We all love roleplaying games, because they remind us how much more intelligent and creative we are than the 'mundanes'. Or even worse, the cheeto-munching powergamers that haven't yet grown up beyong killing orcs in dungeons. So tell me why your favorite game turns you on so much.
My current fave is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even the concept of Buffy is steeped in neo-feminist iconology and irony. Buffy looks at the horror genre with its cliche of the lovely young woman wandering down a dark alley and being ravaged by some beast, and turns it on its misogynistic head. Indeed, with the act of 'staking' the vampire the idea of the Slayer takes away the sexual power from the male archetype and gives it to the womyn. With her phallic symbol of power her male aggressors literally crumble to dust before her. It helps me remember to be ashamed to be a man.
The RPG takes off from this noble premise expertly. The Slayer is readily the most powerful archetype, and is always female. The other characters can choose from vampires with a soul or werewolves, demonstrating the inherantly violent and destructive nature of the male that must be constantly kept in check, or are relegated to White Hat roles, where they can learn humility by making jokes or getting out of the way while the Slayer takes care of all the heavy work.
The magic system is also inherantly female. The long spell lists full of precise effects found in some other, more primative games, is completely absent here. This system relies heavily on Director and Player collaboration. And it is rare that a spell will do nothing. If the roll fails most often there's some side effect or the magic isn't harnessed properly, leading to a more satisfying narrative.
And the gem of the system is the drama points. Unlike male-oriented detail-focused games, the best player is not the one who manipulates the rules the most. And even the role of GM is supplanted. By spending a Drama Point a player can virtually guarantee success, introduce new items into the gaming enviroment play-space, or even return from the dead. This prevents unsatisfactory disfunctional play results where a player's game-piece is removed from play without their consent just because they forgot about a stupid Attack of Opportunity rule present in some inferior rulesets that shall remain nameless.
When I play Buffy, I know that I am screaming out against the macho, misogynistic paradigm that the hack and slashers have created. That's why it's my favorite system.
while I understand your points, I must say that even in Unisystem, I prefer the Angel game - the emasculated quest for the redemption of all men is so much more poignent, and it truely befits the ideals that make true roleplayers great.
Quote from: Aelfinnwhile I understand your points, I must say that even in Unisystem, I prefer the Angel game - the emasculated quest for the redemption of all men is so much more poignent, and it truely befits the ideals that make true roleplayers great.
That's true, but with Buffy you get the experience of High School, where the males are the most driven to objectify females and thus highlighting their flaws the best. But Angel is all kinds of awesome as well. :)
Quote from: MaddmanThat's true, but with Buffy you get the experience of High School, where the males are the most driven to objectify females and thus highlighting their flaws the best. But Angel is all kinds of awesome as well. :)
but the sheerly and ubelivably tortured pathos of an immortal seeking redemption for a lifetime of misogyny is so much more difficult and meaningful!
not, of course, that there is anything wrong with roleplaying a scantily clad teenage girl. unfortunatly, her own phallic object, the stake, is merely a substitute for the penis, and the game becomes less about the feminist aspects of the slayer, and more about how all women really want to be men anyway - it's classical freudian penis envy! how can that compare with the dark redemption of an emasculated man who has no desire for remasculation?
Buffy is merely another brick in the mysoginist patriarichal society, while Angel is the truely progressive game!
I am running Call of Cthulhu. Because I found the theme of eldritch horror somewhat disheartening, I decided to spin it with a more positive bent. I made it so the Great Old Ones are the forces of oppression and masculinity, such as Nazis, Racists, and Republicans. This has allowed me to address serious, important issues in my game.
I've removed magic and the supernatural, as well. I found it inherently anti-egalitarian that some people should have access to the forces of darkness, whereas others should not.
I found also that the dice get in the way of our enjoyment, as do the sheets. We've removed them and instead engage in what is best thought of as a brainstorming session regarding world issues.
One of my players brings a casserole.
-O
Holy Shit!! I just walked into a dictionary vomiting contest! ;)
Quote from: HreidmarHoly Shit!! I just walked into a dictionary vomiting contest! ;)
Join with us in our quest for enlightenment, oh Squirrely brethren! there can be no doubt in your mind that our way is pure, our intentions noble, and that we must carve out our brave new world, away from the opposition of the unwashed plebes!
Since Universalis makes me feel all special, it's my favorite game. Special and intellectual. Tingly.
Edit: Actually, who needs to play, really? As long as I get to theorize about the game, I'm satisfied...
Two way tie for first. Both are, coincidentally, radically re-worked second editions of games I loved.
Mutants and Masterminds 2E and Spycraft 2.0.
On the one hand, we have M&M, which is easily the most "aware" of societies own limitations. Between the obvious "Levelling" of sexuality provided by Spandex Costumes and the notion of Superpowers as the great emasculator/balancer (providing women with all of the "power"--both figurative and actual--of the men in the genre)...M&M2E might well be the tool that changes society more towards the leftist/feminist Utopia posited in the less successful (but even more correct) Blue Rose.
Spycraft on the other hand allows all of the players present to affect the world situation in politically progressive ways. The rules allow for the alteration of the setting by player action (rather than the standard where it is left to the GM). As such, we often have a Group Discussion before play, at the meal break, and after play...as well as a mailing list discussing the many ramifications that our Superspies could effect in the world such as, better food distribution to the poor, a more equitable dissemination of money and power amongst women, the poor, the unemployed, the insane, etc.
We also have done away with dice, as no work as important as this should allow anything to be left to chance ("God not playing dice..." etc).
Barring a sudden itch for Grim, Gritty Fantasy, I can't see us playing anything besides those two games for a quite awhile.
Quote from: obrynOne of my players brings a casserole.
You, as most always, =teh Genius:)
Quote from: Teflon BillyYou, as most always, =teh Genius:)
Thanks. :)
So... are you still bringing the casserole?
-O
Overall, right now I have to say that WFRP (2nd ed.) is my fav.
Yes it has orcs, knights, and bastard swords in it. But as a game, it's a seroius groin-kick to any 'powergamer'.
Disease, insanity, paranoia, nasty infected stomach wounds ... WFRP has it all.
(Having said that, I also like Angel, True20, C&C, and RC D&D a lot too! I guess I'm only marginally porcine.)
Bah, ya buncha pansies!
:emot-sissies:
I play D20 DnD and I'm proud of it! My exceptionally masculine half-orc barbarian will wield his great axe in a violent orgy of backlash against the man-hating feminist forces seeking to deprive the male gender of his gods-given rightful place as ruler and owner of all existence. Our AoOs and lack of petty "social" rules (as well as overwhelming market-share) mean might will always be right and the iron fist of our male-dominated military regime will always rule.
Quote from: SigmundBah, ya buncha pansies!
:emot-sissies:
I play D20 DnD and I'm proud of it! My exceptionally masculine half-orc barbarian will wield his great axe in a violent orgy of backlash against the man-hating feminist forces seeking to deprive the male gender of his gods-given rightful place as ruler and owner of all existence. Our AoOs and lack of petty "social" rules (as well as overwhelming market-share) mean might will always be right and the iron fist of our male-dominated military regime will always rule.
:emot-sissies: indeed. :heh:
I like to explore the angsty themes of finding a safe place in a harsh, violent, decadent, cosmopolite society where might makes right and religions are created to give moral authority to the patriarchs for their oppression of the defenseless folk. There's also some forays into the objectification of women -- more generally, of youth and feminity.
The game that explores these themes the best is, of course, D&D, as it is centered on them. Plus it's fun to bash and slash ghouls and gnolls and pretend it's actually intellectual wanking about the intolerance of the self-rightous vigilantes against the oppressed minorities of anthropophagic decaying walking dead (a metaphor for the goth subculture) and manged hyena-ish monsters (a metaphor for the furry subculture).
My favorite setting (and favorite game that I actually played) is the Trinity universe. Trinity is a sci-fi game about Earth in the years 2121 and later.
I love Trinity because it neither gives me a dystopian future (Blade Runner) nor a utopian society (Star Trek). It's got its main themes built into the title of the game: Hope, Sacrifice, Unity. Basically, it's about humanity freeing itself from alien influences and learning to go its own way.
Having hope as a central theme gave me a role-playing experience unlike what I had before; normally, you're up against overwhelming odds, and it's only tenacity that keeps you going, or (World of Darkness), your whole struggle is not to become tainted too fast. Normally, hope is scarce, and unity is but a question of pure necessity in order to survive.
In my campaign, the players had been manipulated by their employers for quite some time, and the story took them into a dark place, indeed (there were nazi-like experiments to make better humans, a misguided attempt to help humanity). When the players finally refused to give in to their employer's orders and actually tried to help without it being part of the plot, simply because "there had to be a way to make things right", despite it costing them and despite the "easy" choice being not an "evil" one...
It was one of the first times I actually tried to incorporate themes into a game, and I felt it worked wonderfully. Sadly, the group split shortly thereafter due to interpersonal difficulties, and I drifted back into D&D.
But I still got all the notes, and I still got two players clamoring to play. Some day... ;)
D20 (in the forms of D20 Modern and M&M 2E here). While my games may center around the desire to blow shit up, many times we touch upon issues ranging from drug abuse to dealing with grief. Hell, the Exalted game that I'm hoping to start one of these days will touch upon faith and extremists. It does make me feel more intelligent than all the little fools that roll-play D&D!!! :D
My favorite game is Polaris, because I wrote it, and no one can possibly understand the beauty of art as well as I can. How could you possibly understand this, let alone play it? Hah! You all pale before my intellectual greatness!
yrs--
--Ben
P.S. In all seriousness, my favorite game is Primetime Adventures, because I am the world's laziest GM.
Quote from: Ben LehmanMy favorite game is Polaris, because I wrote it
Polaris? Which one? There are at least three, written by people with the names of Sean Dobes, Philippe Tessier, and Ben Lehman.
Now I could assume you are the latter of the trio, but who uses their real identity on the web anyway? :)