Hello.

I'm Drew, 24, from the UK and a Creative Writing MA Hons. graduate and researching a proposal and more for a PhD. I'm currently in the hospitality business so the money isn't great so I'm having to do most of this off my own back. I'm really enjoying researching and writing so far so this is more of a project at the moment till I can put some funding towards it so it is more geared towards personal research than applying at the moment, probably in a couple of years if I'm funding myself. I'm wanting to look into, from a literature perspective, how changes in gaming technology have altered narrative, perception of fate and authorship. The active research will be to write my own tale, turn it into a choose your-own-book, a complete table top rpg game (in a very basic form) and short scenes from different types of video-games. I'll hope to prove that in certain lights, video-game technology could be considered the printing press of today. If you're interested in the academic side of things or just a general gist of where I'm coming from: //www.ludomech.blogspot.co.uk

This is where I would love to have some active discussions with players and GM's. I've not at the opportunity to personally take part in any table-top games (didn't have any interested friends or local groups) but I'm fascinated by the stories told. I'm wanting to talk about story, mechanics and general random ideas. I'm hoping to get some feedback as well on my current aesthetic for the setting. Eighteenth century Venice, filled with myths, monsters (based on Italian and Arabic folklore/mythology) and clock punk (Mainly Medieval Arabic, Islamic aesthetic with Da Vinci finesse) . It's alternative history which I have some idea on but needs more fleshing out.

I'm grounding nearly everything I can in comparative literature, history and theory. I feel at the minute that since most of the narrative will have to work within a rule set, I will be using the table-top form as one of my origin points. This is also the easiest to work on as its far more practical and discussion based than literature or theory research based.

If you can help in any way either contact me via skype: professor_tesla/e-mail andrew.david.wilson@hotmail.com or message me/post back on here. Bare in mind I am in the UK so time-zones may vary contact. I prefer skype or Google hangout ect over pretty much everything else as its easier to discuss.

Thanks for reading,
Drew

Quote from: proftesla;767816I've not at the opportunity to personally take part in any table-top games (didn't have any interested friends or local groups) but I'm fascinated by the stories told

The UK is chock full of RPG gamers. Get in a group and actually play. There is zero reason you can't find some RPGers - especially near a university.

Quote from: proftesla;767816I'm wanting to look into, from a literature perspective, how changes in gaming technology have altered narrative, perception of fate and authorship.

Do you have approval from your mentor prof for this as your PhD thesis?

As such, I don't see where tabletop RPGs come in. Gaming tech is really about electronics today, not dice games. Seems to me that your focus should be more on the scripts and story techniques used in video games - tracking the changes from the early PC games to today's big budget blockbuster console games.

Hum sorry, but it's very difficult, for me, to understand what your thesis is going to be about, and what you would like to get from the forums discussions... :confused: :idunno:

The only impression I get so far, is that you are still searching about what your thesis' subject will eventually be.

Quote from: Spinachcat;768037The UK is chock full of RPG gamers. Get in a group and actually play. There is zero reason you can't find some RPGers - especially near a university.

This advice is good. Some potentially helpful links: UK Roleplayers, Meetup.com (search for RPG) & NearbyGamers.

Quote from: Spinachcat;768037As such, I don't see where tabletop RPGs come in.

In all likelihood, computer RPGs simply would not exist without tabletop RPGs already having been on the scene. At the very least, CRPGs would not have developed in the way that they did. Many of the most successful CRPGs wear their TTRPG influences prominently on their sleeves (e.g. Elite, Boldur's Gate and its sequels, World of Warcraft, etc.).

The recursive relationship between CRPGs and TTRPGs could also be of academic interest - compare the game design values of World of Warcraft with those of D&D 4e. There is a reason 4e is different from every other iteration of the brand.

Quote from: Spinachcat;768037Gaming tech is really about electronics today, not dice games.

So nobody is playing tabletop RPGs over the Internet? Nobody has created technological platforms specifically to enable people to play tabletop RPGs over the Internet?

Just because these things aren't mass market doesn't mean they don't exist. Maybe I missed the part where the OP said they only wanted to look at the mass market.

To address a few issues:

1. Thank-you Livingstone for being patient and understanding

2. Spinachat - I have been until last week, a night worker. It is only now, since moving jobs, that I can afford time and have the motivation.

3. Currently the local university is out of term time, and the university society members are not local at this time. I have contacted via social media to no avail.

4. The local game shop does not run any form of Table top RPGs. Focused nearly entirely on card trading games and stocks a very limited collection of resources.

5. I am not looking into populist gaming, or any specifics. I am interested in how gaming mechanics alter, change and enchance how a narrative is told regardless of form. See Oulipo on wikipedia for more information. Table top RPGs are bound by rules I can read rather than learn to programme for video gaming so far easier to study by myself.

6. I am looking into the discourse with these modern methods as well as literary traditions, if I was to ask anyone under the age of 16 about dragons, they will not talk about mythology but rather populist media. This is why the basis of the narrative I wish to construct will be based in folklore and mythology, to see how much of the original ideas, intentions and themes are translated. If you have played Skyrim, how much do you really know about the Poetic Edda and how much influence this has had?

7. Yes I am in the research phase. I have been encouraged by my past university and the local one to carry out personal study, not only to deepen my understanding but also to create a solid literary foundation to which a potential proposal can be built upon and hopefully encourage funding.

8. As I have stated before I am new to the genre, I have come in from a literary and academic standpoint, not a player.

9. Just want to thank-you again to Livingstone for the links. I have yet to find any local societies at the minute so this will no doubt help. It is also unfortunate that my home town is called Reading, so Google searches usually use this term for the activity, rather than geography.

10. The easiest way to understand this idea in my opinion is looking at gaming as a version of a book and then using literary techniques, tools and theory to de-construct, analyse and experiment with. If people did not tell stories around a camp-fire such as Native American societies then modern gaming would not exist. There is an evolution of literary tradition which I want to study.

11. I am very much interested in how stories are told and the innovations in current technology, not just in video gaming but also social interactivity on-line. Such as Roll20 and Storium.

Hope that clears a few things up. I'm looking to discuss, exchange ideas and hopefully be pointed in the right direction.

Quote from: proftesla;768045To address a few issues:
2. Spinachat - I have been until last week, a night worker. It is only now, since moving jobs, that I can afford time and have the motivation.

You need to poke around the various virtual tabletop communities. Particularly Roll20.

Doesn't matter when your hours are, if you have any amount of free time you can find gamers to play tabletop with thanks to VTTs.

And they are not computer games but a means to play the same game the same way over the internet using chat, whiteboards and some automation (like dice rolling, character sheets, etc).

VTTs exist for wargames and boardgames if you are interested in that as well. For the people who are really pressed for time some of these support play by post for turn based board/wargames. Basically they automate the management and exchange of save game files.

Thankyou for the reply. I have already started looking into VTT's. I was refering to time being able to spend on research rather than playing as it has only been in the last couple of weeks that I've started to bring this idea together.

Looking over your blog, there is one thing that leaps out. Tabletop RPGS, MMORPGS, CRPGS, are not literature in another form.
Rather they are experiences and judged by the participants on how interesting an experience it is. Similar to how people judge the xperience of something like skiing or white water rafting based on specific locations. A world renowned ski slope is judged  to be a superior experience of sking as compared to the local ski slope near my hometown. and the location of the local ski slope was judge to be a superior location compared to other areas in my regions.

The same with tabletop and CRPGS. They use a game to provide an experience for their character. The story is the description of what happens to the participants much like I can tell a story of my afternoon spent sking.

This is the part that many don't get. People see heroes, villians, locations, plots and plans and think it is something like a movie or play.  But in reality it is something altogether new. Well not exactly new, we all played games of lets pretend. But what make today different is that we use a game to make the experience a challenge. To add uncertainty so make it a more of true experience rather than the wish fulfillment of let's pretend.

In short it is the Star Trek Holodeck but with pen and paper in the case of tabletop Roleplaying. For CRPGS it is the initial step to the Holodeck.

I have been refereeing tabletop for 30 years along with running LARP events for 15 years. I also got involved with a group of friend who ran a private MMORPG using Neverwinter nights.  Each type of roleplaying game I was involved with imposed its own advantages and limitations. Having experienced this my conviction is that the strength of roleplaying games in the experiences. No matter what form I was involved in if. I focused on the experience as opposed to a story the result was a better game for he participants.

In other words, go here.