Grumblecakes, Gygax, and that damned D&D archetype

On Monday of last week, I turned a year older. If I could do it over again, my birthday wish would be to skip the following Tuesday through Friday.

Last week was bad for the J. I had a great birthday one day, and the next… everything went to crap. The weather turned über-cold again. Brett Favre retired. Condescension Clinton won the states she was likely to win. Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) died.

Bad freakin’ week.

Granted, sports & politics are monsters of passion, and a very bad day for one is another’s joyous rapture. That’s neither here nor there.

Being a fellow whose Masters’ thesis focused on gaming, however, it would be remiss of me not to discuss Gygax. As co-creator of D&D (with Dave Arneson), the Double G is credited with the archetype of a new medium: the commercial role-playing game (RPG).

Perhaps it’s my contrarian nature, but my favorite reaction to the passing of Gygax is this Slate.com article by Erik Sofge (which, in the couple of days since I started writing this, has showed up on the front of msn.com). In it, Sofge decries D&D as a horrible archetype: a “lame” set of mechanics that offers little in the way of actual role-playing, and rewards reprehensibility.

From a personal viewpoint, methinks Sofge overstates his case a wee bit. In theory (yes, I’ll come back to that word), D&D characters aren’t slaughtering peaceful, sleeping families of misunderstood fantasy denizens. Rather, as the theory goes, the game is a method for telling a good story, and looks for players to create consistent & believable motivations for their characters – glory, self-sacrifice, greed, nobility, or what have you.

Theory is great and all, but most of us should be aware that it doesn’t always follow into practice (watch Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room for a good example of the theory/practice disconnect). This is where Sofge’s article hits the nail square on the head with a +1 Warhammer of Truthiness.

Games in the D&D mold offer you one way to improve you character – “Experience Points.” And how do you get these oh-so-important points? Killing stuff. Plain & simple.

Sure, in theory your character develops as you role-play him or her. Oh, but there are those tricksy words… “in theory.” When it comes down to it, in D&D games (and those following its model), the power gamer who can’t role-play to save his life will be the one whose beefed-up character saves lives and earns his place at the center of the story. Meanwhile, Johnny Role-player, despite having the most interesting and complex character, is relegated to a support character. Odds are, he’ll be a funny anecdote who gets killed when his lack of a body count results in him being over-matched by whatever is thrown in his power-gaming associate’s direction.

To quote the folks from Monty Python, now you see the violence inherent in the system.

The gamers in the audience might remind me that such RPGs usually award experience points for completion of quests or tasks. My response is simple: play a D&D character who’s interesting and multi-faceted, and one who’s a two-dimensional slaughterer… and let’s bet on who hits level 20 first. My money’s on Korgoth of Barbaria.

In the RPG lexicon, this style of gaming is often referred to as “hack and slash.” That is, you kill = you level up. Anything else, including role-playing, plays second fiddle to this simple equation. Despite the plethora of alternatives to it, D&D-style hack ‘n’ slash is still the archetypical RPG. Part of this is due to its designation as the first, and to its publication by TSR (bought out by Wizards of the Coast (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc.)).

Hey, look at that. Nested parentheses!

Sorry, I was distracted by corporations in practice for a moment. I mentioned earlier that I’m a guy who did his Masters’ thesis, from a theatre/performance perspective, on RPGs. As such, the spectacle in Sofge’s piece appeals less to me than one of his main arguments:

“Sadly, Gygax’s creation defines our strange corner of the entertainment world and drowns out all the more innovative and sophisticated games that have made D&D obsolete for decades.”

There it is, the problem bound in a nutshell, with Gygax accounted a king of infinite space. And the accuracy of the assertion gives me bad dreams.

Sofge puts forth Steve Jackson’s GURPS (Generic Universal Roleplaying System), but it isn’t the only long-standing alternative to the D&D d20 System (my personal fave is what’s now known as the BRP – “Basic Roleplaying” – from Chaosium).

But it’s more than just re-thinking systems – it’s a matter or re-thinking RPGs. Let’s face it, tabletop gaming is in a horrible place. It’s the derided older brother of computer gaming, the much cooler sibling. CCGs are in a vicious, uncaring industry where companies cannibalize each other and Wizards of the Coast has a ridiculously restrictive patent. Board & DVD games are enjoying a renaissance, but usually prefer a little crowbar separation from those other “weird” games.

And those games are condemned as “weird” thanks to the choking specter of D&D. Its influence is pervasive and overwhelming. When I wrote my thesis, the recommendation was that I use D&D as a baseline for readers – despite the fact that what I researched had no experience points, was based in a more realistic setting, involved improvisation & problem-solving, and rarely included combat. But if I didn’t reference D&D, I risked alienating readers, since everyone knows the game and its stereotype.

The solution to this situation is not a simple one. To get closet or non-gamers interested in less traditional tabletop games is a Herculean task, thanks largely to D&D and Wizards of the Coast. For us unabashed gamers, it’ll take a lot of legwork – one good way is to start going off the beaten path. Many of the writers & designers you enjoy do stuff outside of the companies. Get to know their work, and use it to bring this medium up from the stereotyped cesspool it inhabits. As Sofge writes,

“There is a way to wring real creativity, and possibly even artistic merit, from this bizarre medium—and it has nothing to do with Gygax and his tradition of sociopathic storytelling.”

Let’s get wringing.