Why Can't it Just Be Fun?
I’m finding role playing to be a tense affair lately. Almost every session tends to degrade into some sort of frustrated emotional outburst which is just not making being involved in them any fun at all. I know that my gaming isn’t at its best at the moment, so I’m sure that I’m contributing to this situation to a degree (probably a large degree). It’s certainly not helping that some of the sessions that are being run are playing mind games with players and essentially causing friends to make decisions that could in the long term actually affect our real life friendships. This is not a healthy situation at the best of times, but when some of the players are suffering emotional difficulties as well, this is nothing but a ticking time bomb.
I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with this, though not playing is not the answer. I’ve yet to run a game since my last Mutants & Masterminds attempt, and despite the prep work I’m doing with my Trek game, I’m not sure when I’ll be ready or comfortable enough to run it. I know I want to keep playing in other people’s games, but I just don’t want the added tension of simmering emotions and outbursts that just suck the fun out of every session. I think the most important thing I can do is keep a level head and try not to let my frustrations effect the game.
This isn’t the easiest thing to do when I’m opposed to my partner in one of these games, and concerned that he may feel what I’m doing is personal. We both know this is a game, and both know that what we are doing and saying aren’t personal attacks, but the tension is real, and I don’t like how that could potentially affect us. To help alleviate this, we try to keep physical contact during sessions, and tell each other that we love each other. Sure, it’s OOC and tends to break the bubble a little, but I feel it’s necessary to keep the game “just a game”. I hope that it will be enough.
The other thing that I need to face is that this particular game just isn’t any fun in-and-of itself. It feels like a tournament game where people who don’t know each other can walk away after the session and not worry about how their gaming would affect their relationships as they will never see those people again.
The whole point of role playing for me is to have fun, socially interact, and co-operate in telling a shared story, and this just isn’t happening.