Roll Them Bones

What makes a great game? Seems like a logical starting point, and a topic that is so very complex to answer. What is it about a Table Top RPG that makes it worth the time and energy? Why should you use pen and paper and roll odd shaped dice? Why not pick up the latest game for xbox, or PC or whatever?

There are a lot of questions there and the answers are more numerous than even I could imagine. So what is it for me? A great game isn't just a great story, shoot a great game could have a lousy story, but still great. So let me ask you this, which is more fun, sitting in front of your computer with a first person shooter blasting people that you can't hear see or even know what gender they really are, or, sitting in a room full of people, or just a few blasting away people to hear the comments and reactions of the people around you.

Let's face it, even us introverted geeks are social creatures. We long for that human interaction. That's one of the things that make table top games so great in my opinion, that's why they are worth the extra effort. So back to the question at hand...

What makes a great game? It is a formula to me. You have to have people you enjoy being around and gaming with, plus a good setting, something to grab everyone's attention, rememberable characters, and a story. As I mentioned above the story doesn't have to be good. I know I have watched more than a handful of movies with horrible stories, but I watch them over and over because of the characters and the setting.

If you are playing characters that have depth and personality, situations for drama, humor, with a bit of horror around people that can get into those characters you have a recipe for a great night of gaming. I've been at this for a while now and it almost seems like tabletop RPGs are a dying art. Everyone wants eye candy, glitter and things to sedate them with visual overload. They want it fast, cheap and disposable.

It is so easy to go out and drop some cash on a game to play online with people that you will likely never meet. It is much harder to get to know people that you may have to actually spend some time with to play a game. So I mentioned this word before... I know it's scary, but the word Effort.

Effort implies work, and work is a dirty word for lazy people. Let's face it many of us are lazy. I mean for the love of God, you have to go out and MEET people... interact with people... do math instead of just click buttons. Heaven forbid that I may have to read a book or two to learn what I may actually like to play. With all that work... why do it?

That is exactly what's happening to the hobby that I know and love so well. People don't want to put effort into anything. You can find online games in the thousands for whatever system you feel like playing in. Try to find table top games though. It's a bit harder. But let me ask you this, when's the last time a video game let you try do anything and everything your mind can imagine? Will a video game let you tie a chainsaw to the end of a rocket launcher to shoot a giant brain with legs?

When can a fishing trip lead to you falling into a sea to be swallowed by a sea drake and you live long enough on sheer rage and anger to break the surface of the water? And by the way, you cut your way out of the stomach of the beast, and you swam to the surface of the water when you are made of rock? Or how about the last time you got to the end of a Final Fantasy game and actually had to sweat bullets to get out of it alive... My players do that with each and every end fight.

Hell, we have handbooks to try to put some guidance in just how Epic our characters can be. How about this... name me a game where you can play a half satyr, who is a sick hacker that does it all with his mind and just feeling... wires not included? Welcome to some of the scary places tabletop RPGs can take you that console and computer games cannot.

You get tired of invisible walls that stop you when there is no other reason for them than oops... I guess we didn't program that far. When's the last time you screamed at a TV screen... “Nat 20, Bo-yeah!” or “NoOOO! Not a Botch!” Let's see a game get your adrenaline going like that. The world that you live in is only skin deep... the mind is a beautiful thing to waste... Fill it with images that your ocular nerves can never handle... roll some dice, drink some mountain dew and eat some cheese balls in the company of other geeks and individuals that it is certainly ok to question if they have ever been laid...

Use your mind, allow your imagination flow... be the person you wish you could be sometime... enjoy the most beautiful gift that we were given... creativity because that is what makes us the most adaptable race on the planet... who needs imposable thumbs anyway...