Diverting My Focus For a Moment to Talk About What IS Really Important: Star Wars

I'll return to the primary subject matter of this blog after this post (probably) but given the timing I think I'd like to stop for a moment and talk about something that has been very important to my life. As the title would blatantly indicate that thing is Star Wars. I haven't made an overly strong effort to point it out yet, but I am very much a geek/nerd. This is something that should be rather evident by the conclusion of this entry.

A couple of years ago, about six weeks before meeting the woman who is now my wife, I took it upon myself to be the Game Master of a table top roleplaying game set in the Star Wars universe. I was heavily inspired by the comic book Star Wars Legacy, set approximately 140 years after the conclusion of the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (that's the first one produced back in the 1970s, with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader and all that for any who don't know). I was enjoying the comic which had only been in print for a few months and realized that telling a story like I wanted to tell would be easiest to do in a point in the fictional time line of Star Wars where there wasn't anything published that my very geeky friends who would be playing could complain I was contradicting by the content of the larger tale I was guiding them through.

Tonight I am bringing this epic story to its conclusion. Part of me will miss it because it's been a great creative outlet for me and something that I get to share with people who I enjoy the company of. Part of me will not miss it for that exact same reason; if I'm pouring most of my creative energy into this activity there isn't necessarily a lot left in me to focus on, say, written work that I could maybe publish, or at least share with the people important to me. It isn't like I'm going to lose the socialization either really. There will be other games with these same people, I just may not be the one running the show.

I think of role playing games (those that involve other people, not single player Final Fantasy video games) as a collective creative process. The player's of the game are the protagonists of the story, and the Game Master works with them to establish the framework and plot elements against which their story unfolds. Not everybody feels this way about role playing. Some people, players and game masters both view the entire experience competitively, an experience that is more adversarial than cooperative. The way I game though I view everything as building and seeing through a particular story. I like closure and I want everybody to have fun. There are no losers, only winners in that type of game. If people are not having fun then I'd prefer not to play the game. I'm just not a very competitive person.

Maybe I'll talk more about the actual story of my game some time, lay out the plot, but I think for now I've made my point. It is hard to face the end of my own personal Star Wars trilogy (that's right, I framed it as a trilogy), but it was fun while it lasted and I find closure rewarding. Hopefully my players, my friends, will not find tonight to be anti-climactic and will leave with positive feelings about this experience. i can talk about sheep and working towards pursuing Veterinary medicine next time.