Last year, Dimension 20 filled the 19,500 seats of Madison Square Garden. Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan and the Intrepid Heroes performed. That same year, Amazon Prime released a new season of Critical Role – the Mighty Nein. Steadily, these and many other shows have been gaining popularity on YouTube and other streaming platforms. The vast success of these shows and their spin-offs begs the question – Is Tabletop Actual Play a type of art?
I think the answer is yes. Actual Play is already adjacent to many mediums that are considered art. It borrows components from improv and theater – with its long segments of unscripted, semiplanned narratives. While it lacks full physical acting, the people who participate often deliver fantastic voice performances. But let me also point to examples of great artistry coming out of these shows. There are moments that often gain a far wider viewership to the shows themselves – moments like Calrory’s Monologue [Warning: Spoilers] in Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy. This is a genuinely gut-wrenching scene, so much that it brought many of the players present to tears.
In this LA Review of Books Article, the academic Emily Friedmen put it more succinctly than I ever could. “The pleasure of actual play is twofold: there’s the elemental pleasure of being told a story, intertwined with the alchemy of watching that story be created in front of your eyes. It is about craft… in the ways that true chance, fueled by dice or teetering Jenga towers or cards or a coin toss, explodes ossified, clichéd narrative structures.” In other words, Actual Play distinguishes itself from other narrative mediums by allowing so many elements to contribute to the story. Usually, the game master provides the overarching, planned plot. Players bring humanity and hijinks to their characters. And the dice either legitimize or disrupt the choices made by the players and GM.
There are some counterarguments to Actual Play being art, with the biggest one being – it’s a game. While some people consider games to be art, that element is much more contentious than its more theatrical and performing side. Some argue that, since Actual Play requires the hefty rulebooks that come with most RPGs, as well as components and dice, that it falls into the game category. Even if that is true, however, it is still done with the intention of entertaining an audience.
Others might further argue a distinction between art and entertainment, that a work must be intended to be transformational rather than distracting or bemusing in order to qualify as art. Whether Actual Play qualifies is debatable here. The intention of these range from the entertainment focused Legends of Avantris which is notorious for fully devolving into bits, to the very narrative driven, tightly paced Dimension 20. I would point out, however, that this metric would disqualify an awfully large percentage of books, TV, and film.
Personally, I think Actual Play counts as art. Not every show inspires, maybe. But the same is true for books, movies, and television. And I think the greatest stories told within Actual Play will be remembered for a long, long time. At least, Exandria: Calamity will.
What about you? Do you think tabletop Actual Play is a form of art? Let us know on our Discord!
Featured Image Credit: Critical Role
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