On Gaming Gusto
It occurred to me late this particular evening that there is presently a lack of
gusto in our gaming community. It is a conclusion that I have drawn from my own disinterest in many of the topics generated as of late in this community and I am now forwarding this idea only to the degree that William Hazlitt explains in his essay "On Gusto,"(hopefully correctly) link above.
How is the game itself crafted? Is it something like the sculptors and painters that Hazlitt describes? No. The "power or passion" that Hazlett suggests are the components of gusto are created in a community setting and with multiple authors (artists?) simultineously contributing to construct the piece. All this means is that comparing gaming gusto with any other kind of gusto is like comparing apples to oranges.
What we must strive to understand is how the truth of character relates to the truth of feeling in a fantasy setting (Wrap your brain around that one). It is possible for Hazlett to identify the gusto in the art of his time because the objects of art are physical manifestations of the individiual artist's mind.
I would sumbit that one will never find that gusto between the binding of any rules book. Numbers are the tools by which we collaboratively create...like a chisel or a paintbrush. When we talk about our favorite spells, we admire different methods of brushstrokes. When we swap stories, we step back and look upon those collective brushstrokes.
Perhaps gaming gusto is in the published stories that come out of great gaming campaigns or adventures...to the tune of Weis/Hickman or Terry Brooks or Raymond Feist. Perhaps it is in the construction of a supersplat character by a kid in his/her basement. And perhaps it is in the number of Mountain Dews that your buddy consumed at last week's gaming session... But we, as gamers, don't have a cannon like Hazlett had (and has even now) to refer to. Our common reference points are only in the tools that we all use to game.
My questions to all gamers, then, is: Where do you turn to admire, study, and emulate the "expression of character of power" in gaming?Where is your gaming gusto?
After considering this topic and writing on it, i can only postulate that it may not be possible to construct a RPG with the kind of gusto that Hazlett describes in his essay. It is a distrubing conclusion to draw, considering my enthusiasm for the game as a hobby and the obvious enjoyment that the game itself brings to all RPG fans. It is also, for the reasons that i query you all about above, a confounding topic to ponder because to my knowledge it has not been a topic formulated or presented before (at least not on these boards).
As ever,
ACE
Hmm...Often, to inspire me, I reread some of my favorite fiction novels, particularly those with strong character-driven scenes, and draw analogies of the characters to my own characters in my campaign. Harry Dean Stanton's acting serves as a great model for the party's favorite bartender, Eddings' passage in The Hidden City, wherein Sparhawk thinks that if the fate of the world was on the line, then he "was good for one more fight", despite his aging body, is a great ideal that gives me "gusto" for game. Cail, the embittered paladin turned peaceful cleric of Lathander in my game, wished to fight no more, his attitude is often influenced by Kurt Russell's performance in "Tombstone." The adopted father of one of the characters, a drow, is heavily influenced by Al Pacino's perfomance in several flicks (Scarface, Devil's Advocate, and The Godfather, to name a few).
Overall, when I want to get inspired to run a campaign again, I watch my favorite movies, particularly those with an adventure flair - Big Trouble in Little China, Indiana Jones (all of 'em), The 13th Warrior, The Big Hit, Chinatown, The Great Escape - the list goes on. These fire up my imagination and give me gusto to make an impact on my game, to make them memorable for both me and my players.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
My inspiration is entirely of my own making. I often work with "larger than life" plotlines and I prefer to write the adventure backwards, starting with the ending.
I get an idea in my head: "Wouldn't it be cool if some evil cleric was masquerading as a good cleric and using evil magics to cause all of the women who come to him for fertility blessings to become barren instead?"
Then I say: "Why would he do that? He wants to diminish the future generations of this society in order for his long-lived (undead?) allies to strike 100 years later and take over the entire region."
Finally, I work my way backwards through various layers of plot until I end up at a place where I can insert the PCs. Perhaps one of the PCs is female and has been afflicted with this conception difficulty. Perhaps one of the PCs has been trying to father a child and his wife cannot bear him one. Initially, it looks like some kind of illness is plaguing the PCs. The 'evil cleric' sends them on wild goose chases to secure him the items he needs to perpetuate the problem (rather than solve it). Eventually, his deception is revealed and the PCs take action.
I don't take my inspiration from any particular sources. Since I don't watch many movies and I almost never read books, I let my own imagination run wild.
In writing, creating art and running my D&D games, I cannibalize and steal from any media in my path; short stories, comics, movies, news reports and especially Dungeon magazine. For my Styes horror campaign's introductory adventure, I reinterpreted the Tancredi; a short story about a boy with two heads. The left head is evil, the right head is good; the left head finds a way to dope up the right head (with some help from Horatio Quigley from The Devil Box) so that he can't tattle to their mother anymore and he can realize his dreams of climbing the criminal ladder and being one of the local crimelords. His mother, Mama Santina the fortune teller (blessed or cursed by the gods for the birth of her two headed son) sent the characters out to get them back for her because no one would talk to her about it. Most of the elements of the adventure were directly from the story, which is only about two or three pages long.
The most fun is taking modern things and making them fantasy related, especially if they have the right tone you're looking for without the same setting aspects. For example, for this campaign I'm borrowing elements from this Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi's working class 1960s comic strips about life in Tokyo (The Push Man and Other Stories). Really depressing stuff, full of alienation and dysfunction in post war Japan. This can fit in with just NPCs in the city, the city itself and even an adventure here and there.
heh...heh...the guy in the essay said "Titian."
Yeah, Titian was hilarious. I mean, "Venus and the Lute Player"? Come on! A painting purported to ask the question,"Which is more beautiful: art or music?" and the comparison is a nude venus and some guy in a hat playing the lute? Pft. Yeah, that's a hard question! You can't HEAR a painting, Titian!
And "Danae and the Shower of Gold"? It's a naked dame being impregnated by Zeus in the form of a rain of gold coins, with her handmaiden picking out coins as they fall! Zeus, you so crazy!
My inspiration is entirely of my own making. I often work with "larger than life" plotlines and I prefer to write the adventure backwards, starting with the ending.
I do almost the exact same thing. Start with the big picture and work back through plot lines until the PCs can enter, then work forwards again. Ends up being somewhat AP-like in concept. Currently, I'm trying to work on making campaigns with less long-term planning up front, focusing more on the "wandering heroes" who just do individual, unrelated adventures.
Character backgrounds also get me going. I feel lost when writing an adventure if I don't know the PCs I'll be running through it. I love reading a character's backstory and just running with it. I particularly like those which give clear reason as to why the person picked up a sword (or whatever) and became an "adventurer." I'm not a fan of farm boys who just suddenly decided to go risk life and limb against orcs and trolls for the potential of money- there are other, safer ways to get rich if you're that ambitious.
Anyway, I like to weave a starting adventure which takes elements from each character's background and crosses them all at one common point. An evil wizard, allied with a crime family was slain by a paladin several years ago, but took the knight down with him. So, now the fighter is going to get his father's sword, the wizard is going to find the spell book, and the rogue is collecting on his guild's unpaid debts by looting the place. Instant party cohesion! Or at least enough to get them into the dungeon together. I typically like this first adventure to have something to do with the overarching plot, as well.
Then I kind of like the "traveling hero" aspect, with either a thin generic storyline or, better yet, more tie-ins to PC histories. I get to play around with some adventures that don't involve world-spanning schemes, they get to bash and loot goblins, and everyone's happy. Then the mid levels come, and I reintroduce the main theme of the campaign, keep weaving in player-driven adventures, and go from there.
I get an idea in my head: "Wouldn't it be cool if some evil cleric was masquerading as a good cleric and using evil magics to cause all of the women who come to him for fertility blessings to become barren instead?"
Then I say: "Why would he do that? He wants to diminish the future generations of this society in order for his long-lived (undead?) allies to strike 100 years later and take over the entire region."
Finally, I work my way backwards through various layers of plot until I end up at a place where I can insert the PCs. Perhaps one of the PCs is female and has been afflicted with this conception difficulty. Perhaps one of the PCs has been trying to father a child and his wife cannot bear him one. Initially, it looks like some kind of illness is plaguing the PCs. The 'evil cleric' sends them on wild goose chases to secure him the items he needs to perpetuate the problem (rather than solve it). Eventually, his deception is revealed and the PCs take action.
I don't take my inspiration from any particular sources. Since I don't watch many movies and I almost never read books, I let my own imagination run wild.
Children of Men as D&D?