About

Pretend Town is a resource for people who are new to tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs). Find introductions, reviews, and play reports if you're new to playing or running a game as 'game master'. New to designing systems, writing game content, and understanding the industry? Me too. Follow along with my analysis.

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TRPGs are unlike any other media. Co-created by their participants, they only exist in the fleeting moments of play. They're a cross between live theatre and radio drama - except the 'audience' is actively writing and directing the narrative. 

To play, you set tone, ambience, expectation in an imaginary space that is also (somehow) shared. Generate ideas or cues through randomization that surprise and challenge everyone in the space to question it entirely. Discuss, argue, and clarify the imaginary space to understand its components and capabilities, then act in it. Resolving these actions are occasionally pre-determined, but more often are left to chance and creative spontaneity of its participants. The rules for resolution can be loose and conversational, or complex and layered.

My primary interest is to explore the ways we get to those co-created spaces with one another. I want to do this by documenting what I learn to both honour the traditions that got us this far while pushing to make them better. I hope to find or build a community of like-minded, kind, and curious people interested in doing the same.