Games For Humans

“Imagination is for Everyone” has been my personal motto for a long time. It seems a bit obvious of a thing to say, until you consider the moments in history where people are discouraged from imagining themselves in positions where they are beautiful or powerful or simply something altogether different than where they currently are. Imagination is powerful, and those who can control how it is wielded often think of themselves as wielding great power.

But the truth is such power is illusory: Imagination is a fire that cannot be truly controlled. When one strips the power to imagine from certain people, what they’ve really done is deter them from expressing their imagination in public squares. What’s ironic is this fires up their imagination even more to find creative ways to express themselves and communicate what is in their minds and their souls.

So yes, Imagination is for Everyone, no matter what anyone tries to say or do to the contrary. Imagination is the one true superpower that all humans possess.

Speaking of imagination: Tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) represent collective imagination at its finest. In a TTRPG we use rules and conversation create fictional worlds and scenarios which we then use to connect to our fellow players. The ability to connect us in expression to other people means TTRPGs are critically important for us in these times.

When I say important I don’t mean serious; importance can mean a lot of things but certainly not that we must stare into the heart of our hobby with a grim countenance, genuflecting and bowing our head at the anointed times in a strict ritual.

(OK, honestly…this does give me ideas for a game I want to make. This happens to me a lot.)

I say RPGs are important because they fulfill a distinct need in our digital age. We are often compelled to either produce “content” or consume infinite pools of it, with little in-between. I accept that, but even that acceptance creates an acknowledgement that TTRPGs are special because they require us to simultaneously express and connect with others. When we sit to play an TTRPG (online or in-person), we participate in the creation of a fiction while at the same moment we spectate and observe the artifacts of our creation. We are cheering each other’s character on and also cheering each other player on. We are seeing and we are seen, we are speaking and we are hearing and we are heard.

Our other media demands an asymmetry of connecting and expressing. Listen more, speak less. Speak more, listen less. Be the actor or the audience. I’m not implying dysfunction inherent in other mediums but rather uplifting what is so damn awesome about TTRPGs.

We are at a point in time when human creativity is under fire; can computers mimic or replace human creativity? I can’t pretend to answer that question. What I’ll share with you is this: I think the defining characteristic of humanity is the generative drive to express one’s condition. The irrepressible urge to find something to say and the accompanying drive to get someone to hear it. When I think of being human, I look at my life, I look at those around me, I look at history and see this gleaming and unbreakable thread: This is what is happening/has happened to me.

Which brings me back to TTRPGs, games built uniquely to fulfill that human drive to connect and express. The medium uses the interplay between the social and the imaginative to provide us experiences that are truly unique artifacts. I can talk with old friends about a story we told in a game 20 years ago and the retelling takes me back not only to the imagery of the fantasy story but also to that moment with my friends; I recall where we were, what we looked like, how it felt.

Games can serve many purposes, but the reason I have stayed with TTRPGs in particular so long, the reason I design them and play them and write about them, is this: Roleplaying games are games built for humans.

Next post I’ll get my head a little more out of the clouds and plant my feet on the ground to talk about conflict versus friction in encounter design. I expect future posts to be a bit shorter, but I needed to start here to frame for you how I think about these games we play. It informs how I run RPGs, how I play and design them. My goal at all times is to optimize these games for the humans in them. My hope is that I can help you optimize your games and play sessions for the humans you play with.

Thanks for joining me on this journey.