RPGs as Creative Process

Is playing and running TTRPGs a creative process?

I think there's different ways to look at this.

GM As Author

For instance, if you want to be an author, you must create and populate the fictional world you're using, make the rules of magic, and design the society. If you use an RPG, the setting and system do this for you. In theory, this should free you up to be more creative.

This freeing of creativity by accepting the twin yoke of rules and setting sometimes can lead to great works. The fantasy anime Record of Lodoss War was based on a D&D campaign. Also in Japan, RPG 'replays', basically novelizations of actual game sessions, were huge during the 80's and 90's, and are still being produced now. In the west, the legendary (but truncated) scifi series Firefly was supposedly based on Traveller.

So RPG can foster the creativity to make great works.

But such is not always the case in reality. A novel based on most D&D games I played in would be boring as fights dragged on and the same spells were used over and over again. Ditto many BRP games, where the whiff factor and lethality of combat could end a story before it begins.

Player As Author

Similarly, an RPG can facilitate the personal narrative. In the old days, this 'zero to hero' or bildungsroman was the driving engine of OD&D. As RPGs developed in the 90's, they also allowed a larger narrative based on how the characters each affect the game world, as in Dragonlance or Exalted.

Now, D&D especially seems to facilitate the memification of charcters, witness countless social media posts about edgy character concepts (axe-guitar wielding Centaur bard, anyone?) and every character in Vox Machina. 

Game Creator As Author

To get back to the OSR, Jeff Rients once famously compared grognards making retrocones to Jedis making their own lightsabers. I agree that going through the process of re-viewing and re-making an old beloved game is akin to keeping alive the 'sad devotion to that ancient religion' whose 'fire had gone out from the universe'.

But re-creation is not creation. It teaches creation via reverse engineering, but needs to go somewhere new.

That is the riddle with which I am now wrestling...

Sources

Is Firefly Based On Traveller substack

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/13668/is-joss-whedons-firefly-based-on-the-traveller-rpg-he-played

Japanese TTRPG Replays

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/7r1jb1/a_fascinating_window_into_the_world_of_japanese/

A GM's First Priority Is...

This is not so much a hot take as a tepid opinon.

What is a GM's first priority?

To entertain the players?

No, they have to work just as hard as the GM for this to happen. The modern vogue of GMs as free entertainers rankles me, and leads to games fizzling out.

To know the rules perfectly, and memorize the rulebook?

Again, I dislike the GM as computer school of thought, which leads to clueless players, one person stuck as forever GM, and GM burnout.

To adjudicate the rules fairly?

This is essential, but I would not call it a first priority.

To create compelling adventures?

Again, this is natural but not a first priority. Weak storytellers can rely on published adventures, stronger ones will naturally weave an enthralling tale.

What is the answer, then?

If you ask me, a GM's first priority is to lessen his or her workload. This will prevent burnout, but more importantly, let them enjoy the game, and be fresh enough to improvise when PCs go 'off script' during an adventure. It will also let GMing look like the thrill it should be when done right, and hopefully lead to players taking turns in the driver's seat.

Why I Walked Away From An OSR Game Offer

Last week, I got offered a spot in an OSR game an old friend was running for his nephews & nieces.

When I stated my preference of 3D6 down the line, I was laughed at and told to roll 4D6, drop the lowest, and arrange to my liking.

I walked away.

What even is the point of playing a broadly competent but unremarkable character?

Why don't you just play 4E, grab your 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 16 array, and pretend to roleplay when you're just doing an analog simulation of a CRPG?

Am I out to lunch?

Here, let's compare two characters to see which is more compelling to play.

4D6 Drop Lowest

2, 3, 3, 2 = 8

2, 2, 4, 6 = 12

2, 6, 2, 2 = 10

6, 2, 6, 5 = 17

3, 5, 6, 5 = 16

2, 5, 6, 1 = 13

So, you'll either put the 17 in STR for a Fighter or INT for a Mage, 16 in CON for HP or DEX for an AR boost, dump 8 in CHA and call it a day. Other stats go wherever. Ho hum, another Murderhobo. And everyone else in the party will have the same cookie cutter stats, unless they got super unlucky and become the object of derision / scorn, or so high they are envied and reviled. Because we don't play for the individual in OSR / NSR, we play AS A PARTY.

3D6 Down The Line

STR 3, 6, 4 = 13

CON 5, 6, 1 = 12

DEX 4, 3, 5 = 12

INT 6, 5, 1 = 12

WIS 5, 2, 6 = 13

CHA 6, 3, 5 = 14

Wow, got super lucky! No really 'hopeless' stats (a moniker I hate, as I just consider a low stat a roleplaying hook), but that 14 CHA tips me towards taking a Bard, which I LOVE doing in older editions. This gets my juices flowing to see how this character will interact with others with similarly evocative stats.

And that is why I said no thanks.