I enjoyed this, particularly the distinction between playing a dark setting versus playing a dark game. Glad to have happened upon your Substack (came via your Shadowdark Official FB group post, BTW).
I own Shadowdark RPG but have yet to play it as my 5e group comprises primarily min-maxers who revel in building overpowered, game-breaking PCs.😒
Thanks for sharing this! I sometimes struggle with darker settings and themes in my tabletop RPGs, mostly because I usually play solo and I feel like imagining those bleak, grim fantasy worlds can put me in a bit of a dark mood. But your essay gave me a fresh perspective, and I think I really needed a read like this. I appreciate your work. I really enjoy your articles. Wishing you a great day!
I hear you, but I think these kind of reductionist assertions run the risk of underestimatingy the formative effects of immersive, imaginative role-playing, especially on young minds.
Really fantastic post. I think you're spot on with the idea that confrontation and guidance fosters more development than avoidance and condemnation, and role playing is a great way to engage younger people on a more personal level than with passive stories. I think recent generations have really suffered from a wide-spread instinct to mentally insulate them - but that which is reflexively suppressed is never entirely excised. It can either drive them to seek answers from outside the community [online, through the smartphone that too many young people have glued to their hand] or drive the anxieties that were too unpleasant for their guardians to address deeper inside, where they fester and become obsessions. Fear, evil, and most insidious of all, simple moral failure, are every bit as important for young people to grapple with as the classic topics of sex and death, and creating the right framework for them to build their own moral models off of is worth the trouble.
I publish Shadowdark content on the side, in the form of supplements, adventures, classes,etc but I wanted to make a zine based around Christian mythology - Watchers, Nephilim, Evil Sorcerer kings, do a sort of "pre deluvian" take on fantasy.
I enjoyed this, particularly the distinction between playing a dark setting versus playing a dark game. Glad to have happened upon your Substack (came via your Shadowdark Official FB group post, BTW).
I own Shadowdark RPG but have yet to play it as my 5e group comprises primarily min-maxers who revel in building overpowered, game-breaking PCs.😒
Thanks for sharing this! I sometimes struggle with darker settings and themes in my tabletop RPGs, mostly because I usually play solo and I feel like imagining those bleak, grim fantasy worlds can put me in a bit of a dark mood. But your essay gave me a fresh perspective, and I think I really needed a read like this. I appreciate your work. I really enjoy your articles. Wishing you a great day!
It's just a game lol
I hear you, but I think these kind of reductionist assertions run the risk of underestimatingy the formative effects of immersive, imaginative role-playing, especially on young minds.
Really fantastic post. I think you're spot on with the idea that confrontation and guidance fosters more development than avoidance and condemnation, and role playing is a great way to engage younger people on a more personal level than with passive stories. I think recent generations have really suffered from a wide-spread instinct to mentally insulate them - but that which is reflexively suppressed is never entirely excised. It can either drive them to seek answers from outside the community [online, through the smartphone that too many young people have glued to their hand] or drive the anxieties that were too unpleasant for their guardians to address deeper inside, where they fester and become obsessions. Fear, evil, and most insidious of all, simple moral failure, are every bit as important for young people to grapple with as the classic topics of sex and death, and creating the right framework for them to build their own moral models off of is worth the trouble.
I publish Shadowdark content on the side, in the form of supplements, adventures, classes,etc but I wanted to make a zine based around Christian mythology - Watchers, Nephilim, Evil Sorcerer kings, do a sort of "pre deluvian" take on fantasy.