For once, my time as a geek allows me to answer a question on an art blog.

Two words: Dungeons and Dragons.

Probably the game helped create the idea of a *standardized* fantasy universe in which all the monsters of European myth existed and could coexist.

The Monster Manual (which has pictures and stats of all the beasties you were going to fight) is actually a neat sort of surrealistic postmodern idea if you think about it. Detailed, baseball-statistics like descriptions of the strengths and weaknesses of creatures that *don't exist*.

I always thought it was too bad RPGs were taken over by the Linux-and-Fritos crowd in many ways. (I say this as a guy who took differential equations in the twelfth grade and turned down a chick who asked him to the prom because she wasn't smart enough--in his stupid adolescent mind anyway!) How many artsy people would go for the idea of *telling a story together*, that gets made up as it goes along? Toss out the polyhedral dice and the textbook-like rulebooks and I think a lot of writer types would have had a great time. Imagine 'running' Pride and Prejudice and letting each player be one of the sisters and having them vie for Mr. Darcy's affections... or how about 'running' the Bostonians, where players playing Ransom and Olive can see who can get Verena? No rules like a board game--you make the story up as you go along. You can have Ahab ignore Moby Dick and become a newspaper man if you like--and tell all the ridiculous outcomes!

You'd have to figure out some sort of resolution system (ie does your pass work or not?) for the math-phobic, but I think this is an idea whose time will never come, largely because no artsy person would ever do something that smells of geek.

Posted by: SFG on July 5, 2009 10:19 AM

Having known more than a few "artsy types" who are into RPG you'll need to something other than anecdotes that confirm your own biases to make a case for saying "no artsy person would ever do something that smells of geek. Hell, these days geek is chic.

To the question of illustrating creatures that do not exist, RR has it pretty well when he says, "they were all derived from real-world entities." And, in general, described in literature and song countless times, thus developing a general consensus as to the characteristics that pertain to an orge or a fairy.

Posted by: Chris White on July 5, 2009 12:59 PM

SFG:

Look up the RPG version of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". No dice, no stats, just seat of your pants storytelling competitions. Complete with drinking games. It's one of the most fun games out there, and if you tone down the bawdiness, perfectly acceptable to play with kids.

Posted by: Spike Gomes on July 5, 2009 4:20 PM






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