Feb 12th, 2023 Sunday Sunny
Last summer, my husband and I invited two other friends to start a weekly role playing game campaign called “Gloomhaven – jaws of the lion”. It was a game that the two of us played through once, and we believe it would be a very interesting replay experience to have four heros instead of two. In addition, it is a great excuse to have an informal gathering with friends on a regular basis. 😉
So the campaign kicked off. Every Saturday, our friends come to visit at five o’clock, and my husband prepares a casual dinner for everyone. We eat together, chat about our week and any updates in life, sometimes discuss various unrelated topics such as local politics, consumerism, and public education.
While this is a good social activity, being somewhat introverted, I tend to shun away at the idea of having another “gathering” when I happen to have a busy week with lots of human interactions at work. Plus, there are often many chores around the house that need to be taken care of. Having a game night means the time we have for doing other things on the weekend is cut by 30-40%, making me feel more “geared up” and not fully relaxed after the weekend is gone.
Here is where disagreement appears: to my husband, this gaming time is the one thing he looks forward to every week as a “reward” for working hard, and he would particularly want to make sure it happens if his week has been hectic. I am the complete opposite – after all, games are just for fun, and if there are other priorities in daily life that require more time and energy, games have to be “sacrificed” so as not to overwhelm myself.
Of course, we respect the preferences of each other, so we usually settle on playing on most weekends, unless the week has been too draining for me.
This past weekend, one of our friends went through an extraordinarily trying period – his father just passed away after being hospitalized for a while, and all his family has been relying heavily on him to handle all the funeral and financial matters. We felt deeply for him, and would totally understand if he would like to skip the game yesterday.
Yet, he wrote a short message, “I would still like to meet. It would be a nice break.” and showed up at our door.
He looked a little tired, but otherwise in good spirits, and was pretty talkative. The nourishing food (Japanese curry rice with Okinawan style donuts) and friendly atmosphere seemed to be exactly what he craved for. After dinner, we spent more than three hours to play one unexpectedly challenging scenario and had a hard-won victory in the end. It felt terrific.
I start to understand the appeal of role playing games now. It is a recess from all the never-ending pressures and demands that adults must face every day. When the pressures become too much, even if we are not physically working, our minds would inevitably wander to all the work-related thoughts and worries. The only way to “disconnect” is to occupy oneself (both physically and mentally) with something completely different, such as submerging oneself in another world of elves, imps, goblins, and demons.
In a role playing game, you are playing as a character with special abilities unlike yourself at all. You get to experience a universe untouched by modern technology and fight monsters to save villages. You get to be a hero through strategy and a little bit of luck, and savor a sense of achievement after success. These are precisely what our friend hoped for but could hardly receive in his mundane life, especially in this last week. It is indeed a relief, a recharging opportunity.
I guess that is the unique value that role playing games provide, isn’t it?