Runestone: Six Gun Ragnarok

Gaming, to me it is about (or at least can be about) introspection, reflection and observances of the human condition. Yeah, pretty high-brow snobbish for a guy who spent his “formative years” in a basement with his buddies playing make-believe.

We look at the importance of the Bard in dark ages Europe, the Skalds of the Scandinavian Iron Age, the West African Griots, the Indonesian Dhalang. Wisemen charged with providing history, social commentary, spiritual services, comedy, entertainment, and I daresay a bit of magic and wonder through the power and vehicle of a story.

To me Gaming takes some of that magic, some that power and gives us each the opportunity, and the obligation to craft the great legendary epics that never were. There’s a beauty to the fluid mandala of a table top game, this ephemeral saga that exists only for that small handful of players, but is no less potent in its ability to direct, define, and shape those select few people than Homers Iliad, Aesop’s Fables, or Parables of the Tripitaka.

In the Era of Modern Gamer Geeks, perhaps Shakespeare’s sobriquet might equally hold true as “The Game Master”

Do not get bogged down in the minutiae of rules, chasing the ghost of “balance”. Life is not balanced, great stories are not balanced. This is not a game of precise tactics and exacting evaluations; it is a medium for telling each other stories, for crafting grand tales of heroes and villains, for having a few beverages around a table and finding bonds of friendship. For in the end, all that we are left with are stories.

Cattle die, and kinsmen die,
And so one dies one’s self;
One thing now that never dies,
The fame of a dead man’s deeds.
– Hávamál , verse 78