Art Before Game

I spent a good bit of time running in the wrong direction here. I kept trying to make a role playing game that looked like the games I had when I was young but which were transplanted and nourished by different roots—osr by way of a new appendix n.

But scraping out the insides of old school play only gives me a constraining sack whose exterior is defined by a cultural milieu I am explicitly trying to create an alternative to. The curative work of an alternative past needs more than that; it needs an alternative milieu to emerge from, a milieu that provides my childhood with a broader horizon without erasing the limitations of my childhood perspective.

That requires abandoning the sort Tolkien-inspired world building characteristic of a lot of role playing, especially old school play. Following J. R. R. Tolkien down the rosy path of the subcreation of a coherent and consistent secondary world immediately severs the game from any broader horizon for my childhood in this actual "primary" world. I need a messier sort of fantasy that catches up some portion of my childhood within itself and transforms that childhood.

A let's pretend guided by archetypal and expressionistic principles that immerses recollection into dream.

And at this point, I am willing to say that what I am doing is something other than game design. While it is informed by game design and incorporates game-like elements, those have less to do with the material being about play and entertainment than about games and game design having been a constant presence in my life. While those elements will be usable points of engagement, they aren't what defines this work.

The Art, the exploration of pretend and dream in contrast to developed notions of fantasy, defines this work.

So, let's begin again.