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Title Graphic Provided by LAR1N

Why is it, when a geek starts to create something new, we must create a result the likes of which no one has yet dreamed?

I have found myself asking myself this question for large sections of my adult life. Often, the question comes up when I have a role-playing book resting on my lap. The smell of RPG book ink (a somewhat unique odor…I swear the infuse something special, like the blood of a dragon, into the stuff). The feel of the large pages, bound together by a binding made with the love of the games creators, with a solid heft in your hands. A string of rules, stories, suggestions, ideas. It stirs something in the brain of a gamer drawn to this kind of geekdom. The fingers tingle for some paper and a pencil, while repulsed by a pen. The mind begins to churn, and from the geeks hands flow unimaginable power. To an uninitiated viewer, this is nerd reading a really big book and taking notes…to someone who recognizes the process, this is the work of a demi-god. For after an hour, maybe more, the geek will have done something it takes a woman an average of 259 and 294 days to start, and another 18+ years for time and circumstances to create.

From the pen and the rules comes a person. A unique soul, with unique skills and a history, a family, and a course of events which has molded them into who they are today. Certainly, these past experiences are often condensed into statistics and numbers, but this is not a way to cheapen the existence of this person. It is a tool through with the player, the character’s own demi-god, may understand their charge quickly.

It is with this speed that the two, the character and the player, are able to achieve a rapid state of symbiosis. Certainly, the character cannot exist without the player, but the player needs the character. Without this person as their avatar, a player cannot slip from their skin, enter a world unlike anyone today has ever seen, and become more than who they are. Suddenly, the gentle and unassuming man with the thick glasses becomes Thorok the Barbarian, noble warrior with no equal. So too does the shy and introspective woman who doesn’t know how to make friends become Shalia the Elven Diplomat, able to talk to (and seduce, should she so choose) commoner and kings. The player gives life to their character, and so the character allows the player to become anyone they can dream of. This statistical person-like construct allows their creator to explore themselves, to embody the virtues and beliefs they already possess in life to a greater degree, to explore parts of themselves they have never experienced, and so much more.

And while this kind of creation is quite tremendous, there is another kind of creation in the world of the Role Playing Game which is somewhat unique and striking. The power of a player to create a person, to live their life, and to find meaning in something that once did not exist, pales in comparison to the power of a Gamemaster. For while players are demi-gods, giving birth to a life, a Gamemaster is a metagod who gives birth to an entire universe. The people the characters interact with on a daily basis? The Gamemaster put them there, knows their deepest thoughts, and gives them voice. The histories and political systems the players work within to obtain power, prestige and the ability to change the world? The Gamemaster crafted them from prehistory to the present, giving thought to every moment which lead up to this one, and every rationale for why things are done the way they are. The creatures of legend who force the characters to fight for their lives, and the monsters (“human” or otherwise) who send shivers down the players’ spines? It was the Gamemaster whose blood was chilled first, who knew they would be the perfect adversary to put before his players. Even the paths of the gods themselves falls under the purview of the Gamemaster, a force even greater than this created world’s divine powers.

When put this way, another whole layer of meaning falls upon that unassuming collection of people surrounded by paper, books and dice. They aren’t just a bunch of geeks in a basement playing a game…they are the creators of a world, and all the people and things it in. Which trails me back to my original inquiry…what drives this kind of geek to want to be involved in such a tremendous undertaking? Is it a drive to use, unbound by the rules of the normal universe, the creativity locked within these individuals? Is it the desire to be more like a divine creator, and be able to have complete control over things no mortal should have any right to? Is it the wish to escape our world, and the creation of complete people, places and things is just a tremendous side-effect? Is it a mixture of these things?

I know such philosophical wanderings are almost rhetorical, but these are the things that I ponder which make my love of the geek deeper. I’d love to hear what the True Believers thing about such things.