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.