Playing with Politics

I. Dear Reader,

Mostly when someone talks about “politics in games”, they’re about to say the worst thing you’ve ever heard in your life. But it’s good to be reminded that there can also be posts on that subject that are only mildly annoying. This is one of them.

Why do people put politics in games?

1. Politics is fun: Let me quickly add that in real life, politics is often hard work and no fun. But that’s exactly my point: games can make things fun even when they’re not fun in real life. Let’s not forget that a lot of games involve killing people and taking their stuff. This is very not-fun in real life but it can be a hoot in a game. So, in the same way, people put politics in their game because it can be fun to play with. It doesn’t have to be fun for you, the reader. But there are people, including probably the designer, who get some kind of fun out of dealing with that subject. Whether it’s being part of a dungeoneers’ union or an alternative family structure, burning down a corrupt judge’s house, or slowly getting consensus in a big meeting where everyone talks for far too long – this stuff gets put into mechanics, settings, games, systems, whatever, because it’s meant to be fun.
2. Playing can be practice: No, no, not praxis, just practice. Basically, the idea is that stuff in the real world can be hard to think about – the stakes are high, there’s lots of confusing factors, and so on. A game can be a way to imagine, engage, interact, think about a complicated subject in a way that is less intimidating. By creating space for certain kinds of discussions or actions, by creating situations where complicated questions can be explored safely, the idea – the hope, the plan – is that this will inspire more confident actions out in the world. Lots of queer folks have written articles about using games to explore their gender identity and the same idea holds true for other aspects of yourself, your community, your world.
3. Sometimes it’s just being yourself: I think it’s very common for folks to categorize stuff in their lives as “appropriate for games” and “not appropriate for games”. And politics comes into that “not appropriate” category. But we also live in a society – sorry – where for some people, the very act of putting themselves in the game can be seen as “making it political”. For people just trying to be themselves, this can be, to put it mildly, annoying. Even apart from identity stuff, if you’re interested in something, it’ll come into your work. It isn’t necessarily a statement with an end goal.
4. And, lastly, yes, to make political statements: Games are an art form and art is one of the ways we can make explicit political statements.

I think the first two get forgotten about so I thought it might be worth mentioning.

I also think it’s important to say that the games we play don’t need to be educational or moral or self-improving. Play is something worth doing for its own sake. As long as you’re not hurting anybody, go for it.

This is tricky to internalize for a couple reasons: one, because it’s easy to be insecure about playing games as adults since society seems to consider them unbelievably frivolous. So we have to spend time justifying our choices as Good (and the least interesting version of that is stuff like less/more mechanics is good-er). And two, because we live surrounded by a very specific “politics of consumption” where it can feel like the only political actions we can successfully take in our lives are choosing what we consume – media or otherwise.

And this is the point where the subject gets too complicated for me and this newsletter so I’ll sign off.

Just remember: there ain’t no party like the Itzkian Reformist Party. No, seriously, there’s no party like that. I made it up.

Yours politically,

Thomas

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II. Media of the Week

• Dice Exploder do a good show on Character Sheets with Emmanuel Melo. They focus on Mothership which I think gets a bit too much focus in this area but it’s a good discussion. There’s also a great post to accompany the episode that shows examples of all the sheets discussed and I’m glad to see playbooks, especially stuff like Dream Askew included.
• Party of One celebrated 400 episodes with a multiversal journey, hopping from past episode to episode as an agent trying to save the universe. Huge achievement by Jeff Stormer!
• On the Yes Indie’d Podcast, I chat with Quinns about reviewing RPGs, which is a topic I’ve been thinking about for 3 years at this point. And even though Quinns Quest is just a couple videos old, Quinns has been doing it for way longer so the conversation ends up being one of my favourites.

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III. Links of the Week

• There was this idea in a game called The Pool which was that people rolled dice to see who got the right to narrate the outcome i.e. the player or GM. Vincent Baker blogs about this idea of divvying up who gets to say the outcome and how it would change PbtA moves.
• On Rascal News, Lin Codega writes about Return to Perinthos, the community project to celebrate Jennell Jacquay’s legacy in dungeon design. (Requires email to read, but is free)
• On tumblr, a nice overview of PbtA games and what you can expect from them if you’re new.
• Live Action Online Games are like larps except played online over video call. On the Nordic Larp website, there’s a nice paper about what they’re all about.
• On the Play Fearless newsletter, Jay gives his picks for best games of 2023 including Twilight 2000 and Cy_Borg!
• On Age of Ravens, a review of an older Savage Worlds. horror steampunk setting called Rippers, where you use steampunk bodymods to hunt monsters and inevitably, become monstrous.
• Robyn Choi aka bitbirdy made a really cool app to play Ten Candles, one of the most well-loved horror TTRPGs.

From the archive:

• Utgar’s Chronicles, a free web app to play the history-building game, Microscope. (Issue #14, November 2020)

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IV. Small Ads

All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.

• Add Buddhism-inspired sacred architecture to your TTRPG with the riso-printed worldbuilding zine Shrines: Sites of Reverence & Power.
• Back Hecate Cassette Archive on Kickstarter! Hecate Cassette Archive is a supernatural Mothership 1e adventure of anarchy and analog audio.
• Travel to a spore-covered paradise & ashen wastelands destroyed by a falling city in the next expansion to Cloud Empress, the Nausicaa-inspired Mothership 1E science fantasy setting. Follow on Kickstarter today!

This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.

• Classic fantasy game Chivalry & Sorcery, with its Land of the Rising Sun setting, all bundled up.

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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!