Systems aren't real*
*This is flippant. They're social constructs, so they are kind of real but only because they are agreed upon.* Once upon a time, in a stinky Wisconsin basement, a couple white guys got together and invented D&D. There had never been anything like it before. Ope never mind, that's a lie. There was Chainmail, there were Napoleonic wargames, there was Tolkien, Star Trek, chess, and Ancient Greek myths. TTRPGs have always been part of a material lineage. What was actually unique about D&D was that those Wisconsin fellas figured out a way for Capital to capture that play and turn it into a Product to be Sold. Play and labor are intertwined in really complex ways. Is making art play? It makes an object that sometimes has value, and sometimes doesn’t. You should listen to Game Studies Study Buddies for more knowledgeable talk about this stuff. For me, when I’m preparing for a ttrpg session, it can feel like one, or the other, or both at once, and at the end of it, we have a ...