Thread by @zedecksiew

Two weeks ago I ran a roleplaying game for a teenager. Somebody totally new to RPGs.

Context: this was the evening Sharon's #ilikethisplace / #sayasukatempatini exhibition flooded. Sharon, Audrie (the show's producer), and I were wet, tired, and somewhat in shock.

1/

We had to cancel the film screening we'd planned for the evening. (Sharon wanted to show "Princess Mononoke". Given the circumstances "Ponyo" would've been more on the nose.)

Lisa, our 14-year-old neighbour, was pretty disappointed.

2/

So Sharon -feeling bad because of the flood, and for disappointing the kids who were meant to turn up for movie night- figured:

Hey, Lisa's just next door, she can hop over and hang out?

So that was what happened.

3/

Lisa sat at our dining table. She's like me when I was 14, I think- proud to be called bookish.

While Sharon and Audrie dealt with rescheduling around a *fucking flood*, we plied Lisa with a stack of fantasy novels, some of our faves.

4/

Beagle's "The Last Unicorn"
Zen Cho's "The Order Of The Pure Moon Reflected In Water"
William Alexander's "Goblin Secrets"
Mieville's "Railsea"
Jill Thompson's "Scary Godmother" comic
(Was very annoyed I couldn't find our copy of "A Wizard of Earthsea".)

5/

Then Sharon said: "Oh Zedeck also makes these fantasy game books!"

Which I was super shy about. Like: why-did-you-have-to-mention-that-I-was-hoping-to-fly-under-the-radar-here!

Because: how do you explain a tabletop roleplaying game?

6/

So I looked at my RPG shelf.

The one closest to hand was "Spy In The House Of Eth", which I'd written for Best Left Buried (shoutout to @soulmuppetRPG !)

Sheepishly I handed it to Lisa, saying: "I make stuff like this."

She flipped through "Spy" and looked at me, confused.

7/

Sharon said: "Why don't you show us a game?"

And I thought: oh no here we go.

Because being somebody's introduction to games is a responsibility:

Will it be fun? boring? How do I be age-appropriate? What if they don't enjoy it? And bounce off RPGs as a result?

8/

Nervously I rooted about "Spy" for a good starting point:

"Um, you are on a road. It leads up the hill to a large circular gateway. Stretching off on either side is a low brick wall, entirely topped by bougainvillea.

What do you do?"

9/

As far as I know Lisa doesn't game (neither the board- nor video- varieties). So pretty much a newcomer?

"I walk towards the gate."

"Who do your friends see, walking ahead? What kind of character are you?"

"Um ... I'm a thief! Maybe I look at the wall first!"

10/

Audrie decided she is a dwarf with a dozen weapons. (Audrie was my previous "newcomer I nervously introduced to RPGs" experience- she knew some D&D conventions.)

Sharon just wanted to be a person named Makruf, heavy cloak hiding their identity, with a pet crab on a leash.

11/

"I climb the wall," Lisa said.

"As you climb it is harder and harder to avoid the bougainvillea branches, and in a thicket you spot a branch threaded through the eyesockets of a skull ... the skull turns towards you. What do you do?"

12/

"Oh no, uh, I climb back down!"

"As a practiced thief you are nimble enough to escape the bougainvillea spines that try to trap you. They form into a creature, like a giant cat, made of thorns and pink flowers, with the skull as a face."

13/

Sharon: "Makruf will send their crab up to snip at the bougainvillea monster!"

This was when the dice came out. Lisa cooed. (People always do, at dice.)

I had Sharon roll a simple d20 to see what her crab would do. It occurred to me that this was Sharon's first game, too.

14/

15 on Sharon's d20. I had the bougainvillea creature swallow Makruf's crab.

"Oh no my crab!"

But then: snipping sounds from the monster's belly. It started to drag itself along the wall.

"Like a scooting cat. Your rope sticks out, like a worm out of a cat's butt."

15/

I was very pleased with that image, because it made everybody go: "Ew!"

Lisa laughed and said: "Maybe we can climb the wall while it's distracted."

"Yes, it is too bothered by its stomach ache to bother you."

"My crab!" Sharon said.

16/

They explored. Audrie flashed weapons in front of a squatter, "persuading" them to join the party.

Sharon made it her mission to light Makruf's pipe.

Lisa befriended a cat made of ash, but was savvy enough not to let it touch her (it disintegrated the jerky she feed it).

17/

It was a talking cat: its name was Grand Mirissin, and it spoke like a mustache-twirling villain; Lisa's instincts not to trust it served her well.

Our game ended at that revelation, unfortunately.

Audrie had got a call, informing her that the floodwaters had receded.

18/

That was 40 minutes, at most. So nothing, really. But after I had gotten over myself I had fun. And so did Sharon and Audrie- a welcome distraction to a stressful, disastrous day.

19/

Lisa had fun, too.

She asked questions, engaged with imagined space and NPCs, made decisions she thought appropriate for her spry thief.

Yet again proving the truism that people new to games are kickass roleplayers.

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Why is that? Why do gamers forget how to play?

Why do we lose our instincts, the more we are entrained by mechanics / theory-crafting / RAI / Better Design / "what the game has most rules for is what the game is about" / Player Agendas / System Discourse?

21/

Like music snobs too invested in theory and art and discerning taste to dance when a pop song comes on.

22/

Back in the day I used to be an indie-music snob.

When snobs get together they egg each other on. Judge each other. Start discussing aesthetic preferences and metrics of quality in moral terms.

And suddenly nobody is dancing, anymore.

Even though we all wanted to.

23/

I *could've* shown Lisa the PHBs on my shelf. Got her to roll her six stats, ask her Beliefs and Wises, told her about Clocks or Jenga towers.

If she gets into RPGs at all, all that might still happen.

And I dread it, honestly? Knowing how lost I got in that shit, myself.

24/

Just more dumbass handwringing about being a young person's introduction into the artform, I guess?

In the meantime, I'm glad I had the wherewithal to start where I did:

Imagination, ease, a talking cat, a wall that felt real enough a young thief wanted to climb it.

25/

(We only rolled dice twice, the whole 40 minutes. And one of the dice rolls was an encounter roll- that's how Lisa met Grand Mirissin the cat made of ash.

That was the extent of the "game mechanics".)

26/

Because people like Lisa don't need to be taught calisthenics or musicology or the history of electroclash.

She needs a song in the air, space on the floor, and company that makes her feel welcome, comfortable.

She *already knows how to dance*.

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