So, hey. Here is a thing I have been thinking about lately.
For a long time, I tried to record and preserve my play experiences – through detailed session write-ups, audio recordings, and other ways to make concrete things out of RPG sessions.
In recent years I have almost entirely reversed course on that. I now think that one of the things I value about the RPG is its ephemeral nature. (Insert allusion to mono no aware here.) I like the way that this particular session of Night Witches is a limited edition creation. Only me and my friends ever saw it, and we can’t recreate it. I like having made a silly game about jousting that we played once and will never play again.
[DELETED my tedious mitigating statements about drawing maps, pictures of PCs, etc.]
How do other Gauntlet people feel about this?
I suppose it depends on the frequency with which you play and the quality of the game you had.
I was fortunate enough to record a particularly good campaign of Burning Wheel I played with a friend. I’m glad that I can revisit that in a couple of years, and remember the fun we had.
I wish I had recorded a good campaign of Star Wars I had with my home group, which lasted for a number of years (given lots of interruptions and breaks in between), which ended maybe 6 years ago? I remember broad strokes, and it was the best ending to a campaign that I’ve ever played, with a nice climax and epilogue where every player narrated his character’s eventual fate… It was so good, I’m done playing Jedi in Star Wars. I felt we hit every point I could conceive of in that regard. Too bad I just have my faulty memories of it.
If, on the other hand, you play shorter games with greater frequency, then… well, there’s always next week, right? 🙂
EDIT: Then again, to my newbie eyes, Story games and Indie games seem to be focused for shorter game play, than prolongued campaigns, so that might be another reason. Don’t have much personal experience on the subject yet…
I suppose it depends on the frequency with which you play and the quality of the game you had.
I was fortunate enough to record a particularly good campaign of Burning Wheel I played with a friend. I’m glad that I can revisit that in a couple of years, and remember the fun we had.
I wish I had recorded a good campaign of Star Wars I had with my home group, which lasted for a number of years (given lots of interruptions and breaks in between), which ended maybe 6 years ago? I remember broad strokes, and it was the best ending to a campaign that I’ve ever played, with a nice climax and epilogue where every player narrated his character’s eventual fate… It was so good, I’m done playing Jedi in Star Wars. I felt we hit every point I could conceive of in that regard. Too bad I just have my faulty memories of it.
If, on the other hand, you play shorter games with greater frequency, then… well, there’s always next week, right? 🙂
EDIT: Then again, to my newbie eyes, Story games and Indie games seem to be focused for shorter game play, than prolongued campaigns, so that might be another reason. Don’t have much personal experience on the subject yet…
What an interesting post. We have gone back and forth on recording AP or doing detailed write-ups of the specific stories of our games. Daniel Lewis is a big proponent of the ephemeralness of game sessions. He thinks it loses some magic to have it transcribed or recorded, to be played back after the fact.
I’m somewhere in the middle. I love the idea of doing some AP, for example, but only to give a listener the basics of how to play a game. The story part of it should be for the players who were there.
What an interesting post. We have gone back and forth on recording AP or doing detailed write-ups of the specific stories of our games. Daniel Lewis is a big proponent of the ephemeralness of game sessions. He thinks it loses some magic to have it transcribed or recorded, to be played back after the fact.
I’m somewhere in the middle. I love the idea of doing some AP, for example, but only to give a listener the basics of how to play a game. The story part of it should be for the players who were there.
Also very interested to hear what others think.
Also very interested to hear what others think.
A somewhat-related aside: I really love when games leave an artifact behind. I’m thinking of the stack of cards in Microscope, or the map in A Quiet Year. Dan mentions a game on this week’s episode of the cast (Ten Candles) which has the players recording audio of their character’s last thoughts as the world goes dark around them. The stories themselves are ephemeral, but there is something left behind.
A small thing Steve Mains does is he always takes his character sheet home with him. I have no idea what he does with them, but I think it’s his way of remembering the session. My own way of doing this, in the FtF games at least, is to take a bunch of pictures. Hell, The Gauntlet is just one big fucking scrapbook about our game sessions, if you think about it.
It’s a super-interesting topic. Tom McGrenery You should join us sometime to talk about it on the podcast. The ephemeral nature of games. I love that.
A somewhat-related aside: I really love when games leave an artifact behind. I’m thinking of the stack of cards in Microscope, or the map in A Quiet Year. Dan mentions a game on this week’s episode of the cast (Ten Candles) which has the players recording audio of their character’s last thoughts as the world goes dark around them. The stories themselves are ephemeral, but there is something left behind.
A small thing Steve Mains does is he always takes his character sheet home with him. I have no idea what he does with them, but I think it’s his way of remembering the session. My own way of doing this, in the FtF games at least, is to take a bunch of pictures. Hell, The Gauntlet is just one big fucking scrapbook about our game sessions, if you think about it.
It’s a super-interesting topic. Tom McGrenery You should join us sometime to talk about it on the podcast. The ephemeral nature of games. I love that.
I’ve often wished for more of a record. I believe something like this used to be maintained for the gauntlet and was called the hall of legends. I may be mistaken in that. I often will call back characters or hint at them as when appropriate to memorialize particularly good game sessions or series. I love talking about the specifics of great sessions with friends who I had those sessions with, and I have attracted new players to the hobby by sharing some of our funniest/scariest/ most thought provoking sessions anecdotally.
I’ve often wished for more of a record. I believe something like this used to be maintained for the gauntlet and was called the hall of legends. I may be mistaken in that. I often will call back characters or hint at them as when appropriate to memorialize particularly good game sessions or series. I love talking about the specifics of great sessions with friends who I had those sessions with, and I have attracted new players to the hobby by sharing some of our funniest/scariest/ most thought provoking sessions anecdotally.
Oh and I used to love to draw pictures of my PCs! A call back to childhood days of dreaming of being a cartoonist. I always worried it was distracting at the table
Oh and I used to love to draw pictures of my PCs! A call back to childhood days of dreaming of being a cartoonist. I always worried it was distracting at the table
When running a campaign I find it handy to be able to look back on a log to remember player actions and spin those out into consequences. The world lives and breathes better for me when actions have reactions.
I also find I can suffer from imposter syndrome toward the end of a campaign. Some ideas pay off, some don’t and I can find myself focusing on the damp squibs instead of the Roman candles. Reviewing the log helps give me a sense of perspective.
Finally, I find it useful to analyse what worked and what didn’t when prepping the next campaign. And if it’s the same characters, picking up their stories.
But I’m less interested in sharing that log. It’s just a tool.
When running a campaign I find it handy to be able to look back on a log to remember player actions and spin those out into consequences. The world lives and breathes better for me when actions have reactions.
I also find I can suffer from imposter syndrome toward the end of a campaign. Some ideas pay off, some don’t and I can find myself focusing on the damp squibs instead of the Roman candles. Reviewing the log helps give me a sense of perspective.
Finally, I find it useful to analyse what worked and what didn’t when prepping the next campaign. And if it’s the same characters, picking up their stories.
But I’m less interested in sharing that log. It’s just a tool.
I have to say, for the purpose of teaching or learning a game, AP recordings are invaluable. Particularly for Trad gamers coming in to the Story and Indie games world. Some concepts there are mind-boggling enough when you read them off the page. For some games, you simply need to hear or see them played.
I know I learned Mouse Guard from podcasts, as I did Burning Wheel. Reading just wasn’t enough.
I’m the instigator in my group, by which I mean, I’m the one who finds new games, learns them and then teaches and run the games for my friends, so I have to learn from somewhere…
I have to say, for the purpose of teaching or learning a game, AP recordings are invaluable. Particularly for Trad gamers coming in to the Story and Indie games world. Some concepts there are mind-boggling enough when you read them off the page. For some games, you simply need to hear or see them played.
I know I learned Mouse Guard from podcasts, as I did Burning Wheel. Reading just wasn’t enough.
I’m the instigator in my group, by which I mean, I’m the one who finds new games, learns them and then teaches and run the games for my friends, so I have to learn from somewhere…
I’ve gone from a hoarder to a minimalist in my gaming memorabilia. These days I stick to the references and half-remember campaigns, because I see each of these stories as a bit like telling a legend, something that should grow and stick to people as it is retold. One of the greatest fears about doing an AP is someone trying to be amusing, which always seems to be a great plan to fail.
I think it depends on the group at the end of the day. For me though, I want good campaigns to be whispered around the campfire, growing and shrinking in their retelling.
I’ve gone from a hoarder to a minimalist in my gaming memorabilia. These days I stick to the references and half-remember campaigns, because I see each of these stories as a bit like telling a legend, something that should grow and stick to people as it is retold. One of the greatest fears about doing an AP is someone trying to be amusing, which always seems to be a great plan to fail.
I think it depends on the group at the end of the day. For me though, I want good campaigns to be whispered around the campfire, growing and shrinking in their retelling.
I think about this a ton, because the idea of creating APs is something that, in some ways, seems like the logical next step for The Gauntlet, but I have essentially zero interest in actually doing it.
I totally take Eloy Cintron’s point about the value of APs as teaching tools. In fact, if I hadn’t watched an AP of Masks (starring Richard Rogers, btw) I might not have felt confident enough to run it based off of the very small amount of GM advice in the playtest doc. That said, I still don’t like the idea of recording my own play sessions.
There are practical considerations that I won’t go into, but like Tom McGrenery wrote in his OP, I think there’s a real beauty in the ephemerality of the stories that we tell at the table. I’m consistently blown away by the fact that it’s possible to sit down for four hours, create a shared world, populate it with interesting, relatable characters, and tell a cohesive story. Not only that, but the stories are good, often great!
Here’s the thing though. I think objectively, the stories we tell probably aren’t that great. I think we have a tendency to remember the good parts (the clever callbacks, the really poignant scenes, the epic fights, etc.) while the bad parts (poor pacing, inconsequential scenes, etc) don’t make much of an impression on us and consequently don’t survive long in our memories.
As soon as you have an impartial record of the game, all of the bad parts survive just as well as the good parts and instead of existing as an awesome memory of a story you shared with your friends, it’s there as what it really was: a sprawling messy first draft of a story that will inevitably invite comparisons from other forms of media that are written, edited, re-written, and polished before they’re released into the world.
In some ways, I feel like taping sessions is like going to a concert and recording it on your phone. Sure, you can do it, and you might even look at the recording later and enjoy reliving it to an extent, but at the same time, worrying about preserving your experience for the future can easily get in the way of immersing yourself in the experience as it’s unfolding.
I think about this a ton, because the idea of creating APs is something that, in some ways, seems like the logical next step for The Gauntlet, but I have essentially zero interest in actually doing it.
I totally take Eloy Cintron’s point about the value of APs as teaching tools. In fact, if I hadn’t watched an AP of Masks (starring Richard Rogers, btw) I might not have felt confident enough to run it based off of the very small amount of GM advice in the playtest doc. That said, I still don’t like the idea of recording my own play sessions.
There are practical considerations that I won’t go into, but like Tom McGrenery wrote in his OP, I think there’s a real beauty in the ephemerality of the stories that we tell at the table. I’m consistently blown away by the fact that it’s possible to sit down for four hours, create a shared world, populate it with interesting, relatable characters, and tell a cohesive story. Not only that, but the stories are good, often great!
Here’s the thing though. I think objectively, the stories we tell probably aren’t that great. I think we have a tendency to remember the good parts (the clever callbacks, the really poignant scenes, the epic fights, etc.) while the bad parts (poor pacing, inconsequential scenes, etc) don’t make much of an impression on us and consequently don’t survive long in our memories.
As soon as you have an impartial record of the game, all of the bad parts survive just as well as the good parts and instead of existing as an awesome memory of a story you shared with your friends, it’s there as what it really was: a sprawling messy first draft of a story that will inevitably invite comparisons from other forms of media that are written, edited, re-written, and polished before they’re released into the world.
In some ways, I feel like taping sessions is like going to a concert and recording it on your phone. Sure, you can do it, and you might even look at the recording later and enjoy reliving it to an extent, but at the same time, worrying about preserving your experience for the future can easily get in the way of immersing yourself in the experience as it’s unfolding.
There are many things to hate about PBP gaming, but one of the things I love is the creation of a durable record without additional effort.
I also find a lot of value in reading APs as exemplars of the game play (i.e. Dave B’s series on RPG.Net was eye-opening for many people who didn’t “get” Mage: The Awakening).
On the other hand, I find the process of creating APs, journals, and logs to have a higher cost than the value I get out of them. I try to minimize the need, and do only cursory note taking. I hope that anything important to continuity is memorable on its own.
So, for me, it’s not that I see value in the ephemeral nature of the game. Instead, it’s that the cost of creating perfect continuity and perfect memory is too high.
There are many things to hate about PBP gaming, but one of the things I love is the creation of a durable record without additional effort.
I also find a lot of value in reading APs as exemplars of the game play (i.e. Dave B’s series on RPG.Net was eye-opening for many people who didn’t “get” Mage: The Awakening).
On the other hand, I find the process of creating APs, journals, and logs to have a higher cost than the value I get out of them. I try to minimize the need, and do only cursory note taking. I hope that anything important to continuity is memorable on its own.
So, for me, it’s not that I see value in the ephemeral nature of the game. Instead, it’s that the cost of creating perfect continuity and perfect memory is too high.
Oh my god someone else went and tracked down Dave B’s Mage series. it was pretty damn amazing.
Oh my god someone else went and tracked down Dave B’s Mage series. it was pretty damn amazing.
Eric H has it so right about PBP. I still go back and re-read scenes from a Monsterhearts game from three years ago!
Eric H has it so right about PBP. I still go back and re-read scenes from a Monsterhearts game from three years ago!
PBP lends itself well to artifact creation I feel, in that posts can be crafted and sculpted before offering them to the public eye. A lot of problems I see with an AP or commentary footage is the pauses and “um…s” of individuals while playing. I refer to story gaming often as Improv at a table for that reason.
PBP lends itself well to artifact creation I feel, in that posts can be crafted and sculpted before offering them to the public eye. A lot of problems I see with an AP or commentary footage is the pauses and “um…s” of individuals while playing. I refer to story gaming often as Improv at a table for that reason.
I find immense value in recording and sharing my game sessions. I’m a performer by nature, so putting my games up on my YouTube channel isn’t daunting for me.
Three things I like about having sessions recorded:
1. I suck at taking notes! Now I can remind myself of what happened in previous sessions. I can even edit up a reminder video for the group, if I have the time and inclination.
2. I can review how players interacted and reacted to events, characters, mechanics and moments in the game. This includes downloading the file and converting to MP3 and listening while I’m jogging or doing chores.
3. I can share the game with others (the Crossroads game on my YT channel helped me meet most of my Sunday gaming group. They watched the game first, then reached out to me. I adore these folks and am so thankful).
I find immense value in recording and sharing my game sessions. I’m a performer by nature, so putting my games up on my YouTube channel isn’t daunting for me.
Three things I like about having sessions recorded:
1. I suck at taking notes! Now I can remind myself of what happened in previous sessions. I can even edit up a reminder video for the group, if I have the time and inclination.
2. I can review how players interacted and reacted to events, characters, mechanics and moments in the game. This includes downloading the file and converting to MP3 and listening while I’m jogging or doing chores.
3. I can share the game with others (the Crossroads game on my YT channel helped me meet most of my Sunday gaming group. They watched the game first, then reached out to me. I adore these folks and am so thankful).
> I’m a performer by nature, so putting my games up on my YouTube channel isn’t daunting for me.
I think that’s a big part of it, too. I’m not a performer by nature, so knowing that I’m being recorded knocks me into a different mode where I’m hyper-vigilant about my own behavior in a way that I’m typically not. Performance is fun in its own way, but it’s a very different type of fun for me.
> I’m a performer by nature, so putting my games up on my YouTube channel isn’t daunting for me.
I think that’s a big part of it, too. I’m not a performer by nature, so knowing that I’m being recorded knocks me into a different mode where I’m hyper-vigilant about my own behavior in a way that I’m typically not. Performance is fun in its own way, but it’s a very different type of fun for me.
completely understand that, Daniel Lewis.
completely understand that, Daniel Lewis.