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Just gave my plumber a roleplaying game.
He's working away and he asks what I do; I say I write roleplaying games, and he's seen D&D played a few times, so he's broadly aware of it. He mentions that he never played because he felt afraid of being creative/weird thanks to an alcoholic stepdad knocking it out of him
Which is heartbreaking. He's into his films and xbox; we have a chat outside while we're smoking and drinking tea as he asks me what my favourite film is, and we talk at length about the Matrix sequels
I ask him what his favourite film is, and he raves enthusiastically about Conan and how heartbreaking it is there was never an Old Conan film. His eyes light up as he talks about an invading army of orcs lead by a wizard
"By a WIZARD," he says, and imitates Old Conan's fighting style - biting off noses, smashing in heads, all spite and skill
then he goes and fixes my shitter for about an hour, cause you know, plumber
and he's finishing up, and we're chatting again, and he says that it'd be good in games to have more unanswered questions in media - weirdnesses that are explained later on, worlds coming together and coalescing. And, like, yeah! Intertextuality! Fuck yeah!
Duder is visibly excited about the idea of storytelling like this; he comes up with additional plotlines for the Matrix with mysterious swordfighters that aren't referenced again until as yet-unwritten sequel
And he *keeps* talking himself down. "I'm being daft," "this is probably stupid," "I'm speaking from a position of real ignorance here" and so on. And I can hear his fucking dad in his voice, watch him abandon his ideas when I encourage them
And I wanted to give him license to tell stories - weird ones, personal ones, ones that don't have to resonate with an audience, the kind that we tell when we roleplay together. Unfortunately I recently donated all my spare RPGs to make space in the new flat
So I looked out Rhapsody of Blood by @jayciles, because it's gorgeous and very clever and I can afford to replace it, and I can say "You know Castlevania? It's like that, but you tell the story" - and gave it to him. He's pretty chuffed.
He's been reading and researching religious texts for the last eight years, he tells me, as he leaves the flat. He's fascinated with the grey spaces that humans make between facts, which is where religion lies. He's so interested in myth, and stories, and answers.
I hope I helped. I dunno if I did; it's a lot to break 50-odd years of programming. But I hope he can tell some stories of his own now, because he has a natural talent.
