RPGaDay2025 - 4 Message


#RPGaDay2025 - 4 Message

Art is a communication medium, so is music, and so are numerous other things that are a part of our daily lives. However, for a medium to be worthwhile, it needs to convey a message. If the message is confusing, does the medium serve its purpose well? Does it serve it’s purpose at all? What is the message behind a banana stuck to a wall? If the artist leaves the interpretation to the viewer, was there ever actually a message to start with?

What is the message in a tabletop roleplaying game? Here’s where it all gets a bit fractal.

The words on the page convey the method of play. At the surface level, the words are the medium and the message is the game. However, I’d suggest that the game itself is a medium for something deeper, a medium for facilitating the experience of play. By this rationale, a game designer needs to develop a medium, knowing that the message it conveys is also a medium, while an underlying message is conveyed by the game.

Maybe I’m overthinking this whole thing.

 

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