Since I started teaching at Heritage College, I’ve been encouraged to find new ways of getting students interested in learning philosophy and critical reasoning. So I invented four games that I regularly use in my classes: I published one of them last year, and I plan to publish a second eventually.
Not only that. Since 1996, I have been writing my own fantasy role-play game. I was inspired to do so when White Wolf discontinued their Changeling line, which I used to really enjoy (they have since re-imagined and re-started it). Feeling disenfranchised and left out, I decided to invent my own game, to replace it. That was almost twenty years ago. And since then, I re-open it every three or four months, write or edit a page or two, and then close it again for another few months.
The result of having done that for almost twenty years is that I now have an almost-complete game, 286 pages long, the majority of which is character-development and world-building information.
This summer, while writing Clan Fianna, it occurred to me that with a few small intelligent changes, the game could be presented as a spinoff product of my Fellwater series of novels. People who read and enjoyed the novels could use the game to create their own characters in the Hidden World and thus play in my back yard. I could also use the game to reveal more of that Hidden World. And those who enjoy role-play gaming could check out the novels to see what life is like for characters in my world.
As another feature that might interest gamers: as far as I know, my game would be the first and only RPG designed by a professional philosopher. And while the game still represents philosophical interests I had eighteen years ago, it also has lots of stuff in it from my more recent philosophical ruminations. It has become, in effect, a fantasy RPG which players may use to explore philosophical questions, and to train themselves to handle philosophical problems. And also, naturally, to have lots of fun!
You see, the interesting thing about having two graduate degrees in philosophy is that I understand logic, algorithms, conceptual analysis, political theory and strategy, and the principles of mathematical game theory – perfect for designing the rules and numbers aspect of an RPG, as well as the larger cosmology and world view and conflicts in which characters find themselves. For example, players in my game must choose a “Source”, which their characters draw from and which contributes a large part of who the characters are. It may look at first like a D&D-style alignment system. But they are not just four stations on a spectrum between good and evil. Rather, they are four different world views: really four different competing models of human nature, good and evil, justice and injustice, and what lies between them.
At the same time, from my BA in Drama, I also understand storytelling, narrative arcs, dramatic tension, imagination, performance, and free creative play – perfect for world building, character design, and the like. My fiction writing is inspired by the playwriting and directing work I did as a BA drama student: I even apprenticed for a short while under a playwright who won the Governor General’s award for literature twice. So I know about storytelling. On top of that, I’ve also undertaken a lifelong study of mythology and folklore – I’ve even published several books on the topic – which is helpful for all those things I already mentioned, and more.
To sum it all up: I’ve got the text of a fantasy RPG, which is perhaps 85% complete, and I’ve got a network of wonderful people who could help me illustrate, edit, design, promote, and play it. But I wouldn’t ask any of these people to work for me for free. Hence, I’m thinking of another fundraising campaign.
Well, you may ask, what is the game “about”? It’s about this:
What if the ancient gods and heroes of mythology were human beings like ourselves: but just a little stronger, more knowledgeable, quicker, more beautiful, and a little more full of energy, than the rest of us? What if the nymphs and satyrs of Greek imagination, the dwarves and giants of the north, the faeries of the Celtic lands, and the spirits of every people and nation, were actually just people like you and me—except that they could make some of their dreams come true? What if time and history exaggerated and expanded the stories of their lives, transforming them into myth and legend? What if even the gods themselves were fallible beings, having most of the same weaknesses we all have, the same hopes and fears, the same aspirations for power or happiness, the same unfulfilled dreams and unrequited loves—but they were elevated above the rest of humanity by being just a little bit more in touch with the mysteries of the universe than the rest of us?
What if you were one of them?
That’s the opening paragraph of the game, of course. I wrote that back in 1996. The world of my Fellwater Tales novels is very similar.
So here is the big question to which I’d like all of you to respond. If I were to launch a fundraising campaign to pay for the production of this game, would you support it? Might there be interest out there in an RPG designed by a professional philosopher (me) and crafted by multiple contributors into a work of art in its own right?
Please post your comments here and let me know.
2 Responses to My next Kickstarter campaign, perhaps? A philosophical RPG!