Monday, January 11, 2021

Crypts and Creatures

Last week, I alluded to my dissatisfaction with most popular media portrayals of roleplaying games. While it's true, as a commenter correctly noted, that accurate portrayals of many things, not just RPGs, sometimes interfere with good drama, I am nevertheless irked by the misinformation that's spread about the hobby through these portrayals. For example, many such portrayals conflate tabletop roleplaying games with LARPing, a related but different hobby. This is a very common and, in fact, very old error, one to which even Holmes refers in his Fantasy Role Playing Games (published in 1981). In the grand scheme of things, does it matter? Probably not, but my irritation stems in large part from how much contemporary popular entertainment depends on ideas and concepts originating in or disseminated by RPGs. It's no exaggeration to say that, at least when it comes to pop culture, roleplaying games roleplaying games are foundational.

Consequently, when I come across a film or television show that does even a halfway decent job of showing what playing a roleplaying game is actually like, I make a point of speaking highly of it. That's where 2010–2013 cartoon, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated comes in. I wrote a previous post about this show during its original run, but that was to highlight its references to H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. The fourth episode of its second season, which aired on August 2, 2012, is entitled "Crypts and Creatures" and its plot involves a monster from a roleplaying game of the same name. In a series of flashbacks, we see several now-adult characters playing the game when they were children.

This is an overhead shot of the play area, consisting of three players (left, right, bottom) and the referee (top), all seated around a table. Arrayed before them are sheets of paper, dice, and a battle map with miniature figures – all very real RPG paraphernalia. About the only thing that doesn't ring true – to my experience anyway – is the presence of flashlights. The game is taking place in semi-darkness, with the referee using the flashlights to add "mood" to the game.

Here's another view of the same scene, along with this one.

There's a lot I like about this scene, not least of which being that it's clearly shown that the characters are talking to one another, describing what their characters are doing, with the referee adjudicating the results through a combination of rules, dice, and judgment. No one is dressed up in a costume – aside from the referee, whose cowboy hat is a trademark of his adult self – and none of the gaming materials are implausible. Take a look at this image, for example.

That's a proper 20-sided die – a precision, Zocchi-style one too, from the looks of it. This might seem like a small things but I can't tell you how often popular media can't even get the details of dice right. That's not from any malice, of course, simply disinterest, but it's not as if tabletop RPGs are so unusual in the 21st century that it would take long to find out what they're actually like and make sure their portrayal rings true to those who actually engage in the hobby. Perhaps I expect too much. Regardless, I wanted to praise this cartoon. It did an excellent job of showing that there's no reason you can't tell a fun story about roleplaying games and portrays the games fairly accurately. 

18 comments:

  1. I’m looking up this episode—looks like fun! Although it is, as you say, James, the character’s trademark, the cowboy hat reminds me that a friend of mine, while playing a ranger, used to wear his dad’s old “steel pot” helmet at the table. It was a long stretch from Vietnam to Greyhawk. Plus, I’m not sure his dad appreciated the association to a ranger—he was a marine!

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  2. I'm right there with you. Popular culture almost never gets RPGs right and it is very irksome. Some other notable portrayals of RPGs: the show "Freaks and Geeks" has the most accurate and sympathetic portrayal of RPGs I've seen anywhere in the episode "Discos and Dragons"; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic also has a very noteworthy example in the episode "Dungeons and Discords" where the characters play a game of "Ogres and Oubliettes". If you haven't seen either, they are worth checking out.

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  3. As Kids BITD we regularly played with lights off, room dark as possible and only candles lit, coleman lantern, or flashlights.

    I can even remember episodes of the power going out during may/june thunderboomers being prime game time as we all met at someone's house afterward.

    In recent years I often ran my kids group games with lights off, shades/curtains closed and candles lit.

    Much fun :)

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  4. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/die-volume-1-kieron-gillen/1129811942?ean=9781534312708 I enjoyed this comic book series. I grabbed the first one for free on the android app store. Basically players get thrown into the game world. Interesting stuff.

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  5. If it makes you feel any better, James, popular culture usually gets everything wrong. I have several musicians under my roof and I can report how painful it is to watch movies snd television shows depict the way people hold, let alone play, musical instruments.

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    1. Very true! Let's not even talk about the way religion and religious practices of any kind are popularly portrayed ...

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  6. In my younger days we used to play D&D by oil lamps. It can help set the mood and "theatre of the mind" is a bit easier when not under the stark glare of white lights.

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    1. Oil lamp is a good idea. The particular odor can set up a trigger for fond gaming memories later on. I once got hold of a bag of dry ice. No odor, but I burned incense too for lots of ambiance when the party visits a magic-user’s laboratory.

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  7. I'm always peeved about Archery. I competed for many years witgh modern equipment. Hunter with it even longer and also hunted with traditional (longbow, recurve) bows for many years. Pop culture is clueless when it comes to Archery.

    I've also been a guitar player for over 40 years, so yeah... That said-I was very happy a few weeks back- My wife and I were watching a Hallmark Xmas movie (yeah yeah), and this character was supposed to be violin virtuoso. Of course I was waiting for the scene where she was totally NOT playing violin, but when she started I immediately yelled to my wife (and scared the crap out of her) "This Actress definitely knows how to actually play the violin or she's a heck of a mimic with her hands" So of course I looked her up and she *is* a famous violinist from NYC. The next night another Hallmark movie, and another female violinist, and jeez.. they didn't even TRY to tell her how to place/move her fingers. WTF.

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  8. The "D&D episode" of the Community show portray a D&D session quite accurately : the protagonists set up a game to cheer one of their fellow students, and the characters that are ridiculed are the one that dresses up as a drow (which made Netflix take down this episode because of the "blackface") and the one that wants to "win" at all costs.

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    1. That Community episode (titled Advanced Dungeons and Dragons") is the best depiction of roleplaying that I've seen in pop culture. At the climax of the episode, there's a crucial to-hit roll, and the scene shows all the players lean over the 20-sider to see the number. When they (and the audience) see the successful roll, it felt like I was in the room playing with them.

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    2. I saw an episode of Big Bang Theory that was close enough and hysterical.

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    3. I love you, Stephen, but I fear we will never agree about the merits of The Big Bang Theory. Ugh.

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    4. LOL
      Never fear; loving disagreement is a sign of grand intelligence.

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  9. What a weird coincidence - my 11yo daughter was watching that episode on Tuesday and mentioned C&C and how they had so closely mapped her experience of D&D.

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  10. My kids where watching this show recently and where so excited to see them playing a table top RPG. ( and reminded me we need to play more often)

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  11. You must check out the episode of Gravity Falls called "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons. It's terrific.

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    1. I have seen it and, while I'm overall fond of Gravity Falls (and Weird Al), I found this episode to feature exactly the kind of weird portrayal of a RPG that rubs me the wrong way.

      But I'm a grump.

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