The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois RPGs

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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois RPGs

3 February 2010 9 Comments

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Yesterday I was reading a post on Trollsmyth’s site trying to clear up the misconceptions about What is Neo-classical Gaming? and specifically Neo-classical RPGs.

He’s correct in noting that we developed the term here in the plush leather chairs of the Robertson Games study in an article on Neoclassical Roleplaying Games. It is most gratifying to see the term has settled into somewhat regular use among the global community of RPG Cognoscenti, even if some decry it as mere bourgeois intellectualism.

Having reflected on where our scholarly pursuits have brought us over the past year, I think it best to reaffirmed our commitment to push forward in new directions rather idle in the contentedness of the baroque or neo-classic. Yea verily tis time to look upon new vistas of RPGdom!

Romanticism RPGs – emphasized intuition, imagination, and feeling
Are these the free-form RPGs of the young people? Is it the growth from Dungeon Crawling to Budding Romance?

Dark Romantic RPGs – dark, decaying, and mysterious, with individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better.
What if White Wolf had made a game about Vampires that wasn’t about pointy toothed goth superheroes with Katanas?

Weird Fiction RPGs – blending the supernatural, mythical, and even scientific
While it could be argued that the RPGs of yore did this to some degree, I think most would agree most games of the era didn’t focus on the “weird fiction” qualities quite to this extent.

Well, my pipe needs refilled and my sifter of brandy is empty. That’s enough RPG scholarly thought for today. We’ll be back to more Kung-Fu Cowboys with the next post. ;-D

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9 Comments »

Timeshadows said:

I loved that clip.
–Thanks.

# 3 February 2010 at 6:16 pm

Daniel M. Perez said:

Dark Romantic RPGs – dark, decaying, and mysterious, with individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better.
What if White Wolf had made a game about Vampires that wasn’t about pointy toothed goth superheroes with Katanas?

Watch for my post tomorrow on why I love Vampire: The Masquerade, as I touch on this and look forward. Seriously, you pressed a button here.

# 3 February 2010 at 7:53 pm

Stuart (author) said:

@Timeshadows: Thanks, I first saw it when I was in Film School back in the mid 90s.

@Daniel: We played a bit of 1st Edition Vampire: The Masquerade when I was in highschool. With just the first book, and no examples of trenchcoat/katana gaming (this was pre-internet) it’s admittedly a somewhat different game. Sort of. I don’t think it ever lived up to the “personal horror” goals it promised. We wanted The Hunger, we got Blade II.

We thought Werewolf was going to be better. A game where you have to deal with the aftermath of turning into a ravening monster – just like An American Werewolf in London. That’s the vibe we got from the promo ads anyway. Boy were we so totally wrong about where they went with that game!

# 3 February 2010 at 8:20 pm

jonathan said:

Stuart – I hope the (attempt) at humor wasn’t missed… I laughed my tail off when this post popped up in my feedreader… as soon as I saw the inset photo I was like “Oh.. damn! I’m about to be called out!”.

Perhaps you should consider writing an artical for the international journal of roleplaying games. Last time I checked they were looking for additional articles for peer review. The first issue made my head explode – I’d personally love to see something from the game design community make it in (instead of just professors holed up in their white wizard towers).

# 3 February 2010 at 8:51 pm

Stuart (author) said:

@Jonathan: That photo is awesome.

My latest article “The Sound & The Fury of Post-Modern RPG Philosophy” is in this month’s editions of the American Historical RPG Review and the Journal of American RPG History.

# 3 February 2010 at 9:05 pm

jonathan said:

Wait… you think I jest?

# 3 February 2010 at 9:16 pm

jonathan said:

Wait… you think I jest?

http://journalofroleplaying.org/

It’s published out of norway or finland or something. It’s available as a PDF for free i think.

# 3 February 2010 at 9:17 pm

jonathan said:

sorry for all the post comment linkages…

http://marinkacopier.nl/ijrp/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/ijrpissue11.pdf

# 3 February 2010 at 9:18 pm

Stuart (author) said:

Haha. I knew you weren’t kidding about the journal.

Disclaimer: It may be true that I am in fact a Professor in a Media Studies Dept., and that I once wrote a paper on non-linear narratives which was informed by my interest in RPGs, Janet Murray’s excellent book Hamlet on the Holodeck, and Espen J. Aarseth’s equally important Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature.

It may also be true that I think this and this and sort of thing are *AWESOME* and much, much more influential on whatever I’m doing with RPGs than any academic paper. ;-D