Author: Matt David T. (---.comcast.net)
Date: 10-21-2004 23:10
Theme is the reason a story is told, and I think in your column you've not quite made clear how crucial it is.
Although for an RPG, the point is to be fun, the purpose of most good fiction is to explore a theme. The mood, the characters and the story are just methods of exploring a theme. Without a theme the story is useless.
In a feature film, you get one theme. No time to explore more than that, you've only got 112 pages. Every action of the protagonist relates to the theme, every secondary action of the tertiary characters lends towards the "hero's" exploration of the theme.
In novels, more can be done, you've got more space.
And in RPGs, the most important and effective explorations of themes can occur.
RPGs as a form of pertinent fiction and not just a board game (which is what this column appears to be about,) require even stronger thematic ties to be successful though. In order to successfully explore one or more themes RPGs really require a lot of effort. But those are the best kinds of RPGs, and indeed the ones the players remember.
I think it's quite possible I'm overstating the ubiquity of themes, but in a perfect world, it would be this way. And most media wouldn't be so abhorrent.
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