Against Games That Say I Can Do Anything (But That I Can't Play Sonic the Hedgehog)
A Games Manifesto, Sort of, But Not Really
I got into roleplaying games through freeform RP on chat rooms and forums in the early 2000s. I had read TTRPG books before that, beginning with a worn copy of Middle-Earth Role-Playing we picked up at a yard sale prior to that, but I didn’t have many friends as a kid and it wasn’t until the Internet became a presence in my life that I had people to play pretend with.
The game I really latched onto was Superhero Showdown, a forum-based superhero fighting game where you picked a character and wrote crossover fanfic in a shared universe. The only guideline was once a week, your character would fight another character and the admin (an ersatz GM) would decide who won.
If you are brain poisoned in the same way I am, you may also recognize this as fundamentally E-Fedding but for superheroes instead of pro wrestling. Same basic deal.
For the most part, though, you didn’t really engage with the GM, or the rules, or anything. You had your character (I was at times Superman, or Captain America, or Will Eisner’s The Spirit), other players had their character, and we all took turns dictating what happened. GM-less play, I guess you could say.
In the years since then, I have gone on to play a lot more games with a lot of different rules. A lot of them. I’ve played more named games on-mic than any performer in the history of games and actual play as mediums. At least a 30% chance if you’re reading this I’ve played with more systems than you. But in spite of all of that, 90% of the attitudes I have about play, and games, and rules, and structure in TTRPGs come from that background of play.
I don’t need rules to play. I come from a space where we didn’t have rules and just let the story guide. I trust my friends and my creative impulses and we can merely negotiate, or implicitly or explicitly agree on what happens next in a narrative that is fun and joyful. I can tell you a story, ask what you think will happen next, and react as though that has happened. I can play make-believe. I am a writer by trade and by training. I am comfortable doing those things. You can hear me do that right now on Batman: Bump in the Night. No matter how many times game designers pitching me their books to play on Party of One insist, I can tell a story and explore a world without your immaculately designed set of rules.
That said, I like the way rules, especially narrative rules, or interpretive rules, constrain that narrative impulse and further force me to consider that question of “what happens next” in fun and interesting ways. I like an unexpected wrench thrown in the mix, and having to instead brainstorm what happens as a result.
Fundamentally, rules stop me from logically anticipating or following a narrative thread through to its next logical beat. Rules get in the way. Rules at their best are an obstacle I have to swim around them, or consciously break them. Rules are a cage and I am a puppygirl.
The rub here is what happens when a rule is uninteresting to me, which is frequently the case. The TTRPG equivalent of an invisible wall in a video game. A rule that blocks me from telling the story I want to tell, from exploring the space I want to explore, not for a particular reason, but simply because it is there. If I am going to honor a rule, I want it to lead to interesting outcomes. And when you are used to playing without rules, you quickly see which rules accomplish that result.
How Sonic the Hedgehog Fits Into All Of This
The #1 set of rules people in TTRPGs insist to me are very important, that are to me the epitome of an invisible wall mechanic, is the character sheet.
I am used to fanfiction RP. I am used to playing with established characters in situations close to or extremely far from canon, mingling with OCs and alt versions and mash-ups and all manner of other weird character concepts, all brought to a table with a baseline assumption of “This is who this character is, this is what they do, and this is their personality. I come from a play background where, if I want to play Sonic The Hedgehog, I can say, “I’m Sonic, I go fast, collect rings, roll in a ball, and eat chili dogs,” and we go.
If you come to me and say “rules are training wheels, you should embrace a pure state of play, games should have as few rules as possible to encourage free play,” I don't disagree! If you point then and say, "I think you should play game X instead, it has rules that get out of the way" I’m going to expect you to be able to hang when I come to the table and say “I’m Sonic the Hedgehog,” or else your entire point is bunk.
Far too frequently I am told I am playing games wrong, or that I don’t trust my friends, or that “you don’t need systems, you should have as few rules as possible to encourage a world,” or “you should only have rules that elide the specific elements of play you are not interested in discussing.” From there, the conversation goes as follows:
“What should I play instead?”
“Here is a game that gets out of the way and opens up space for freeform play”
“Cool, can I play Sonic the Hedgehog?”
“No, there is a character creation section in the book.”
“So I can’t play Sonic the Hedgehog?”
“No, you have to play Cromslor the Shitty Cobbler.”
“But I don’t want to play Cromslor the Shitty Cobbler. Why would I want to play that instead of Sonic?”
“Because that’s the game.”
You have not presented me with fewer rules. You still have just as many limitations on my creativity and the narrative I am experiencing. Just... those rules are arbitrary and don't push me in a more exciting direction. You've given me a set of invisible walls and said "Look how much better these walls are, they're invisible." You've constructed a position wherein I don’t get to explore the story space I want (one where Sonic The Hedgehog fights a dragon), without pushing the story into a space I care about.
If Games Are Toys, Let Me Be Sid From Toy Story
When I started talking about this on social media, people started pitching me their games in the replies. “WELL, good news, in MY GAME, you CAN play Sonic. Here’s how.” And babes, no shade, but also… you’re kinda missing the point. It doesn’t actually matter if I can play Sonic. What I care about are the invisible walls in place around a game, and if I find that game more interesting as a result.
Inevitably I am going to snap something in half in your game. Any player is. Players are awful gross little things, and I should know, I am one of them.
But I know what I like. I know the games I like. The story beats I enjoy. The tropes I am susceptible to. And the obstacles that, if put in my way, will force me to think in creatively satisfying ways.
The joy of reading and playing so many systems, even when I don’t need them, is finding fun little rituals and procedures and practices and obstacles I can put in my path to push my creativity in unexpected directions.
My problem is not with a specific game or system, in large part because, as Rob points out in this thread, every game is going to have a break point. My issue is not whether or not a game has a character sheet, or if a game is about something so specific where Sonic The Hedgehog wouldn't make sense, or if Sonic can be stated by the rules as written.
The issue, as always, is with you telling me the game is getting out of my way when it isn't, or that I’m playing my games wrong, or I don’t trust my friends, or (as one person put it in a 3-hour video essay I will not link here) I am guilty of conversion therapy because I use PbtA moves in games sometimes.
The problem is, as always, with Posting(™).
So Jeff, Why Don’t You Get Off of Social Media?
Well first of all, fuck you,
