Size Does Matter

It occurs to me that my recent posts have been too Loooooooooooong(!!!). So I have decided to create smaller posts that encapsulate my ideas briefly. I think shorter posts with simpler sentence structures will be more readible.

Here's an example from LRPGSW:

On Sansho the Bailiff


One of the aspects of role playing game adventures that has interested me lately is the idea of literary stories that break out from the common mold of Adventure Tales (ie - we slayed the dragon and got the treasure), in order to explore the world from other emotional angles. I'm reflecting on this after having seen the classic Japanese film "Sansho the Bailiff", directed by Mizoguchi. It is an adventure story, but one which is very poignant and sad. Each event in the film juxtaposes the quest for the Just Life, with the effects of that quest in an Unjust world. It is a suitable theme, no doubt, for at least part of a RPG World. What would be fascinating would be to run a game where the Characters meet a fate so poignant and sad that one walks away from the story (the Game) a bit choked up and perhaps even tearful.

The study of the vast realms of human emotion is something too that would lend itself to more literary RPG Worlds.

Yet to World Weave such adventures, to Gamesmaster them well, and to Play them well, all would require uncommon seriousness and dedication to Role Playing as an Art, rather than as a Game, necessarily. Does your experience reveal any RPG Stories (games played) that have had true emotional content?