Scampir

Be the Choster you wanna read

  • He/Him + They/Them

One Canuck built the #ttrpg tag and the #mecha tag. And that was me.

Cohost Cultural Institution: @Making-up-Mech-Pilots
Priv: @Scampriv


Scampir
@Scampir

There's this impulse I have and it comes and goes whenever I fumble about trying to fit in another ttrpg into my life. It's that game I tell myself and others I want to play where we set it in some kind of technological visual language of the past. An SNES game, an abandoned MMO, the low fidelity lens crossed by crt scanlines. Blur the pixels, feel the warm glow on your face and so on. For me, the impulse is from the digital rpgs where I saw those rudimentary visuals and filled in the abstract with my imagination, plus wonder.


Scampir
@Scampir

oh fuck i know what i'm missing here and it's the signs of history which leave impressions on the pink mountains.


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in reply to @Scampir's post:

You could say the same about a play: there's no character besides the ones played by the actors, and yet the stage is still set for each scene. Sometimes that's by visuals (not acted), sometimes by dialogue. In both cases it's there the vast majority of time

i do think a lot about theatre in relation to ttrpg ngl. My sibling went to post-secondary for it and is always bringing in things out in the theatre world to try and contextualize and compare whatever we discuss about ttrpgs

I've heard similarly, especially from folks that have an improv background and know tons of commedia del arte knowledge, and how it relates to scenes and characterization. It's fascinating stuff. As far as those mood boards go, I think it's as reasonable as having concept art or storyboards for your writer's room.

I think it's as reasonable as having concept art or storyboards for your writer's room.

Ok so this isn't what i'm getting at. It's not that the moodboard has no place in the organization of the game, it's that the moodboard is a pursuit that gets put aside to engage in play. The moodboard itself is a good tool to help everyone communicate something about the game, but the things that it is supposed to help conjure cannot become things to be engaged with themselves.

Ahh I think I understand. Are you saying it's like how there's "map-making" games (where this stuff would potentially be part of the play) and "player-storytelling" games (where it isn't)?