1 April 2024: A Simple Approach
Welcome to The Day-to-Day, a development log where I'll share insights into my ongoing projects. I’ve decided to start with Lightspress itself, a company that embodies my vision for roleplaying as an art form and a commentary on the hobby. Lightspress is more than just a publishing company; it's a statement piece and a form of performance art. My goal with Lightspress is to challenge traditional notions of roleplaying, the industry, and community. We embrace a simple approach to roleplaying. That’s the new official tagline. I plan to avoid, if not entirely jettison, future references to lo-fi aesthetics, brutalism, and punk DIY values. Those are references, but I want to talk about what is, and what’s to come, not what we’re building upon.
My mission with Lightspress is to challenge the status quo in the roleplaying industry. By explaining our methods and philosophy, I hope to inspire change, even if it's met with resistance. Recently, I received feedback criticizing my writing style and content. The industry standard is 300-page fully illustrated books, often with small type that’s hard for many of us with poor eyesight to read. Most art, from full-page painting to cheap line art to everything in between, serve no clear purpose other than to fulfill an expectation that roleplaying books need art. My 96-page books, with no art and readable copy density, were called overwritten and accused of containing filler. D&D has three core books, with a list price of $49.00 each and nearly a thousand pages combined. The DoubleZero system core has everything you need to play in a tenth the number of pages and costs $5. Yet a reviewer has the audacity to say my book is the one that has too much cruft.
Part of my renewed embrace of simplicity is giving up the vocabulary war. While I may not agree with all common terminology, I recognize the importance of clear communication. Roleplaying may not be a game to me, but I understand the necessity of using common language to reach a wider audience. I think that roleplaying has the potential to be an art form, but in 50 years has still failed to achieve that status. The reason, which before you clutch your pearls know is not a value judgment, is the ubiquity of Dungeons & Dragons. In spite of incremental changes in every new edition, it clings tightly to its wargaming roots. Roll dice, kill things, get loot, repeat. Anything more than that is incidental, accidental, or optional frosting on the cake. It needs to have something at the core of its brand identity, I get that. The industry needs to sell miniatures and battle mats. A whole economy depends on this stasis.
Yes, there are other roleplaying games. The majority of them are fantasy, so we’re still closely in D&D’s orbit. Those in other genres can try different things, but most mechanics need to conform to certain tropes and expectations, work to some degree in a way that’s recognizable to the people only familiar with D&D. That’s a huge creative limitation.
Saying that roleplaying is D&D is like saying theater is Shakespeare. Worse, it’s like saying only Shakespeare’s histories count, relegating the comedies and tragedies to a lower tier and completely ignoring that he also wrote sonnets. It is great? Sure. Do players (whether actors or roleplayers) do wonderful things with the material? Absolutely. Is this incredibly limiting for people who aren’t interested in history filtered through an Elizabethan lens, or the fantasy genre as interpreted by D&D? Most definitely. If all theater were Shakespeare, it would cut off playwrights, actors, directors, and theater goers from a wealth of experiences. If all roleplaying must remain in the orbit of D&D, there will be people who might otherwise be interested in the hobby who will give it a pass, thus killing its potential as an art form.
This is where I’m going to stop for today. Hopefully this rambling will provide some insight as to what I’m trying to accomplish here, and where my odd philosophy come from. Please leave comments below, spread the word about this blog, and as always, I hope you’re doing well today.
Berin Kinsman
