This column could have been a Gen Con recap, but I wasn't there . . . I hope you all enjoyed the coverage we did provide, though. Many thanks to Cub Reporter Micah Jackson for all his hard work. What Are We Roleplaying For, Anyway?
But you know, in a way this column is a Gen Con report, because I want to talk about some issues raised by three products I got in the mail last week, products that were (coincidentally) released at Gen Con. And they're all from the Little English RPG Company That Could, Hogshead Publishing.
Hogshead, helmed by James Wallis, is a favorite company of mine. They are constantly trying to push the envelope of what roleplaying is, and what it could be. They are the folks who brought us last year's Adventures of Baron Munchausen roleplaying game, which went so far away from the rules structure and conflict simulation of "traditional" roleplaying that there is a continuing debate inside the industry as to whether or not it even is a roleplaying game.
What they sent me was classic Hogshead. First up was a two-books-in-one product by Pagan Publishing's John Tynes, Puppetland and Power Kill. The third was Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed, by "Designer X." And they all ask -- from different angles -- the same question: What are we roleplaying for? What do we get out of it? Sure, it's fun. That's the easy answer. But why is it fun?
I'll start with Power Kill, a metagame (a game within another game) that . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: August 13, 1999
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