The Director:
DAVE ARNESON CONTEST TEMPLATE
ESSAY GUIDELINES
Please answer the following 4 questions. Each question should have a response that is at least 1 paragraph long (i.e. 3 sentences) and no more than three paragraphs long.
After spending ages writing my last one and losing it before I could post it, I thought I'd answer this all quickly before I forget.
Okay, here goes...
The Director:
1.) Please research Dave Arneson's life and personality, for example through the following link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Arneson
After this research, please state something or some things new that you learned about Dave Arneson that you didn't know before.
I always knew that Dave Arneson was a loveable geek, and I appreciated what he did for the industry. However, I didn't realise just how much he looked like my Uncle Brian. Well, when he (My Uncle Brian) was younger, larger and sported a beard anyone who lived through the COVID pandemic would be proud of.
In all seriousness, I never knew that Arneson was very much like myself - both as a geek, RPGer and academic. I have two degrees to my name, one in Computer Science and the second in Information Technology in Education - meaning I am a qualified teacher of computer science and ICT. But, like Arneson, I spent a good 10 or so years of my life teaching students with SEN, in particular ASD. And in that capacity I made use of RPGs and other boardgames in my teaching, to get students used to the concept of rules that could not be broken (using boardgames) but also the use of RPGs to explore character interactions, cause and effect and responsibility. It allowed them to explore their own imaginations and give life to characters outside of themselves - something that is very difficult for somebody to do with ASD as the majority have difficulty with the Theory of Self, and viewing other people as real or important is difficult for them.
I had been previously unaware that Arneson had even taught, let alone made use of RPGs while teaching students with SEN. I thought what I was doing was innovative and unusual, but now I find that I am copying the actions of someone who helped successfully create the concept of RPGs. So I don't feel too bad at learning my what I have done was nothing new...
The Director:
2.) Please state your thoughts on the Blackmoor setting. Good or bad, let us know what you think and why you think it. There's no wrong answer here, as long as you're expressing how you feel and what you think.
It was never the setting itself that drew me to the game, it was my childhood experience of playing the Fighting Fantasy books. The simplicity of the system (well, the AFF system as opposed to the book-based one - I always wondered why the Skill attribute encompassed so many actual skills. After all, an archer is much better at using a bow than a swordsman is, but a generic skill level of 9 meant you were equally as good at both... But I digress), mixed with massively fond childhood memories. I came to the game because I wanted to relive at least some of those good memories.
However, the question related to the setting. Even in my youth I found that the Blackmoor setting was very idealistic and heroic. All these adventurers that took "time away from the village" to experience the world, to find adventure, gold and do good things. The style of play that the setting suggested didn't allow for evil characters. Naughty character, yes, loveable rogues, definitely. But evil?? The setting didn't seem to allow them. After all, the village was generously donating equipment as well as 50 gold to the adventurer to initially support them during their "wandering years", hoping that they'll be able to repay that loan and then some. However, any fantasy setting is usually quite bleak and dangerous - so that outlay of gold must, on more occasion than not, never return; most young adventurers barely make it to the next village before someone or something kills them...
...which gives me an idea for my next character. I'm going to play someone who travels from tavern to tavern, to recruit young, inexperienced adventurers, wait till they're all given the 50gold from the village, get them a day or two outside of their home then kill them while they sleep, steal their cash and move on to the next village... Say a minimum of 2 trusting fools from each village, each village a few days travel from the next. I could easily earn a good few hundred gold each month with minimal effort. But again I digress, and appear to be showing my darker side...
However, that was my original viewpoint, and I realised that I came into the game with a vague and unrealistic viewpoint based on my childhood and teenage experiences. I had re-read the setting a number of times, and understood that Blackmoor is a new country struggling to survive, and that the people there are intrinsically heroic. But that this isn't just a childish, hopeful viewpoint - there is so much depth and detail to the setting than I had originally realised. It encompasses so many fantasy cliches, and possesses so many European traits that the world is familiar and comfortable, but that this familiarity also creates a sense of wonder and fear. It is the world that we know and recognise, but it is sufficiently different and dangerous to make a simple walk outside of a village boundaries dangerous; the need for a bow or sword at all times obvious and apparent. So the familiarity of the setting, the simplicity of the setting and yet the fact that it is so detailed. It feels
right. There are some settings that have so much more and yet you have to wonder how all those different creatures, large and small, can live alongside one another. Blackmoor as a setting just seems to work. Yes there are dragons and other city-levelling creatures, but unlike other systems where such creatures are almost commonplace, Blackmoor is more... reserved with their use. They exist as folklore and people are fearful of them, but you don't see half-dragons or ogres just walking down the street. For a fantasy setting, the entire world just feels so much more realistic and probable. A place where a lone goblin poses a major risk to a single human (as opposed to a minor inconvenience), the chance of any given commoner ever seeing anything more unusual than an elf or dwarf is high... Other than the "give everyone who wants it 50gold as a startup fund, and
hope that it comes back with interest" part Blackmoor is actually quite a dark and grim world.
And I like dark and grim.
The Director:
3.) Please tell us about what elements of the Blackmoor campaign setting attracted you to this game initially, and why. Feel free to mention elements that continue to intrigue you or appeal to you over time, but we want to hear about what's appealing to you.
The similarity to medieval Europe, to keep the game familiar - yet also create something new and fantastic. That the history of the world seems plausible - I like settings that are realistic, at least as realistic as a fantasy or SCi-FI setting will allow. I like to feel that the character is a part of the world, that they have history but that it resembles how I imagined the dark and medieval periods to be... Hard for the majority of people, dangerous on the road but full of mysticism. I love any game world that is properly immersive, as I have a tendency to look at settings and pull them apart by questioning how particular events could have happened, or why people behave as they do and believe what they do. Quite often the settings just don't fully make sense; there are too many flaws or things that are added for effect that are implausible.
As I said, I like my settings and game-worlds to
feel realistic, and they can only do this if the background to them is familiar, detailed and reasonably realistic.
The Director:
4.) Did reading about Dave Arneson make you reflect in any way on the tabletop gaming genre, or perhaps come to some realization about yourself, the gaming community, or some other element of real life? If you answer "no" to this question then please tell us about what you may have already known, or some realization you may have already come onto about the tabletop gaming genre that you think might also tie into some element of Dave Arneson's life from the link in the first question.
Yes - geeks rule. I am not clever enough to classify myself as a nerd (that and I am not completely socially awkward, have friends and a social life), but to learn that me and Arneson are so similar in many respects... It also reminded me of the role that roleplay can hold in the effective treatment and education of people with learning difficulties or that are often seen as "odd or unusual". The thing we all love to do is a leveler, bringing so many different types of people together under the same umbrella, giving them the opportunity to communicate and play together regardless of any difficulty they may experience.
I am all for an inclusive world, and RPGs and boardgames seem to be one of the easiest ways to be fully inclusive, regardless of the individual needs of the players.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:01, Sun 04 Sept 2022.
