Thoroughly interesting! I like what you said about games generally. I have a question:
"... my love of the tabletop gaming hobby."
What do you play (or have played)? My friends and I play both DnD; and Warhammer 40K (though with the latter, we mainly play Kill Team).
Onto the main point of the article, I agree! I've never really thought of those examples you raised, and they're so true (the glove example). Have you seen The King, on Netflix? The battle and fight scenes seem realistic - the opposite of glorified; often showing the weight of the armour and how cumbersome it is, and the difficulty of fighting in the mud.
Usually one would hope that in many cases, life experiences transcend time. One of the (I think) most important parts of fiction - the relationships between characters - is a constant of the human condition; the love a mother feels for her child is the same now as it was in 839 AD. You can draw on this feeling, just as you have described with technical details, to also really sell the world.
And finally, I wonder if one can use them not knowing about certain details as a story mechanism; "a traveler coming from another region..." So as the writer learns, the character learns, and it world builds up around them.
I haven't seen The King as of yet, but I'm curious based on your description of the harsh way they handled the combat. As for characters not knowing or learning new aspects of craft as a story mechanism, that's absolutely workable. Even failure to learn can be, which was an aspect of The 13th Warrior and explains why the central character, a Middle Easterner, has the Viking broadsword he's given reshaped into a scimitar, which he's far more familiar and comfortable with.
Now then, the direct question: what tabletop games have I played? That, my friend, is a sizable list. I started in the hobby with an early prerelease version of D&D 3rd edition back near the end of the 90's, then moved to 40k from there when a childhood friend introduced me to it. After that I moved to 3.5 D&D, and then Pathfinder for many years as 4th edition disappointed me. In that time I started branching into more things, such as the Star Wars D20 games, Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, and Savage Worlds, which I was introduced to through it's Necessary Evil superhero setting. Nowadays, especially after turning away from D&D 5e thanks to the awful business practices of WotC and Hazbro, I've branched even further than that with games like Dungeon Crawl Classics, Basic Fantasy, Maze Rats, Deathbringer, and other independent games of various lengths, sizes, and popularity levels. The main one I play now, though, is Savage Worlds' relaunch of the weird western TTRPG, Deadlands.
That is a sizable list! I haven't heard of most of those, admittedly. Always wondered what those Star Wars games were like, though. I'm not much in the know of the business practices behind 5e; I should probably ask my friends, I'm sure they could tell me. I know there was a DND film a while back, though never watched it.
I'm assuming you've DM'd and all that stuff? It's not really my thing, to be honest; I've got enough other story-telling things consuming my time - but I have one friend in particular who is very talented at it. I always try nudge him into creating a novel, or series of short stories out the world he's adapted and created. Is that a thing people do, or not really? A different medium if you like?
Oh thank you so much for watching! How exciting that you know something about armouring and jewellry - these are such incredibly important works I may have to ask somw questions!! 💖To be honest, I love video games, but I also love crafting - and I love l Lovecraft too, but that is a story for another day lol
Thanks for leting to have your article, per Mercedes, in Chronicles of Substack:
https://columnas.substack.com/p/el-valor-intrinseco-de-hacer-reflexiones
And thank you both for extending the offer and putting in the work to translate. It’s much appreciated.
Thoroughly interesting! I like what you said about games generally. I have a question:
"... my love of the tabletop gaming hobby."
What do you play (or have played)? My friends and I play both DnD; and Warhammer 40K (though with the latter, we mainly play Kill Team).
Onto the main point of the article, I agree! I've never really thought of those examples you raised, and they're so true (the glove example). Have you seen The King, on Netflix? The battle and fight scenes seem realistic - the opposite of glorified; often showing the weight of the armour and how cumbersome it is, and the difficulty of fighting in the mud.
Usually one would hope that in many cases, life experiences transcend time. One of the (I think) most important parts of fiction - the relationships between characters - is a constant of the human condition; the love a mother feels for her child is the same now as it was in 839 AD. You can draw on this feeling, just as you have described with technical details, to also really sell the world.
And finally, I wonder if one can use them not knowing about certain details as a story mechanism; "a traveler coming from another region..." So as the writer learns, the character learns, and it world builds up around them.
I haven't seen The King as of yet, but I'm curious based on your description of the harsh way they handled the combat. As for characters not knowing or learning new aspects of craft as a story mechanism, that's absolutely workable. Even failure to learn can be, which was an aspect of The 13th Warrior and explains why the central character, a Middle Easterner, has the Viking broadsword he's given reshaped into a scimitar, which he's far more familiar and comfortable with.
Now then, the direct question: what tabletop games have I played? That, my friend, is a sizable list. I started in the hobby with an early prerelease version of D&D 3rd edition back near the end of the 90's, then moved to 40k from there when a childhood friend introduced me to it. After that I moved to 3.5 D&D, and then Pathfinder for many years as 4th edition disappointed me. In that time I started branching into more things, such as the Star Wars D20 games, Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, and Savage Worlds, which I was introduced to through it's Necessary Evil superhero setting. Nowadays, especially after turning away from D&D 5e thanks to the awful business practices of WotC and Hazbro, I've branched even further than that with games like Dungeon Crawl Classics, Basic Fantasy, Maze Rats, Deathbringer, and other independent games of various lengths, sizes, and popularity levels. The main one I play now, though, is Savage Worlds' relaunch of the weird western TTRPG, Deadlands.
Ah yes, failure to learn; of course that's great.
That is a sizable list! I haven't heard of most of those, admittedly. Always wondered what those Star Wars games were like, though. I'm not much in the know of the business practices behind 5e; I should probably ask my friends, I'm sure they could tell me. I know there was a DND film a while back, though never watched it.
I'm assuming you've DM'd and all that stuff? It's not really my thing, to be honest; I've got enough other story-telling things consuming my time - but I have one friend in particular who is very talented at it. I always try nudge him into creating a novel, or series of short stories out the world he's adapted and created. Is that a thing people do, or not really? A different medium if you like?
Excellent article! I do hope that with each new stream of ours, we can inspire more :)
Oh thank you so much for watching! How exciting that you know something about armouring and jewellry - these are such incredibly important works I may have to ask somw questions!! 💖To be honest, I love video games, but I also love crafting - and I love l Lovecraft too, but that is a story for another day lol
I also love Lovecraft, and all his vast and Polyphemus like monstrosities. (Even though only Dagon was described that way.)
Imagine what he and others will create after our next stream!