Playing with the Body
But where is the body in tabletop games? We have the obvious actions that the body must take, like rolling dice, taking notes on changes to stats, and sometimes moving model figures on a map. Some of the brief conversations I’ve had already, the player commented on how they prefer physically rolling dice to doing so on a phone app because of the feel of the dice in the hands.
Thinking About Things
Dice are more than just their economic value, or their functional role in storytelling. We also connect to these various things in table top role playing. The little figurines that are hand-painted to connected to our character is more than its functional role on the map. It’s a representation of us, an emotional element that we connect to and think about as more than the figurine itself.
Table Top Role Playing Games and the Magic Circle
There’s a lot that can be said for the dynamics of the structure of the play environment and the way that people create that space. In many ways, we could talk about ritualisation, the concept of ritual space, and how play works with these dynamics. But I think, first, I need to talk about the magic circle, and how, I think, TTRPGs disprove the idea of it.