Theo Dudek, Ultimate Game Master

After being burned many times, my first inclination is to avoid movies and documentaries which claim to show the ‘truth’ of roleplaying or D&D. (Also, the biggest ones, Darkon and Monster Camp, are about live action roleplaying, presumably because it’s more videogenic. While I like live action roleplaying, I am still waiting for a good movie to come out about tabletop RPGs — particularly since so many people get the two types of RPGs mixed up.)

However, I just found a promising trailer for The Dungeon Masters, a documentary on tabletop gamers directed by Keven McAlester. Though it seems at points to be making fun of its subjects, the mockery appears light and the gamers seem to be fairly realistic older gamers. I’m really looking forward to seeing it~ ^^

Information available in the trailer suggests that the film has a theme I haven’t seen elsewhere (well, maybe in just one other book): basically, that the political & economic turmoil in the ‘real world’ makes it understandable for someone to spend time in a ‘fantasy world’ playing Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve heard this argument made about people from broken homes playing D&D, but it is rare for people to make the obvious leap and apply it to a global level — why do people play RPGs? Because Forgotten Realms is better than Earth. And I don’t even like Forgotten Realms that much.

However, while I think this is close to the truth, it’s only halfway there. While some roleplayers are certainly forced into ‘extreme’ roleplaying — the drow cosplay, the nude D&D, etc. — by the torments of a difficult world, becoming more and more extremist when the real world falls apart around them, other people roleplay simply because roleplaying is great. They’re not doing it to get away from suffering and misery and electric bills. They’re not doing it because they were bullied. They’re doing it to celebrate the awesomeness of roleplaying, of having good imaginations and stories (and DMs -_- ) and characters beyond the number of characters anyone can play in a single lifetime.

Even if we lived in a paradise, people would want to roleplay. They would ask the timeless question, “Who am I? How was I created? Why am I here?” To the first question they would answer “I am a Skull Elf Fighter”, to the second question they would answer “Two 15s, a 12, an 11, a 16 and and an 18″ and to the third question they would answer “To plunder the lost city of Sardathrion, fight its monsters and steal its riches.”

These are just examples, but you get what I mean. RPGs are great. I’ll post more soon.