(all images come from TSR publications, the last two come from the D&D Expert Players Rules)
When contemplating the notion of an Alternate Reality Game, I think back to the days before computer games had alternate reality credentials, when I was a nerd before nerds were cool. I played Dungeons and Dragons in the Eighties- with my family, neighbourhood friends, school-friends- my Dad even took me to a D'n'D session at university when he was a tutor, and I got closer to finishing the adventure than the undergrads. I have been in the Dungeons and Dragons closet a long time, so when I come across a subject like this where we are EXPECTED to set-up a game with a Dungeon Master, with PCs and NPCs (Dungeons and Dragons terms) and monsters, mazes, puzzles, booby traps and treasure- it feels slightly surreal. Dungeons and Dragons was controversial for two reasons- it was denounced by Church and community groups for leading young people to devil worship, and suicide. Neither of these happened to me, and I have kept all my old manuals for sentimental reasons. These days I far prefer nestling into a long night of Skyrim, the ultimate nerd x-box game, where there is no judgement for being a fantasy nerd.
A really interesting element of D'n'D was it's alignment system. In the basic version of the game, which I first played, it consisted of Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. In the Advanced version of the game, they expanded it to also include Good, Neutral, and Evil, which made nine alignments- Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil. Characters of the same alignment could talk to each other in their own sign language. Paladins (holy knights) could only be Lawful Good and Lawful Good characters would only adventure with other Lawful Good characters. Chaotic Good was the preferred alignment if you had a Robin Hood character in mind. True Neutral characters were distant from the affairs of men and was the necessary alignment of druids and mystics. In many games, frictions between players occurred because they were playing with their character's alignments in mind. Chaotic Neutral characters were a true surprise if they popped up in your party, because they would do everything in their power to be unpredictable, which often led to tensions within the party when they were under pressure. No computer game that I know of has yet come close to the intricacies of the D'n'D alignment system, where you have to make decisions based on what you imagine your character to be thinking.
Possible Causes for KIP402:
-World Peace!
-Heal the Bees and plant more flowers in your neighbourhood
-Make the world's ageing population comforted if and when they are struck with dementia
-Help the Homeless
Ciao for now,
Nick Drake