The Unboxed Model of Roleplay Gaming

Since there are lots of different ways that people approach TTRPGs, today I’m going to describe my own. I’m going to try my best to stick to the point and not veer off into rebuttals of various popular misconceptions, though that will be hard since sometimes that contrast is required for context. After all, the whole reason I feel the need to write this in the first place is that one of the dominant TTRPG subcultures tries to put everyone into exactly two boxes, forcing anyone else to fight for their right to take up space.

So here’s the space I intend to occupy: The Unboxed Model of Roleplay Gaming. Let’s get into it.

Roleplay

Within the TTRPG space (and ironically, almost nowhere else) there is a lot of confusion due to conflicting definitions of “roleplay.” In the model we’re discussing today, we take “roleplay” to mean something like playing pretend: you inhabit an imaginary persona in an imaginary scenario, pretend that they’re real, and behave accordingly. It doesn’t mean “social dialogue” (though it can include that), it doesn’t mean “disengagement from a TTRPG’s mechanics” (the amount of rules is irrelevant), and it doesn’t mean “crafting a narrative” (that often dilutes the “realness” of the make-believe). It just means pretending the unreal is real so that you can experience it. The beating heart of roleplay is “Here I am, what will I do?”

Rules

The rules of a TTRPG serve two functions in this model. The first is to make it a game. In the same way that “sexual roleplay” means something more specific than just “roleplay” and requires the involvement of sex in order to qualify, so too does “roleplaying game” mean a specific sub-variant of roleplay that integrates itself with being a game. Since recreational activities aren’t games until they have rules (you would never say “I’m playing a game” when what you mean is reading a good book or eating a fine meal), rules are necessary for this activity to be a “roleplaying game.”

But that’s just the more obvious of the two functions of rules. The other, which is more specific to our topic, is to serve as an interface with the imaginary space, as something like the voice of the world. You see, this model of TTRPGs is not only interested in both roleplaying and gaming for their own individual merits; we’re also after the uniquely special experience that can arise from combining them. That special something is the ability for the imagined space to become truly interactive.

Any creative medium allows you to act upon the imagined space. But in order for it to be INTER-active, the imagined space must also be capable of acting upon you. If you’re making all the decisions, if the rules are no more than a suggestion generator for you to veto or cherry-pick from as suits your tastes, then it’s a one-way creative experience. Which isn’t a bad thing (see also: most art in human history), but folks like me enjoy TTRPGs specifically for their ability to do otherwise.

Authenticity

If you’re sharp then you may have noticed a point of overlap between this model’s approaches to roleplay and rules: authenticity. We want our roleplay to come from a place of taking the personas and scenarios seriously, and it would be undermined by things like trying to sculpt it into a narrative. We want the rules to be reliable, well-understood, and consistently applied so that our roleplay can interface with the imagined space in a way that makes it feel more tangible.

This is why the (currently) dominant Storytelling subculture struggles to comprehend our model. To their mind, the point of a TTRPG is to tell a story, and the only way someone would disagree is if they were trying to remove all imagination and focus purely on rules, like the wargames which birthed TTRPGs back in the day. Thus, the storytellers will listen long enough to hear “story no, rules yes” and that’s enough to put us in Box #2, after which they cease cognitive engagement with us. (Hence the need for this essay.)

Experience

This authenticity-focused approach to TTRPGs leads to a uniquely special kind of play experience that you don’t really get in other mediums (including the narrative-driven approach to TTRPGs). This model of play has fewer layers of separation between the player and the imagined space than exist for the narrative or theatrical approaches. This means that playing a TTRPG feels more like a first-person experience, the closest you’ll ever get to visiting all these exciting worlds yourself.

It’s worth noting that this more deeply-invested experience also carries a stronger tendency toward emotional bleed, since it feels like you were there yourself. (This is probably why there are so many internet advice posts wrongly suggesting in-game retaliation for in-game irritations: it really feels like the imagined world is where the conflict is happening.) There’s a degree of emotional maturity required to move into and out of the imagined space as needed, and process your experiences properly.

But it’s also incredibly rewarding! It’s one thing to bond with a stranger over a shared love of a piece of media, but it hits different when you swap memories of adventures that you feel like you actually participated in. It’s a uniquely special experience, and a special kind of connection to share that experience. If you’re used to staying within the familiar realms of narrative, I would encourage you to try stepping out into the wilds of this model of roleplay gaming.

Or at the very least, start acknowledging that it’s something people do, even if it doesn’t fit the two boxes you’re comfortable with.