Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Player Creations

This is a graphic created by one of the players in my Riphaeus Sector Traveller campaign. Anyone who's played Traveller, especially if they've participated in a free trader-based campaign, will get the humor here. By the rules, there's a significant (approximately 15%) chance that a passenger traveling in a low berth (i.e. suspended animation) will not survive the journey. The game even introduces a star travelers' custom – the Low Lottery, a concept borrowed from E.C. Tubb – that openly plays off this fact. 

I really appreciated this example of player creativity and it reminded me of all the times over the years that players have been moved to create little works of art by events in the campaign. Maps are an obvious example, though one might call this cheating, given the centrality of cartography to roleplaying games. I've also seen my share of illustrations, depicting not just characters but even locations and events from a game. Once, a player wrote a silly little song about an adventure I ran for Paranoia and in another case a player went out to buy and paint miniatures for every character in the adventuring party. 

I adore things like this. They're a reminder of the how joyous roleplaying games can be – and how inspirational. This is a great hobby we share.

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