Much as I enjoy running tabletop RPGs, I don’t much enjoy playing a character.
This is partly because characters have relatively little to do at any given time. Consider combat: in a four-person party, I’ll spend at best four-fifths of the time twiddling my thumbs, watching everyone else fight. Even outside of combat, I’m just one of several adventurers.
Also, role-playing is social. As quoted in a recent post on Sin Aesthetics: “Enjoying roleplaying is rather like enjoying dancing: At some point you have to throw your inhibitions to the wind, admit you might look like a fool to passing spectators and enjoy the moment. Also like dancing, which at first may seem like a fairly limited activity, roleplaying has almost infinite depth and variety in the experiences it provides.”
While I can “throw my inhibitions to the wind” with good friends, that’s tough to do outside of intimate groups. And my role-playing friends don’t really reward good role-playing. They’re good guys; they’re just focused more on killing stuff and taking loot than on role-playing, at this stage.
And that’s one of the big limitations of role-playing: it requires a certain kind of mentality. Now, I think practically anyone can learn to role-play, just like anyone can play a game of charades. But it’s a mentality that I don’t get much of a charge out of.
Part of the trouble, too, is that I create worlds. I love thinking up cities and societies and people. If there’s going to be someone in the whole process doing that, why not me?
What Is This?
This site is dedicated to intellectual reviews and analysis of anime, with detours into video games and tabletop RPGs. I also make things, from crafts to Gunpla to 3D printing.
What's Here?
3D PrintingAnime
Drawing
Model Kits
Tabletop RPGs
Video Games
Workshop
Worldbuilding
Panels
Search
Live Shows
Chat
Popular Tags
anime news review Role-playing gundam workshop monsters drawing video games Faction Monsters faction Let's Play an Interesting RPG Uncategorized boogiepop Random Idea 50 Games in 50 Weeks Game Design Hour Pyre Shattered World worldbuilding Tarakona GM Advice basics Prescriptions gunpla gm advice serial experiments lainArchives
- 2024
- 2021
-
2020
- December 2020
-
November 2020
- Digging Deeper into: Megazone 23
- Brent's Anime Rec: Moshidora
- Brent's Anime Rec: Princess Tutu
- Digging Deeper Into: Urusei Yatsura 2
- Is Mecha Dead?
- I Just Love: Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
- Digging Deeper Into: Arcadia of my Youth
- 6 Influential But Forgotten Mecha Shows
- Brent's Anime Rec: The Cat Returns
- Digging Deeper Into: Vampire Hunter D
- 5 Classic Harem Anime That Are Actually Interesting
- Digging Deeper Into: Project A-Ko
-
October 2020
- Digging Deeper Into: Castle of Cagliostro
- Digging Deeper Into: Blood The Last Vampire
- Fall Anime Preview 2020
- Brent’s Anime Rec: Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
- Digging Deeper: Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968)
- A Brief History of Anime: The 2010s
- A Brief History of Anime: The 2000s
- Digging Deeper Into Akira
- Digging Deeper: Hakujaden
-
September 2020
- Digging Deeper Into: Okko's Inn
- A Brief History of Anime: The 1990s
- Digging Deeper: Momotaro's Sacred Sailors
- Brent's Anime Rec: Kodocha
- A Brief History of Anime: The 1980s
- Digging Deeper into Angel's Egg
- A Brief History of Anime: The 1970s
- Digging Deeper into Metropolis
- A Brief History of Anime: The 1960s
-
August 2020
- A Brief History of Anime: 1900-1959
- Digging Deeper into Pom Poko
- Brent's Anime Rec: K-ON!
- The heartwrenching contrasts of war in "In This Corner of the World"
- Digging Deeper into A Silent Voice - SPOILERS
- How Heavy Are Those Dumbbells You Lift?
- Brent's Anime Recs: Robot Carnival
- Abstract Realism in "Night is Short, Walk on Girl"
- The Anime Aesthetic in Land of Lustrous
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020