Suspension of Disbelief or Realism in RPGs After playing RPGs games for well over 30 years now, Ive noticed some interesting trends and strange obsessions among new and experienced players a like. This phenomenon is not just isolated to RPGs, its seems to be happening among fans and critics of comics books, novels, television, film, video games and more; especially the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The subject of Realism in RPGs has been a hot topic among my Role-playing peers. Its fueled hours upon hours of discussion and debate, including the topic of Assumptions of Realism and the application of Suspension of Disbelief. Suspension of Disbelief is a term coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a human interest and a semblance of truth into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative. Suspension of disbelief often applies to fictional works of the action, comedy, fantasy, and horror genres. Cognitive estrangement in fiction involves using a persons ignorance or lack of knowledge to promote suspension of disbelief. The phrase Suspension of Disbelief came to be used more loosely in the later 20th century, often used to imply that the burden was on the reader, rather than the writer, to achieve it. This might be used to refer to the willingness of the audience to overlook the limitations of a medium, so that these do not interfere with the acceptance of those premises. These fictional premises may also lend to the engagement of the mind and perhaps proposition of thoughts, ideas, art and theories. Suspension of disbelief is often an essential element for a magic act or a circus sideshow act. For example, an audience is not expected to actually believe that a woman is being cut in half or transforms into a gorilla in order to enjoy the performance. Its become clear that some people have simply seem to have forgotten all about Suspension of Disbelief and instead proceed with their own Assumptions of Realism. I am going to quote something from my personal blog that really hammers my point across. Not only does it apply to RPGs, but all the other genres and mediums I mentioned above. Some people have a problem with Space Battles and the sounds of explosions in movies, because sound can’t travel in the vacuum of space and those same people complain during a movie, saying: That’s was totally unrealistic Yet, the same people dont have a problem with YODA, CHEWBACCA, or the FORCE…says after the Light Saber battle Wow, that’s was totally awesome! I say to all those people: GET OVER YOURSELF, it’s just a movie. It’s called Science Fiction for a reason. Most movies have the following disclaimer in the credits: The events depicted in this movie are FICTITIOUS. Any similarity to any person living or dead is merely coincidental... I guess Game Masters need to use similar disclaimers to remind the players that they are playing a game. This is a game, NOT a simulation or historical reenactment. Perhaps, the game master should define the level of realism in the beginning of his/her campaign. Most gaming groups Ive belonged to involved more elements of High Fantasy or Heroic Fantasy. Yet, from time to time, the more educated players, especially those with degrees in History or Science have difficulty applying suspension of disbelief to RPGs. Years ago, I was running a Forgotten Realms campaign with a diverse group of players, all coming from a wide variety of different backgrounds. One of the player happened to be a history major, specializing in medieval history. He kept going on and on about all the historical inaccuracies in fantasy RPGs. He would often chime in with his professional opinion about some aspect of the game. A new player joined the group, and create a Ninja character, which was something new that player wanted to try out and thought would be fun to play. The history major started scoffing and rolling his eyes at the new players character selection, he said Really? A Ninja in Medieval Europe. I dont where to begin.. I had to finally interject and say: Hey, numb-nuts! (1) we are playing Forgotten Realms, which takes place in a FICTITIOUS fantasy game world, NOT Medieval Europe. (2) its a GAME, NOT a historical re-enactment of Medieval Europe. (3) Forgotten Realms is High Fantasy, it even says it on the box High Fantasy Adventures set in an Epic World with mythical creatures and all-powerful wizards, straight from deepest reaches of your imagination. To further invalidate his ludicrous criticism of the inaccuracies in fantasy RPGs, I continued with I want you to find any mention of Medieval Europe within any of the text of the Forgotten Realms boxed set. In a desperate attempt to save face and salvage any creditability he had left, the entire group looked over his shoulder as he nervously flipped through all the books, page by page in the boxed set. The phrase Medieval Europe did not appear once, but the words: Fantasy, Epic, Adventure, and Imagination appeared several times. I must off knocked the history major off his Intellectual High Horse, because for the rest of session he remind almost silent, except to declare actions for his character and make dice rolls. He left group shortly after and said in passing: I need to find a more mature group. I replied Youre the only immature person in this group, you kept interrupting game with non-sense and your irrelevant criticism of inaccuracies in fantasy RPGs. You are criticizing the REALISM of something that is UNREALISIC to begin with. You cant suspend your disbelief for just five minutes and just enjoy it for what it is, a GAME. I never said I was running a Historical Campaign based on Medieval Europe. The text on the Forgotten Realms boxed set clearly defined the genre we were playing in, High Fantasy. Of course, I do recognize that most Role-playing fantasy are very loosely modeled after Medieval Europe. Any similarities end when you starting adding Monsters and Magic into the mix. I also recognize that there are Game Masters who actually run Historical Campaigns like: Imperial Rome, Feudal Japan, Ancient Greece, etc. Players of these type of games proceed Assumptions of Realism and a high of level of Suspension of Disbelief isnt required. This settings also may use a more Realistic Combat System and may not have any monsters or magic at all. So, any actual criticism of historical accuracy and realism is a more valid augment in that case. Logically, its virtually impossible to have total realism and historical accuracy, even in Historical Campaigns. After all, its still a game, no matter how realistic the GM tries to make it. In contrast to Historical Campaigns, the majority of fantasy settings are fictional worlds, how can you really have HISTORICAL ACCURACY in a FICTITIOUS game world? At the same time, I also recognize that a High Fantasy game do require a minimal level of realism to function, or the game loses all cohesion. High Fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy fiction, defined either by its setting in an imaginary world or by the epic stature of its characters, themes and plot. Quintessential works of high fantasy, such as The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire , Eragon, Malazan Book of the Fallen, and The Wheel of Time, have both of these attributes. High fantasy exists on one side of a spectrum, opposite low fantasy, which are set in the real world. Star Wars, Star Trek, Serenity, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica are Science Fiction TV shows and movies. Spiderman, X-Men, and Superman, are comic books. Grand Theft Auto, Street Fighter, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft are Video Games. Dungeons and Dragons, Vampire the Masquerade, GURPS, are Role-Playing games. All the above mentioned items are works of fiction and/or games, not historical reenactments or documentaries, and not simulations. Yet, for some reason people still feel the need to criticize and question the level of realism, scientific plausibility, and historical accuracy in something that is NOT REALISTIC to begin with? And when you ask them what is the point of questioning the realism of something unrealistic, they don’t seem have a reasonable and logical explanation. They seem to proceed with the unqualified belief that some how REALISM or a high level of REALISM is the NORM in “SCIENCE FICTION” and “FANTASY. Its been my conclusion over the years, if someone who is intelligent enough to distinguish between reality and fantasy, should be able to apply Suspension of Disbelief to any work of fiction or game. If the same person goes to see the next Star Wars movie, and still has to criticize and question the level of realism and/or scientific plausibility, then they are simply over intellectualizing something that doesnt require that level of analytical thought to enjoy. If you are over intellectualizing something that you know is not realistic, it doesnt mean your intelligent, mature, or educated, it just means you lack imagination and have way too much time on your hands to over analyze something most people consider trivial. Therefore, if you cant apply Suspension of Disbelief to Sci-Fi and Fantasy, then you are MISSING THE ENTIRE POINT of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, to begin with.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 21:39:11 +0000
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