The happy roleplaying medium
Consider this nonsense:
“You are useless and will never amount to anything. Why do you even bother? Maybe after you lose five kilos, get a relationship or learn a cool hobby, then people might tolerate your presence for more than a few minutes.”
Yikes.
That’s some grade-A manure right there.
But some folks believe that. Whether consciously or not, they tell that to themselves.
Some go so far as to tell that to others. Those folks are not okay, to put it mildly.
Now consider this:
“You are perfect as you are. The very idea that you need to improve in any way is wrong. Accept everything about yourself. If anyone criticises you in any way, that’s violence and it’s their problem.”
That’s also nonsense.
Unfortunately, it’s a lot more common.
It sounds nice and it says all the right words. Who doesn’t want to be accepted for who they are, scars and all?
But it’s also harmful, insidious manure you’d do well to eject from your mind.
It’s almost as if there’s a happy medium between these two lunatic fringes…
I haven’t seen any research on this, but it wouldn’t surprise me if players of RPGs didn’t fall into these traps as often as others.
Roleplayers know they aren’t perfect - that, through hard work and resilience, they can become even more powerful.
Every day and in every way, I’m gaining XP and levelling up my stats.
They also know that they’re not useless at any stage. Even if all they can do is fight rats, then they go out and fight rats. That does some good and it’s great start.
Stats and levelling up have deep life lessons encoded into them.
You’re good enough as you are - for now. That’s great, because you’re only going to get stronger from here. A life of adventure, riches, service, power and meaningful accomplishment is yours for the taking. All you need to do is start and then don’t stop.
I love games.
If you think I only love them because they’re fun, then you don’t get it yet. This, right here, is part of what makes gaming such a powerful force for good.
One day, we might create or meet intelligent life out there. You can’t predict what’ll happen after that, but you know some of the notes to that song:
“They are different so I hate them,” says the first fool.
“They look different but we’re all the same underneath,” says the second fool.
“I wonder in what ways we’re the same and how we’re different,” says the wise one.
Chances are, the wise one has read some top-tier science fiction or fantasy.
They might even have read Call of the Gods, if they’re already thinking like that.
If you’d like to wonder how your fantastic creatures would actually think, you can grab it here: