2008.07.11
Let’s Play a Game
A year and a half ago, I received The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (2006) as a gift. It’s an annually-published review and anthology of the best fantasy and horror fiction of the year. I’ve read each story in it at least twice, but there is one I keep coming back to: “My Father’s Mask” by Joe Hill.
What fascinates me about the story is the way it juxtaposes fantasy, imagination, roleplay, gaming, and life. As a very simple example, the main character’s mother uses the phrase “Let’s play a game” in the story to mean “Let’s play make-believe”. The story also features anthropomorphic playing cards, and in the end, the protagonist ends up wearing his father’s mask (literally and figuratively).
This story has significantly altered the way I view story-oriented roleplaying games (like World of Darkness and Grimm) and to a lesser extent all games with a roleplaying aspect – even games like Descent and Arkham Horror. They move beyond the mechanical into the realm of the real, so long as we allow our imagination to take them there. We’re free to live out our fantasies (or our nightmares) as we see fit, and we can wear whatever masks we want.
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