Art vs the Horrors

I write this in comfort in Vienna, warmed by a space heater in my long-suffering Austrian boyfriend's apartment, debating in the GM Supergroup about whether gaming and game design is resistance.

We read this article by Lin Codega as part of the conversation. It's a sweet perspective, and certainly one that I have considered before. Utopian imaginaries have their space in tabletop roleplaying, from the explicitly utopian worlds of solarpunk (check out the Applied Hope solarpunk gamejam entries here) to the cozy games of queer found families such as Our Traveling Home, which includes within the rulebook the instructions that "while the stakes are high, this game will always have a happy ending. The queer romance will resolve happily, and everyone in the family will get to have a happily ever after." In fact, utopia studies scholars have written an entire book on the intersection of utopia and tabletop roleplaying, although I confess that I haven't read it and am just posting about it in case anyone else is interested. 

Meanwhile, Elon Musk seems to have seized the Treasury Department. I check in with American friends of mine abroad and at home about how they're handling The Horrors. Some of them are totally fine and living normal lives, except that their normal lives include getting instructions from their workforce on how to resist if ICE shows up. I call my mom and tell her that although we're white and she's probably, definitely fine, she should probably get started on her citizenship application anyway just to be safe. 

There are arguments to be made for the decolonization of the imaginary (Serge Latouche wasn't a roleplayer, but I'm stealing his phrase anyway). There are arguments (at least within the server) to be made for how roleplaying can shift the Overton Window. There are arguments to be made for the importance of concrete utopias and the dangers of abstract ones.

I commiserate with a Lebanese friend whose parents survived Israeli bombs just a few months ago. On TikTok, a young documented immigrant dances and stunts on the ICE troops in their home during a raid while the comment section lovingly calls them unserious. A friend sends a voice note and then deletes it after I listen to it in order to protect the loved ones mentioned in the messages. A friend gives away the key to their gun safe to a neighbor for a few weeks. I sometimes worry I will pass out, but realize it is just grief moving through my body.

It feels a little silly right now to be blogging about tabletop roleplaying games. It feels a little vital. Unlike Codega, I do not believe game design is revolutionary, or at least mine isn't. But it is important for my well-being regardless, and more so perhaps for others in our community. The Horrors reach up from my phone to choke me, but I have told the Supergroup that on Thursday I will run a playtest of some steppecrawl exploration rules. Little steps, little steps.