Stroud Arts: The storm has a name

This is the Fifty-Fourth article in a permanent column for Stroud Arts that appears in the Stroud American. The mission of these articles is to inform, educate and inspire you, the reader, to Make Art Happen in your life and the life of our community.

Last week, I wrote about the longest running program hosted by Stroud Arts, the Role-Playing Game Day Event. This program/event/activity has been hosted in weekly, monthly and seasonal formats since the creation of Stroud Arts back in 2014. While it has been occasionally cancelled due to schedule conflicts or weather events, it has always returned the next week or month as the case may be, until March of 2020. The preceding seven months has been the longest disruption in our RPG event ever and we have several participants (both new and returning players) eager and happy about our return to regularly scheduled programming.

I also wrote about the Campaign setting for the game and have had several people contact me regarding the background story for the game as well as who can participate. For information regarding the fictional setting, I refer you to last week’s publication and will take a few moments to answer some additional questions regarding Table Top Role Playing Games or TTRPGs

First – A Tabletop Role Playing Game has nothing to do with computers or video game consoles. While some Computer and Video Games define themselves as ‘Role Playing Games’ and they are in that the Player is controlling the actions of an ‘In-Game Character,’ that is where the similarity usually ends. In a TTRPG you are physically at a table with the other game Players and the Game Moderator. If you want your character to take an action, you must describe that action to the Game Moderator (Referee) who uses the Game System (Rules) to assist in determining the success or failure of your potential action. This proximity to other Players means that as the story progresses, all players must discuss with each other their plans and the actions they should take to solve the problem presented by the game storyline.

Second- A TTRPG is not like a First-Person Shooter Videogame. It is more like a movie or novel coming to life as the fictional setting and story are presented to the Players. Unlike a movie or novel, the Players have total control over the actions their Characters choose to take. In a movie, we know that going into the dank cellar or the scary house with only a candle for light is a bad idea, but the Protagonist does it anyway. The story demands they do it!

In a TTRPG, the Character might decide to leave the scary house and purchase a flashlight, extra batteries and charge their cellphone before heading into the cellar. I have found that in over 40 years of playing TTRPG’s, most Players make better decisions than most fictional characters. Most Players, not all Players. Some head right into the cellar even without candles, but that is their choice.

Third – Freedom of Choice and the consequences of those actions is the beauty and Art of TTRPGs. In the real world, just like in a TTRPG, we make choices based on our goals, needs and wants. Some decisions are thought out and others are spontaneous (that is why candy bars are at the checkout counter), and we have to live with the outcomes or consequences of our actions. In a TTRPG the Players are moving their Characters through the story and if they fail, then only the Characters pay the price, not the Players. In the real world, we are both the Player and Character and must live with the outcomes of our actions. This is where TTRPGs truly shine as they are Real Life Simulators and the lessons learned in a TTRPG can translate to the real world. Was your Character disrespectful to the King and is now a resident of the royal dungeon? The lesson in the real world from the TTRPG is to be polite. Did you think your way past the Giant Guardian and negotiate with it instead of attacking it head on? The lesson in the real world is to use your brain and perhaps that size doesn’t always matter.

Fourth – TTRPG’s are open to anyone and anyone can be successful in playing them. Players can be any age, race, gender, socio-economic status and educational level and they are. I have seen eight-year-old children make better tactical decisions than the adults at the table (and everyone was very impressed with her) and quiet wives assert themselves to the surprise of their (much more vocal) husbands. I have also seen shy, quiet, Players come out of their shell and make inspiring Character based speeches that galvanized the other Players as well as their Characters!

A TTRPG creates a level playing field where all Players, in the context of the Game Setting, are equal and that equality in a Game can and does translate into growth of the Players in the real world. A TTRPG has the possibility of transforming your life.

Will you stand with the heroes of Earth? Will you protect our Reality? Will you win ‘The Possibility Wars?’ See you Tuesday, September 22 at 6pm!

Let’s Make Art Happen!