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Source: https://www.indiegamereadingclub.com/indie-game-reading-club/ten-unanswerable-evergreen-discourses/

Ten Unanswerable Evergreen Discourses
Posted on April 5, 2024 by Paul Beakley

One of the most frustrating things about being deep into RPGs in a
serious way for a very long time is that the same conversations seem to
keep coming up. Year after year, decade after decade. Every few years a
new cohort comes along and convinces itself theyrCOre the first ones to
have thought of these questions or these answers. IrCOm not sure what to
tell you other thanrCasometimes thatrCOs true. Mostly itrCOs not.

ItrCOs not true because, in most cases, the evergreen topics are by
definition unanswerable. IsnrCOt that exciting? I love that there are fundamental questions about gaming you literally canrCOt answer. Call them koans or first principles or core values if you want.

And yet folks continue to be convinced they have the answers. ItrCOs
great! And frustrating, particularly when bad-faith arguers move the
goal posts until theyrCOve rCLwon.rCY And occasionally enlightening.

For the sake of my own sanity, where IrCOve ended up in my gaming life is
a commitment to be open-minded about just how unanswerable these
questions all are. Stay curious and you might learn something from the
folks yourCOre convinced are ignorant, naive, or inexperienced.

1. What are rules for?

This onerCOs my absolute favorite. Without rules you have no game! But
what makes them essential? And what are they for? Find your own answer
to this one and so much else falls into place.

Are rules for adjudicating disagreements? Aspirational flags pointing
toward what to focus on? Do they provoke excitement through uncertainty? Provide unexpected results? Small inputs to form into larger meaning?

Why do games need rules? Do we need to follow the rules? Can you cheat?
What does cheating even mean in the context of an activity that has no
win condition?

I mean, IrCOve got my own answers to this. This blog has dedicated perhaps millions of words at this point to answering this question. But if IrCOm
being honest, itrCOs objectively unanswerable.

2. Is [game title] the best gateway for new gamers?

Just impossible to answer without identifying your goals, your personal history, and the tastes and tolerances of the folks yourCOre trying to
bring into gaming. rCLD&D of course!rCY is a common and tedious answer thatrCOs trivially debunked by the vast numbers of folks who have come to roleplaying by different paths.

IrCOve used heavy games, light games, narrative games, tactical games,
story games, PbtA, FitD, WoD. It never seems to matter. At this point
IrCOve certainly brought hundreds, if not thousands, of folks into gaming
over the decades. Heck, IrCOm currently hooking my niece, her fiance and
her entire Gen Z cohort on Zombie World (which they call rCLD&D with zombiesrCY).

Now if your agenda is to build fandom and participation in your
particular favorite branch of gaming, then hell yes thererCOs going to be
a best choice. ItrCOs the game you love the most in that branch.
3. What is the core activity of roleplaying?

It sure seems like thererCOs some essential definitive activity that is rCLroleplaying,rCY right? DoesnrCOt there have to be? ThererCOs so much in the world that clearly isnrCOt roleplaying. But hell if I can answer this in a
way that satisfies everyone, much less myself. Particularly since there
are so many nerds whose primary sport is being contrarian.

I feel like nailing down the core activity is up there with rCLwhat are
the rules for?rCY in terms of identifying your own central values. Good
luck coming up with your answer! Some asshole will tell you yourCOre wrong.

4. Are RPGs art?

Great one because both rCLyesrCY and rCLnorCY bring so much baggage along with them. So of course my personal answer is rCLit can be!rCY Yes, even the trashiest power fantasy garbage can have artistic ambitions, even if the
game fails to achieve them.

Heck, even nailing down what yourCOre talking about when you say rCLRPGrCY in that question is tricky. Are you talking about the individual
performances? The act itself? The rules text? The accumulated
assumptions and best practices of its practitioners? WhererCOs the art? Is
Art a noun or a verb?

5. Are designers responsible for how their games are played? Are the
players?

Oh boyrCathe ethical responsibilities of game designers and players. Good
one, yeah? This entails eternal bangers like is violence bad, is
objective morality boring, are fantasy races racist, are you taking this
all too seriously?

An awful lot of players and designers have tied themselves into knots
trying so hard to get their ethics right. WerCOre going through a pretty puritanical moment in gaming, which has been a mixed bag. Lots of
triumphs, but I think werCOve lost some things as well.

The bottom line on this one, for me, is that thererCOs just no stopping
folks from playing however theyrCOre going to play at their own table. You
may have didactic goals but yourCOll just make yourself crazy wondering if those goals are being met anywhere beyond your own table. Still no
answer on how to set that aside; goodness knows I havenrCOt yet.

6. Are the players more important to a successful game than the system?

AKA rCLsystem matters, but itrCOs not the only thing that matters.rCY Also rCL[your] system doesnrCOt matter [to me].rCY

ThererCOs always been a weird stew of hero worship and parasocialism that
has led to game systems and their creators being over-valorized from
time to time. Heck, as often as not the designers themselves donrCOt even
know the strengths of their own designs! So yes of course the players
are an important part of play.

On the other hand, folks who are committed to their one ruleset because
itrCOs worked out so well for them over a long stretch tend to dismiss the importance of the rules. After all, if you have to give the rules any
credit at allrCahow good a gamer are you, really?

ItrCOs absurd and, to my mind, one of the most ideological of the
evergreen discourses.

7. Should X?

Oh my god, just take rCLshouldrCY out of your mouth when yourCOre talking about any bit of RPGs. Should rules be ignored for a better story?
Should players always roll out in the open? Should the GM be treated
like God? Should incentives point toward desired behaviors? Should any particular behavior be desirable? Should characters be competent, or
nuanced, or one-note, or conflicted, or or or? Should games be fun?
Should rules be easy? Should rulebooks have art? Should fights be fair?

The minute I see rCLshouldrCY in any discourse I just quietly scroll past.

8. Which comes first, the fiction or the rules?

Kind of a subset of rCLwhat are rules forrCY but this one, to me, is more in the weeds of what actually happens at the table. And the answer is: it
depends on the game. I love fiction-first play, and I prefer it when the
rules are invoked to reflect the common reality as we understand it. But
also the in-game fiction and the out-of-game conversation, guided by uncertainty or not, are in constant dialogue. Who even knows which one
came first?

On the other hand, rules are often the most straightforward way players
have to put their hands on the fiction. They want their play to matter
and it can be hard to get everyone on the same fictional page before
going to the rules. I have players at my own table to this day who
simply donrCOt like working things out rCLin the fiction.rCY They want the objective authority of rules to back them up.

Roleplaying is some weird shit yrCOall.

9. Is theory useful or a gatekeeping tool?

Oh man. ItrCOs both.

ThererCOs been a lot of excellent RPG theory work done by lots of
different communities over the decades. They all have something
interesting to add. TheyrCOve all created ideas that turned out to be
garbage, or turned out to simply be incomplete. They all come with
agendas. ItrCOs unfortunate that itrCOs hard to really dig into play and design theory in an institutional way, but the work is worth doing.

But, yes, ignorance about game design history and theory is regularly
used to dismiss younger, marginalized, outsider design. This is where
the good shit is going to come from, folks! DonrCOt be stupid about
slamming designers because they donrCOt know their games are, dunno, incoherent or something.

Theory can be useful, and occasionally its advocates have been gross.
Every good thing can be misused.

10. Is safety a thing?

Tricky one, which is why it comes up again and again. I think the answer
has to be rCLyesrCY but IrCOve got a bunch of asterisks that come with it.

For one, I think the emphasis on safety has pathologized an activity
that is harmless 99% of the time. The fact that safety tool materials
show up in virtually every game these days makes it seem like
roleplaying is way more dangerous than it really turns out to be.

For another, all those tools showing up everywhere point at deep design laziness. ItrCOs real easy to drop in a boilerplate statement about the
X-Card TinyURL and rCLfascists arenrCOt allowed to play this game.rCY ItrCOs a genuine design challenge to actually make your games safe from the
get-go. And to correctly identify the problem areas where harm might
come about (versus mild to moderate discomfort).

And finally, thererCOs no safety without consent and resilience. We donrCOt talk enough about that third one, and itrCOs easy to get defensive about
it. But itrCOs a three-legged stool, I think, thatrCOs stronger when all
three legs are strong.

But somehow yourCOve got reactionaries out there who dismiss the concept
of safety entirely. ItrCOs a marketing position and cultural marker as
much as anything, I think. What I really have never wrapped my head
around is the reactionary crowd that both dismiss safety as a thing, and insist their games are capital-a Art. Nothing more boring than safe, unchallenging Art, my dudes.

Like the rest of these evergreen discourses, itrCOs really an unanswerable question for everyone everywhere. Straight middle-aged white guy with
some savings? Gaming is awfully safe!
Time is a Flat Circle

Just remember the next time you see some gaming discourse starting up
online and you think to yourself, rCLwait, wasnrCOt this solved forever ago?,rCY these ten will never be settled. Except by you! Yes, absolutely settle them for yourself. Know your own tastes, beliefs, biases. But rCa
maybe donrCOt feel so compelled to settle them for anyone else.

Or be surprised when someone disagrees.
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