Most of my writing time is devoted to games right now, so I may not keep a regular schedule here. I feel more focused and enthusiastic about my writing, and I want to embrace the flow.
Namaste
Month: May 2022
The events of a story take place in an eternal past / present / future that can be thought of as “narrative time.” Narrative time is not anchored to the unidirectional flow of time in which we live our lives. As a child one can read a story and follow the events as they unfold. As an adult one can read the same story and experience the same sequence and flow of events. Once complete the ending of the story does not become part of history as one can always reread it from the beginning.
Stories we tell in role playing also live in narrative time. As we move through linear time in session after session, we write the events of the story. Nevertheless, we can alway revisit earlier chapters, as players often do when recapping the last session before starting the current one. Storytellers sometimes borrow characters from one campaign for use in another, bringing the character as they appear at one point in the story into an entirely different narrative timeline.
Once they complete a campaign, players tend to speak about it in the past tense. One does not often repeat a previous campaign, so one might confuse the narrative time of the campaign with the linear time in which the sessions took place. On the other hand, insofar as the players are creators, the past tense may refer to production of the story rather than its events.
Role playing games take the form of a performance, one that may have artifacts like notes or maps associated even though the whole work is not fixed in a tangible medium of expression. When the performance is done, the players would sensibly speak of it in the past tense. The story told by their performance remains in narrative time, available for a future performance by these or other players. Translating the story of a campaign into a more tangible form requires realizing it in its narrative time. As a novel the campaign’s beginning and end become available simultaneously. As a game resource the story’s structure is flattened and laid bare, available for the past, present, or future of another campaign.
Communities form through behaviors and decisions, not by accident. A functional community requires members who regularly practice behaviors that sustain it. Spontaneous individual actions that demonstrate or reinforce a feeling of shared context, shared experience, and belonging make community formation possible. These same behaviors also enable individuals to recognize their shared sense of belonging and act intentionally, not merely spontaneously, to benefit the community. The community-minded tend to recognize a shared interest in modeling those community-forming behaviors in education or recreation.
Role playing games exemplify a number of core community-forming behaviors. Whether a game lasts for one session or many years, the players must collaborate to establish and sustain the game’s narrative and bring it to a satisfying resolution. The hobby’s emphasis on these behaviors enables players to feel a sense of belonging and can form the backbone of a long term gaming group’s social life.
I’m proud of myself for keeping up with this blog for over a year. It was not my first attempt at blogging, but it was the first one to cascade into a flow of essays that lasted for months. Looking over what I’ve written, I have unpacked a few closely held views, and I found more solid footing for some loose threads in my thinking. I had originally planned to bring together my academic training and occult training , and I don’t think I’ve woven the intended threads together. However, on reflection those two threads were not comprehensive, and I had left several threads and important influences aside. My desire for a closed network of beliefs has diminished with these essays. My ideas turned to other topics, and my writing on this blog has slowed down over the last few weeks.
After reviving an old fiction project, I began writing another campaign for my weekly role-playing group. As I fleshed out an outline I began almost a year ago, I found more ideas and reflections, more ideas than time. I have looked for the project that calls me out of rest to work on it, that means something to me and that I want to share with other people. As usual, it was something that has been with me for a long time.
I love storytelling. Reading was my childhood refuge, but I did not allow myself to try writing professionally because I was afraid the well would run dry. I often want to create but feel blank when confronted with a canvas. The urge tells me to create, but my hands do not know what to make. I wanted to find the well that would not run dry.
Of course all of that is a lie I tell myself. I have inherited a set of values that sees novels and fiction as worthy, and games as ephemeral play. I ignore my own efforts to craft and record intricate worlds for my players so they can project the stories they want to tell. Life is too short to ignore myself. I am glad that a wave of lucidity asked me to notice my desires, my impulses, my efforts, and the tangible products emerging from them.
I have a few active game projects now, and I want to give them a good chance of becoming finished products. Since the fragmentation of focus is the enemy of ambition, I will shift this blog’s focus to strorytelling, games, and roleplaying as I reflect on them while developing my own projects. The point of view will not change, so I will leave the flow intact, including this record of change.
Happy Beltane, time for something new