MGSN explores RPGs and the Environment in a time of Climate Crisis
The Manchester Game Studies Network are researching different modes of analogue play to better understand the ways in which game design and play might support action on the climate crisis. As well as our board game research project , which is funded by Game in Lab and the Libellund Foundation, we have been working with RPG designers and play communities to evaluate the ways in which roleplaying aids us in negotiating and understanding the climate crisis.
The Trophy Collection, released in 2021
Our recent event, Dark Forests and Doomed Adventurers, saw people gather from around the world to discuss tabletop roleplaying game environments, with a particular focus on those that invite players to enter hostile environments that don’t want them there, often as the antagonist rather than the hero.
“... by the end you’ll be dead, and that’s freeing”
The event was interested in exploring how environments can be built in TTRPGs in ways that are interesting, dynamic and interactive. That is, our panel considered the roleplay environment as something more than simply a backdrop for the party’s heroics.
Hosted by Dr Chloe Germaine of MGSN, the round table also included Paul Baldowski, creator of the award-winning Cthulhu Hack and Dee Sanction roleplaying games, Howard David Ingham, creator of The Shivering Circle roleplaying game and film critic, Kathryn Jenkins, writer for Cthulhu Dark and Cthulhu Hack, Dr Nicholas Mizer, Lecturer in Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Jesse Ross, creator of the Trophy roleplaying game.
The speakers started by sharing their own experiences of creating unique roleplay worlds. Paul Baldowski took inspiration from ‘The Black Hack’ by David Black to develop a Cthulhu-mythos-inspired world that would transform investigators into cogs as part of a larger machine. Instead of the characters becoming the heroes of the story, they only see, and are involved in, a small portion of the overarching plan. They are no longer the ones in control, they are pawns in the development of a much larger narrative, which usually ends in their demise, rather than their success. Freed from the need to be precious about their character’s progression and survival, players begin the session with the understanding of their own inevitable mortality. Rather than than playing for self-preservation or the achievement of mastery, then, the players are engaged in the game to see how far they can go before their part in the story ends. This challenges the typical campaign structure in which a player plays a single character across multiple sessions in order to build up their power, abilities and notoriety. Paul talked about how ‘Cthulhu Hack’ investigators are established as not being the first, nor the last, in a line of people fighting against monsters, and occasionally against nature itself.
Kathryn Jenkins discussed using historical environments to set scenes which can feel more real, allowing players to be able to immerse themselves more fully in the world created in the game. Historical settings might be based on environments and stories that are familiar to the players through popular history or other media. Her work on the setting for Cthulhu Dark, Arkham 1692, draws on the real historical accounts of the Salem witch-trials to inform the history of the fictional town of Arkham, giving more texture to that setting and new contexts for players to explore. She suggested that when players are invested in the games and feel connected to the environment, this connection can build a tension through the game, which ends with a cathartic release when events in that place are resolved. Dr Nicholas Mizer further elaborated on this reimagining of history through his exploration of folklore and discussed how we take elements of the fantastically familiar and readapt them to then observe how people interact with those things in modern settings.
Jesse Ross spoke around the development of Trophy, a TTRPG which puts the players in familiar fantasy settings and makes use of genre trappings, but replaces heroism with horror. Trophy thus focusses more on the character of the environment, which is something rarely explored in TTRPGs. In Trophy, player characters are enter an area that doesn’t want them there, often for plunder. Jesse suggested that the idea that by the end of the session the character will be dead is quite freeing. He also mentioned the potential for catharsis in the game, which explicitly invites you to become the horror, to play an irredeemable character. The world-building in Trophy is also distinct from traditional roleplaying games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, Ross explained, because it emerges through interactions between pre-written, or pre-formulated, descriptions given by a GM and player input. Thus the player as well as the character becomes an active participant in world-building, which serves to not only bring ownership to the environment but also allows for a much greater depth of immersion. This idea of collective storytelling allows wider engagement as well as development of ideas for the GM and “opens the door to what the possibilities might be”. Howard Ingham said this was particularly true for ‘Lovecraftian’-inspired horror stories as the source material is a lot less detailed than you may expect, but that this allows for freedom of interpretation, personalisation and the chance for the GM and players to fill the gaps themselves with aspects that may be important or relevant to them as a group.
“Games are vehicles that we use to literally explore the multiverse”
Nick’s comments on games as vehicles for exploring the ‘multiverse’ led to discussion around how we can use TTRPGs to effect change. For example, games take concepts and situations that are important, but scary, and address them in a structured and supported way. Those difficult conversations become more accessible through the imaginary. We can imagine the world in a way that is different to how it currently is and then work towards that new world becoming a reality. Can the way we think about the world change our actions?
In terms of world-building in a post-Covid age, Kathryn Jenkins suggested that a movement towards a more reliance on digital technologies to encourage remote play could encourage more, not less, social interaction through TTRPGs. Our panellists also agreed that collaborative storytelling and gaming is becoming more visible, more mainstream and more accessible, especially since COVID. Injecting a note of caution into this techno-optimism, however, Paul Baldowski pointed out that online interaction is fundamentally different to in-person interaction, and that as we develop gameplay online we are becoming more aware of what translates through a digital medium and what doesn’t. Part of looking forward, and developing the hobby as well as new TTRPGs, will mean being aware of the constraints and limitations of the digital, and hybridizing our interaction in intelligent, thoughtful and caring ways.
Ultimately, storytelling and play through TTRPGs can offer modes of collaborative exploration with the potential to change how we interact with history, and how we as a society approach environmental challenges going forward. TTRPGS allow us the chance to explore our world in ways we can’t yet do in reality, but that can bring about innovation, and challenge how we interact with the real world.
Following the MGSN round table, Chloé gave a presentation at GENeration Analog, an international event co-hosted by Analog Game Studies, Gen Con and Game in Lab. Her paper built on the themes discussed in MGSN’s panel event. She argued that contemporary indie horror roleplaying games such as Trophy Dark and They are Hollows of Desolation by Gordie Murphy negotiate the horror of the Anthropocene in order to foster new dispositions towards the more-than-human world.
You can watch the full panel featuring Chloe’s paper over at Analog Game Studies’ YouTube channel (see video above), with thanks to the organisers and other participants for making this publicly available.
The Manchester Game Studies Network look forward to exploring some of these research themes further in future events and research on Games and the Environment. Watch this space!
Written by Nicola Branch and Chloé Germaine