thread: 2005-11-10 : Open House: Ask a Frequent Question...
On 2006-01-29, Dave wrote:
I'm having a discussion with a friend of mine, let's call him Jeff, who's an actor, heavily involved with improvisational theatre. We've been talking about the kind of theatre he does (where the audience is, in fact, often involved, but the words "ongoing" and "informed" are tenuous), and we've been trying to compare it to roleplaying.
I have maintained all along that he's essentially in an RPG with these people, all without any of them realizing it. Am I right?
Here's an example of what they do: they develop their characters with the director of the performance ahead of time, they collaboratively write scenes involving the characters, or at least decide situation, and (often involving the audience when there is one) play it out on stage.
If they are unknowingly roleplaying, what other groups can we say are doing things within Vincent's definition? If they aren't, what's the difference?
This makes DY go "About Ephemerality"
I'm not convinced ruling out non-ephemeral forms has anything to do with roleplaying. Convince me!
This makes WMW go "I'm not either"
but it is a meaningful difference between roleplaying-as-commonly-practiced and other artistic forms.
This makes RC go "No game."
I would suggest that there's no game in that particular activity. Thus, not an RPG.
This makes WJW go "What's a game?"
They may not be playing a game, but maybe they are. Cat's cradle isn't checkers, but both are "games" in the broad sense. I think you have to confront the issue of ephemerality. The transcript isn't the game! Is the script the play?
-- Bill White
This makes RC go "Yeah, what /is/ a "game"?"
Sounds like a good FAQ to me.
This makes BL go "I think the classification of game or not is largely immaterial"
We're really dealing with "ephemeral artistic forms" versus "non-ephemeral artistic forms."
This makes BL go "Oops!"
And improv theatre is clearly ephemeral, at least wrt to the actors. (audience maybe not so much.)
This makes JAW go "What is the goal of an RPG?"
If it's to entertain the players, theatre falls in that category. If it's to craft a story with thoroughness, again, theatre. If it's to not know what will happen one moment to the next, improvisational theatre it is. - The ephemeral "Jeff"
This makes BL go "JAW -- Yes!"
My basic point is that improv theatre, at least with respect to the actors, is an ephemeral form. As such, I feel comfortable talking about it, even though it isn't necessarily a "game."
This makes MCM go "Improv is absolutely roleplaying."
You could almost describe RPGs (narrativist ones, anyway) as improv theater in slow motion, and, uh, with dice. This is what we're doing, right? Creating stories out of nothing, on the fly?
