On Role Playing, Literature, and Acting

[benlehman]

This was an essay, but I realized that it can be trimmed to one line:

The only similarity between acting, literature, and role-playing games is that they all use words and, sometimes, plot arcs.

Relvevant Forge thread:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12711&highlight=

Anyone else have thoughts?

Comments

[relevance.livejournal.com]

I think authoring game materials and gaming are distinct, obviously, but closely linked, in the same way that reading and writing poetry or playwriting and drama are. They aren't the same activity; but extensive experience with the one is necessary (but not sufficient) to undertake the other.

It sounds like (somewhat unsurprisingly) you're looking for different things out of roleplaying than I am. The collaborative imagined thing is important to me, but so is what is actually said and done, and the alignment of game experience and (my) human experience [at least on a metaphorical level]. Acting skills are incredibly useful when it comes to those latter two.

I also disagree that acting skills can be detrimental, though perhaps a specific attitude towards acting can. Improv actors (as opposed to performance actors) tend not to care very much whether they have an audience, except as it impacts their ability to make a living.

[russiandude.livejournal.com]

I have often said that gaming is a lot like improv acting - somebody gives you a setting and you (with some other people) have to come up with ideas, with little prep work, to make it believable.