From: laut@vortex.gici.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: The TSR Trap
Date: 11 Oct 92 15:31:15 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Gull Island Consultants, Inc.

In article <1992Oct11.080116.8813@leland.Stanford.EDU>, loren@leland.Stanford.EDU (Elina Aulikki Compton) writes:
> 
> [?? lines deleted]
>
> Don't you think that WE should have more input into fantasy role-
> playing.  All this takes is your own imagination.  If you have 
> fallen into the TSR Trap and buy the products so they can do the
> thinking for you, just sit down and read Tolkien.  I'm sure many
> new plots, monsters, spell, etc. will come to mind.  As a matter of
> fact, do what I have done six times now: Invent your own RPG to
> satify your needs.  Play-test it with friends and get their input!
> It will be your own project that would have taken just a little 
> longer than a 3-month campaign.  
> 

	Hmmm.... (digesting...)

> I know that I have sparked a contraversy, ...

	Not really.  Depending upon your point of view, of course.

> ... but I seriously feel 
> that this has gone on too long now.  TSR needs to realize its
> founders as well as the public!  It is not a coincidence that
> other RPG's have sprung out over the past ten years and have
> gained a huge amount of publicity!  I'm still an old 1st Eddition
> fan of AD&D, and did not put them down then because they were
> more or less balanced.  But now, I think it is time that they
> come forward and show a path from the present back through time
> into the ET era, to the Gygax era, to the 60's, to the Tolkien
> era where all of this came from.  
> 

	(Digestion completed...)

	The arguments you raise are equally applied against television
and various psychotropic medications for their lobotomizing "charm." (:->

	I gather from your posting that you have been playing FRPs for
quite some time.  I also perceive that you are a fairly well-read 
individual.  For you, I suppose that the current slate of games would 
appear constrictive, simply because you have progressed in your skills to 
where you have outgrown them.

	There are some of us, however, who have not outgrown them, who have 
not been playing them that long, and for whom the TSR games actually 
provide a kindling (cf: psychiatric definition) for an imagination which has 
nearly been snuffed out by years of television and/or our own personal 
experiences in growing and living.

	Role-playing Games have an incredible similarity to a kind of 
psychoanalytic method called "psychodrama."  In that regard, they can be 
invaluable in helping people reach inside of themselves, past the 
repression that keeps them from remembering the prior traumas which have 
metabolized into latent psychogenic disorders.  To that end, having a 
wealth of different RPGs really is a treasure, because the therapist can 
then recommend an RPG to a patient because of its unique rules, 
environment, characters, etc., judging that the selected RPG will kindle 
the patient's imagination, and that the imagination will have to feed off 
of *something*.  In due time, as the patient becomes immersed in the game, 
the affect of the repression is reduced, and eventually, the repressed 
memories start surfacing.

	It sounds like what you are really calling forth is a siren song
against the death of imagination, from which role-playing fantasy games
emerged.  From your point of view, that is perhaps true.  But from another 
perspective, an entirely new vista opens before your eyes.

> If you are a newcomer to RPG's, read Tolkien or Weis&Hickman.

	While you're at it, read Shakespeare, Homer, Soccrates, Plato,
Fox's Book of Martyrs, the technical Doc Set for the IBM s/370, 
the DSM-III/R (and related publications), the Torah, the Koran.

	And, last but certainly not least, my favorite handbook for
born-again "reality" role-playing, the Holy Bible.

> If you do not want limits, invent your own RPG.
> If you want simplicity, invent your own RPG.
> If you are sick of AC, HP's, and only six abilities, invent your own RPG.
> If you hate long-die rolling combats, invent your own RPG.

	After you've read through the above-mentioned reading materials, 
add your own reading materials.  The more you read, the more it will fuel 
your imagination, and then you can begin to integrate what you've read into 
your role-playing, and become all the stronger for it.

	From 2 Cor. 1:3-4, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Blessed be the God of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy, pity and mercies, who 
strengthens, comforts, and encourages us in every trouble, so that we 
likewise can strengthen, comfort, and encourage others with the same that 
we received from God."  Use your abilities for creating good role-playing
games to devise strategies, plots, campaigns, etc., that are metaphors for
what is happening in the world around you.  Then, as you play those games, 
>>>learn<<< from them, especially how to comfort and console, and then take 
the big, big, **BIG** step.  When you see someone who is hurting or in 
trouble, use the lessons that you learned in the game of imagination to 
help heal someone caught in the game of life.

> If you invent your own rules, you might find a better game.

	Jesus said, "Things are hidden only as a means to revelation," and 
again, "The wisdom of God has been hidden *for* us."  You can't invent in a 
vacuum, and besides, what foundation would your inventions have, anyway?

	Seek out that Wisdom, and you will find the rules for a better 
game, the Game of Life.

	As "Q", quoting (I think) from Shakespeare, put it:  "If you can't
stand getting your nose bloodied, run home and hide under your bed. It's a
dangerous world out there, with treasures to satiate both subtle and gross.
But it's not for the timid." 

	And as St. Paul said, "a wide door of opportunity has been opened 
for me, and there are many adversaries," and again, "I glory in my 
tribulations."

--
Bill Laut			Internet:  laut@alien.gici.com
Gull Island Consultants, Inc.	Phone:     (616) 780-3321
Muskegon, MI  49440		>> "Usual disclaimers, apply within" <<
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd