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From Dungeons and Drafts: Evolution of Roleplaying and Its Influence on Writing
Episode 1 • 27th February 2024 • The Penman's Journal • Gabriel Sidwell
00:00:00 00:19:04

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After rebranding Penman Ventures from Medical Writing to something a little more creative, we open our new podcast to the topic of roleplaying; And how it can influence creative writing.

Welcome to a multimedia web journal where I dedicate my time to diving into stories behind various works of art, media, news, and a myriad of interesting topics.

Referenced Articles

  • Effectiveness of Role-Playing in Enhancing Creative Writing of English Majors Students at Al-Quds University - Daghamin, Rashed & Naser, Inas & Khales, Buad. (2017). Effectiveness of Role-Playing in Enhancing Creative Writing of English Major Students at Al-Quds University. British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science. 19. 1-12. 10.9734/BJESBS/2017/29794. An article that explores the effectiveness of creative dramatic play in improving students' creative writing and ability to comprehend and appreciate creative text.
  • Roleplaying games were around hundreds of years before Dungeons & Dragons | Dicebreaker - Stephen Payne is a freelance writer and historian based in the south of England. He loves three things in life: animals, history and, of course, games.
  • How Role-Playing Helps Our Writing - and Our Marriage | Writer's Digest - Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka met and fell in love in high school. Austin went on to graduate from Harvard, while Emily graduated from Princeton. Together, they are the authors of several novels about romance for teens and adults. Now married, they live in Los Angeles, where they continue to take daily inspiration from their own love story. They recently published the book: Do I Know You, a story where a married couple go on vacation and reexplore their marriage... from the perspective of two "strangers" who learn to flirt with and love one another again.

Transcripts

::

I remember being in middle school

::

when the concept of role playing

::

was first introduced to me by someone I

was playing with online.

::

It was described as the

::

act of embodying a character or a

specific role

::

and collaborating with others to tell a

story.

::

And I think the act of role playing in

itself

::

helped improve a lot of different

facets of my life and helped me come

::

out of my shell, so to speak.

::

My name is Gabriel.

::

I'm the Penman of Penman Ventures,

::

and this is our first broadcast episode

for our

::

podcast,

::

which is being released

::

on

::

end of February,

::

February 28th.

::

We recently went through a rebranding

::

where I'm shifting my focus from

::

medical writing services to more,

::

to a more creative

::

outlet.

::

I wanted to look at explorer,

::

exploring, creative writing and the

different facets

::

that go into

::

creativity, whether it's in art, media.

::

And

::

this podcast is meant to generally talk

about various, different interests

::

and

::

topics.

::

So here we are, penman ventures, the

first broadcast for

::

a multimedia journal covered by a

public health enthusiast.

::

Now

::

today, I wanted to talk about

::

role playing,

::

the evolution thereof, and how it

influenced

::

continues to influence writing.

::

Now,

::

as I mentioned earlier, it holds a

::

special place in my heart as something

that helped me come out of my shell

::

when I was very young,

::

I went through a difficult

::

childhood, not in a traditional sense,

but I had

::

trouble

::

branching out and meeting new people.

::

I was

::

in

::

a specialized school till I was about

four years old,

::

specifically, because I refuse to talk

to anyone

::

about anything really.

::

And around middle school is where I

started the branch out.

::

Today's episode is going to focus

mostly on

::

how role playing could

::

potentially improve someone's

::

writing ability

::

and the different other

::

benefits there are to dramatic play,

drama

::

theater,

::

as the kids like to call it nowadays.

::

I'm not that old myself,

::

who am I kidding?

::

So here we're going to discuss that,

::

and...

::

Welcome to Penman Ventures.

::

So I was playing Star Wars Galaxies at

the time,

::

before the New Game Enhancements patch

came out.

::

You know, that patched, that ruined the

game for everyone, kind of;

::

Try to turn into a World of Warcraft

clone.

::

It was

::

there where

::

I met other players who were

::

creating posts that seemed

::

very in character in local a cantina on Tatooine,

::

specifically.

::

It was one of the more popular hub

zones for role players in the game at

::

the time.

::

And the idea

::

intrigued me

::

where I could go ahead and write for my

avatar

::

and embody

::

their persona, and I don't have to

worry about exposing myself so much.

::

From there on, I've been in the role

playing community,

::

since then.

84

::

I moved on to other video games, such

as World of Warcraft,

85

::

Guild Wars,

86

::

One and Two...

87

::

played there for a while, and most

recently, I've been a part of the Final

88

::

Fantasy 14 role play community,

89

::

where I am running in my own free

company right now, where we host events occasionally

90

::

and have an ongoing storyline

91

::

between myself and all of my members.

92

::

Now,

93

::

the concept of role playing has been

94

::

in the wide media since the 2010's, just about,

95

::

thanks to Dungeons and Dragons,

96

::

primarily.

97

::

It's probably

98

::

one of the most famous

99

::

(or infamous),

100

::

tabletop role playing games that are

out there today.

101

::

And it's inspired

102

::

countless other

103

::

tabletop RPGs

104

::

since then, including

105

::

my personal favorite, which is Fate: Core.

106

::

Most of these mediums, most of these

games focus on

107

::

immersion and storycraft

108

::

it's designed to bring you into their

world, so to say.

109

::

But the

110

::

concept has actually

111

::

existed since long before

112

::

Dungeons and Dragons.

113

::

The concept was actually...

114

::

actually has its roots -

115

::

that

116

::

traced back as far as

117

::

118

::

70 A.D.

119

::

There was an article I found written by

Steven Payne on Dicebreaker.com

120

::

that talks about

121

::

war games

122

::

and how popular they were in the early

days of civilization.

123

::

These war games, these tournaments,

124

::

over time,

125

::

shifted from

126

::

fighting and violence to focusing more

127

::

on storytelling

128

::

and the creation of

129

::

myths surrounding the people who

participated in these tournaments and games.

130

::

When participants came onto the field,

they were dressed up in ostentatious

131

::

armor

132

::

displays.

133

::

They were displaying their heraldaries

134

::

that provoked

135

::

certain emotions

136

::

from the crowds that were watching them.

137

::

Over time,

138

::

these tournaments and field games

139

::

that

140

::

inspired

141

::

legends and stories

142

::

moved from the tourney grounds to

parlor halls,

143

::

where everything kind of

144

::

scaled down

145

::

to the form of tabletop games such as

cards,

146

::

chess.

147

::

The author of this article specifically

brought up a game of

148

::

Consequence.

149

::

The

150

::

games

151

::

here

152

::

eventually became more accessible to

the general public.

153

::

And they,

154

::

when they got into the right hands,

they inspired even more creations that

155

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promoted creativity and collaboration

156

::

and especially storytelling,

157

::

including games like Dungeons and

Dragons,

158

::

which came out in

159

::

1973.

160

::

It was released by

161

::

Gary Gygax and David Arneson

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::

David Arneson.

163

::

And

164

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with the release of Dungeons and

Dragons,

165

::

there have been even more

166

::

popular mediums since that were released

167

::

that helped

168

::

inspire stories that could be

transcribed into the written word.

169

::

One book series that

170

::

comes into mind immediately

171

::

is Stephen Erickson's

172

::

Malazan: Book of the Fallen series,

173

::

which was also inspired by his own

campaign he ran with his friend while

174

::

in college.

175

::

And it looks like it has more than ten

books so far.

176

::

Imagine

177

::

logging these sessions

178

::

and creating it into a work of art

179

::

that's your own.

180

::

Inspiring to say it at least.

181

::

And I could think of

182

::

several my own stories

183

::

that were

184

::

inspired by similar interactions,

specifically, from

185

::

online role playing.

186

::

And

187

::

to this day,

188

::

me and my wife both are

189

::

also considering writing our own story

in a similar format,

190

::

where we hop on a Discord channel and

start

191

::

a role playing session with a home

brew campaign,

192

::

and

193

::

editing and creating a story as we go

along.

194

::

This isn't the only example of husband

and wife duo, who

195

::

get together in a room and use a role

play as a means to

196

::

create and develop a story.

197

::

We role play every night, or nearly

every night.

198

::

We take breaks now and then when time

permits,

199

::

usually, though it's nightly often for

hours, we find it invigorating,

200

::

restorative

201

::

revealing.

202

::

It strengthens our connection.

203

::

In fact, it's one of the foundational

pieces of our marriage.

204

::

The role playing, we mean, happens not

in the bedroom,

205

::

but in our office.

206

::

We're referring to our co-writing process,

207

::

years of nights working together to get

into the heads and hearts of the

208

::

characters we put on the page.

209

::

The comparison to role playing isn't

unfounded due to the way we write together.

210

::

Instead of exchanging chapters or

wholly dividing duties like one of us

211

::

editing and the other drafting.

212

::

For instance, we write everything

together in real time in one room.

213

::

Every sentence is proposed out loud,

discussed

214

::

and incorporated

215

::

once each of us feels the character's

voices reflected.

216

::

This comes from an article written by

both Emily Wibberley

217

::

and Austin Siegmund-Broka,

218

::

published on the Writer's Digest.

219

::

They're a writing duo

220

::

who have published popular romance

novels since, using the style of

221

::

writing, including,

222

::

most recently, it looks like, "Do I Know You?"

a story where a married couple

223

::

revisit their marriage from the

perspective of two complete strangers,

224

::

learning to flirt with and love one

another again.

225

::

Sounds

226

::

very silly, but romantic and fun to put

down to the page

227

::

when you're both in the same room

together.

228

::

Like I said, these stories are not

uncommon.

229

::

We have examples from Steven Erickson,

230

::

and

231

::

I can bet at least two out of every

five writers have written books in a

232

::

similar manner

233

::

based on an immersive experience they

themselves had, or have had with others,

234

::

whether it's in collaboration

235

::

or just a shared experience.

236

::

Now

237

::

I could speak on

238

::

the fact that a lot of role players

nowadays also continue to log their

239

::

own sessions,

240

::

there on Google docs

241

::

it's becoming common practice, especially in

the Final Fantasy community,

242

::

where

243

::

people would

244

::

log role plays into

245

::

documents

246

::

using plug ins,

247

::

so that they could go back and edit

these logs later, and maybe publish

248

::

them in a different format,

249

::

or

250

::

maybe remix them entirely to create

into something entirely new.

251

::

One major question that I've had for a

long time, however, is whether or not

252

::

role playing actually affects someone's

ability to write.

253

::

I could safely say that it has

positively

254

::

affected my own ability to write,

255

::

put pen to page.

256

::

My speaking, not so much, but that's a

work in progress.

(Sure buddy)

257

::

After some research, I did find a

journal article from the British

258

::

Journal of Education

259

::

that is titled: "The effectiveness of

Role Playing and Enhancing Creative Writing

260

::

of English Major Students at Al-Quds

University."

261

::

It was an interesting read, and I'll

include a

262

::

link to the journal article in the podcast notes below.

263

::

But, here are some of the highlights I

found within the text.

264

::

Role playing helps students to

understand, evaluate and appreciate

265

::

text in a better way.

266

::

It also helps them enjoy the literary

text, and thus look at the text from a

267

::

beautiful perspective.

268

::

Dramatic play was highly related to

total work writing fluency.

269

::

The study findings also show that

dramatic

270

::

play increases a student's ability to

write texts related to creative writing.

271

::

This result may be attributed to the

fact that role playing helps students

272

::

to understand the literary text in a

better way.

273

::

And drama helps in improving students'

creative writing skills by increasing

274

::

their vocabulary fortune.

275

::

Through the use of creative drama,

276

::

students can actively take part in the

learning process,

277

::

and they can discover their skills in

creativity as well.

278

::

It's assumed that creative drama

activities can be an effective method

279

::

to increase the student's writing

capabilities.

280

::

So we have confirmation that role

playing can help someone's ability to write.

281

::

And the implication of this,

282

::

I can't help but smile.

283

::

With the increasing popularity of V.R., and

284

::

more widespread acceptance of

285

::

the different mediums, which we

could role play through...

286

::

There are

287

::

an infinite amount of resources by this point,

288

::

and different ways to publish your

imaginings in written format.

289

::

I remember back in the

290

::

early 2000's

291

::

where we only had a few websites where

you could publish your

292

::

works of art or creative writing, such

as Deviantart,

293

::

Wattpad, Fanfiction.net, or Archive of our Own.

294

::

But now there's

295

::

a myriad ways where the written word,

296

::

can reach your audience.

297

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Who remembers those sites,

298

::

back in the day? I certainly do.

299

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The

300

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accessibility we have to technology now

301

::

is also outstanding.

302

::

And

303

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there are so many different ways we

could train the next generation

304

::

in writing fluency and creative writing.

305

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And I can't help but look forward to

306

::

what else is published

307

::

in the next day or the day after.

308

::

But

309

::

I will say

310

::

we should be careful about

311

::

what is implemented and what is used,

312

::

because it can also rob us of creativity

313

::

I'm speaking, for instance, of

artificial intelligence,

314

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Chat-GPT,

315

::

Google Bard...

316

::

or, I guess it's called Gemini now...

317

::

318

::

after the recent scandals with Bard

that were on the news,

319

::

we have to

320

::

be careful not to rely on such

technology too much.

321

::

It could be a good tool for those who

use it correctly, but it could also

322

::

depreciate the value of a lot of online

content nowadays, as we

323

::

continue to see on sites like YouTube

and

324

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Instagram, TikTok, (and Buzzfeed... etc.)

325

::

utilizing

326

::

AI technology

327

::

to the detriment of

328

::

viewers and

329

::

overall

330

::

the concept of creativity.

331

::

Thank you for joining me today.

332

::

Like I said, Penman Ventures is a

multimedia web journal where I dedicate

333

::

my time into

334

::

diving

335

::

into stories behind various works of

art, media news and a myriad of what

336

::

a myriad of interesting topics,

whatever comes to mind in that

337

::

particular day, or whether for my

potential fans request in the near future.

338

::

It is also...

339

::

a place where I chronicle my own

journey as a storyteller and a creative

340

::

I

341

::

hope to improve over time.

342

::

But for those of you tuning into this

first episode of the Penman Ventures'

343

::

broadcast, thank you for spending time

with me today,

344

::

I look forward to hearing from all of

you, either on social media or on my website,

345

::

346

::

WWW.PENMANVENTURES.COM

347

::

I hope I improve over time and provide

(You said that already, newb)

348

::

more thoughtful entertainment

349

::

to you and any other listeners out

there.

350

::

Thank you.

351

::

I'll catch you next time.

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