First Post - The Hobby

I believe that a hobby is an area to excel in. Whatever hobby we choose, if we choose one at all, we strive for creating something with skill and confidence. A hobbyist approaches their interest with passion and a critical eye, because elevating the hobby, either for themselves or for the hobby's overall community, is the primary goal. Even those hobbies that are entirely self-contained or have evolved into a form that is standard or static require the personal dedication of individual hobbyists to maintain a level of quality and craftsmanship. And really, it's the craftsmanship that goes into a hobby that is the end itself. Once long ago, the artisan created with his hands something of beauty and refinement, something that was both aesthetically pleasing and functional. The cobbler, the smithy, the tailor. In an industrialized age, faster production replaces time and skill, even if the end product is of a lower quality.

The Roleplaying Game is no exception. A single major corporation has assumed control of most of the hobby, turning it into an industrialized industry. Perhaps this is how it should be, or must be - progress will progress. Still, the small-press roleplaying game is suffering, both in sales and in development. However, most of the small-press roleplaying games are minimal, offering only a few core rulebooks and a handful of supplements. Of course the industry giant, with its ability to flood the market at a fast pace, is going to overshadow the basement-run small business. But the result of this is that the industry wanes, the hobby slows down, and ideas are either underdeveloped or have nowhere to go.

Regardless, I'm a hobbyist. I shied away from roleplaying for a while because I didn't like the state it was in. But I can't help it; I'm drawn to it. I have an itch to roleplay, create, write, develop, and watch an isolated group experience unfold. I have a need to contribute to this hobby despite how I currently feel about it because I know its potential and I enjoy it on a personal level. To that end, I'll be working on developing my own roleplaying game, while posting thoughts and ideas about roleplaying and roleplaying games here on this blog.

I hear people talk about roleplaying as a return to oral tradition, the passing around of stories around a primitive fire. I like that idea, and I believe that there is something to it. I tend, however, to avoid simple escape into fantasy to avoid thinking about the real world. Escapism should be a method of learning about the real world in an abstract setting or temporary space, much like real oral tradition. In those stories, there was always a subtle or subconscious relationship between the stories and the world outside. The listener would take these stories with them into the world and keep them in mind when they encountered real life situations. While full, isolated escapism can be an empowering thing in the real world, giving the participant the strength to endure a harsh world long enough to return to fantasy, it can also be an addiction and poor substitute for actually confronting problems.

This is all heady stuff, and I admit that I'm no psychologist or therapist. I don't intend to fix anyone's personal problems just by writing or just running a roleplaying game. But I believe that the more separated from reality a game (or anything for that matter: movies, television, books) becomes, the less easy it is for the participants to relate it to the real world. There may be no problem inherent to that issue, but for those who dedicate themselves so wholly to the hobby, like myself, their ability to comprehend and function in the world outside will slip away unless the hobby can reflect it in some way. This problem isn't isolated to roleplaying, though it gets the worst reputation for it. The same can be said for model train builders, coin collectors, and fantasy footballers. In fact, these other hobbies in and of themselves have almost no relation to human interaction outside their respective groups. Roleplaying, on the other hand, is all about human interaction, and if that interaction is abstracted and played with on an honest and realistic level, regardless of how many unrealistic fantasy elements are introduced, then the roleplayers have the opportunity to develop themselves and grow as human beings and members of the society as a whole.

Well, that's all I have for now. I have some ideas specific to roleplaying, particularly the aspect of the game I am writing, to discuss in later posts.