I consider myself first and foremost a
writer. The fact that I happen to have spent much of my life writing
game material comes from merging my ability to distill ideas onto
“paper” with my enjoyment of various diverse subjects (literary
genres as well as historical periods) and a fondness for ordering
things within rules and related systems.
I am fond of the past and the ways of
my younger days. As a youth I learned to touch type on a reliable
Smith-Corona portable typewriter. I still relish browsing the stacks
in a used book store. I don’t care much for and don’t use
electronic devices like tablets and laptops at the gaming table. For
me words set down on paper still retain a kind of powerful permanence
that even words in today’s ubiquitous electronic internet media
still do not and cannot possess.
Even as a young gamer I had an
overwhelming need to write down rules, scenarios, and other bits to
make them “official” in my own eyes by their very act of
occupying the page. Nothing was real until it existed on paper in
text or map format. Even when I received an electronic daisy-wheel
typewriter as a going-to-college gift I still wrote out adventures
longhand (and made some nice pocket money in the age when a college
freshman could make $1 a page typing term papers for other students
at 70 words per minute). The mystique extended into my more mature
gaming days, when I typed out (on an electronic typewriter, then a
personal computer) or printed manuscripts of scenarios for the James
Bond 007 Roleplaying Game, Cyberpunk 2020, Space 1889, and, of
course, the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. I still have binders
with those printouts...documents far more accessible than the
computer files (and 5.25- or 3.5-inch floppy disks) upon which they
were originally written and stored.
I’m not alone. I’ve heard about
folks who print out their favorite PDF game books and take the time
to bind them; not just three-hole-punch them and stick them in a
binder, but actually indulge in the mostly lost art of book-making to
create actual tomes to read and use at the gaming table. Some board
and card game designers have turned to the “print-and-play”
model, releasing game components in PDF format for players to print,
mount, trim, and otherwise prep for actual analog play. The
roleplaying game hobby – particularly among fans of the “Old
School Renaissance” movement – has seen a recent upsurge in
printed gaming zines. I have tons of gaming PDFs on my computer, but
when I get a zine in the mail, I sit down immediately and read
it...and it resides on a shelf where its physical presence reminds me
it’s there filled with interesting ideas to bring to the game
table. I can’t recall the numerous free gaming PDF files I’ve
downloaded to my computer and simply forgotten about after absently
perusing. I print the most noteworthy and file them in binders or
folders, but these remain an extremely small fraction of the material
on my hard drive.
I understand printed words will
eventually fade, the books fall apart, the paper disintegrate – and
all of it’s prone to physical damage by unfortunate events, natural
and man-made – but since such physical artifacts do not require an
electronic interface to read (one that contains built-in obsolescence
and a dependency on electricity and compatible software platforms),
one can enjoy them at nearly any time and place.
I fondly remember my
old production manager mentor at West End Games who was, in that
naive pre-Internet Age time, enthusiastically proud of the
Starfighter
Battle Book: X-wing vs. Tie Interceptor
and Lightsaber Dueling Pack
products, combat picture book games
designed by and based on Alfred Leonardi’s award-winning Ace
of Aces line of World War I aerial
combat books and the Lost
Worlds fantasy combat booklets.
They allowed two people to play
out a head-to-head dogfight or duel without
the use of a computer, network, or electricity. You
didn’t need a computer, you didn’t need a compatible operating
system platform, you didn’t need power.
Granted, you had
to haul the books around, but they
provided some fantastic head-to-head gameplay in a medium that didn’t
require a large board, pieces, and dice.
Don’t get me wrong...I immensely
appreciate the freedom and ability to share gaming material enabled
by today’s technology. Electronic publications make it possible for
gamers to carry around their entire library in their tablet device or
laptop for immediate reference, without hauling around bulky
backpacks or wheeled dollies. Certainly the internet has granted
gamers the means to reach around the globe on an unprecedented scale
to share their ideas, from basic opinions and reviews to adventures,
settings, and entire games. Even then, though, they maintain only a
fleeting presence. Some folks claim things never die on the internet,
though I can recall several items – interesting PDFs, articles,
blog posts, forum posts – I’ve sought out and found no longer
available. Perhaps the domain disappears, the files get deleted,
websites fold. Some PDFs exist on people’s computers and tablets,
some remain in virtual bookshelf libraries for future access, but
they don’t maintain a physical presence and thus remain subject to
the whims of the internet.
Comments....
Where
do you fall in the print versus electronic spectrum? Want to offer
feedback? Start a civilized discussion?
Share a link to this blog
entry on Google+ and tag me (+Peter Schweighofer) to comment.
