number of posts to once a month. I overestimated how interesting my life is.

anyways,

It is fitting to finally have a lenghty blog about one of my greater passions: Role Playing. The tabletop kind, not the kinky one. Moreso, it is proper to start of by responding to this, written by our neighborhood god - our local psych, a darn good friend - sonic.

It was four years ago, but the story goes back much further than that for me. The time of my life when youth was easily taken for granted. Back when life was so good and I was relatively still right in the head. The time when I said I'd rather be in a cave that smells of death and doom than face life's session on foot. I chose saddled horseback, by the kitchensink. Exchanged bars for taverns. Beers for sweet elven ale. Lost already? its alright, most of the time thats exactly my point. It's freedom of the mind, though most would term it as "insanity."

What's up for discussion is not the issues and comparisons outside the realms of the so-called "game" (it has been covered pretty much in the comments section) but the affected freedom that the players and the GM has or the dont have. Like everything else that involves man and mind it is but relative. It is the perception and understanding of freedom in the mind of everyone involved. Of course a stray arrow of death, a 5 headed dragon with a CR20 (each head) or some undetectable, unidentifiable killing spell-slash-disease could end an aspiring adventurer's before anybody can even say "initiative roll". Of course, the life of an adventurer is already bound within the confines of the quest and side quests, bounded by the rules, the hit points and whatever objective the GM throws in at me. Its inescapable. Sometimes even predictable. So yes, in a way it is all but an illusion of freedom. The game might just be a rat maze, albeit with wider corridors. Though one can look at it as the ultimate form of freedom. When was the last time anybody had the freedom to be born? Isnt the choice to go through predictability with the knowledge of apparent futility the ultimate freedom? The freedom to find freedom as soon as you start filling up that character sheet, I believe the freedom started way before the first die hit the table. I've never felt more liberated more than I ever was outside it. Its not the lack of real consequence that governs my actions within those walls of worlds and monsters but the consequences I put my actions unto, something we cannot even experience in the "real" society. Then again I might be giving the subject too much significance. It is but a game after all. Just another escapist's excuse to continue living life in fantasy. Or maybe its just relativity. Or maybe it is not even worth discussing about.

Like my good friend said, no real answers just more questions and the liberty to ask them. And im still aching for a campaign.

Life's a wizard. Its only fun while it lasts.