Preconceptions

Goal: To identify your preconceptions of TTRPGs, and to distinguish your enjoyment from your expectations. 

Starting something new, having no prior knowledge and being able to learn everything from scratch, is a wonderful place to be.
It's exciting, it’s all still ahead of you, and there are so many possibilities that you can't wait to explore!

And if that describes you, then maybe you can move straight on to Lesson 2!

However most people who made it here, into LIS10, are bringing with them some understandings and expectations of TTRPGs, probably based in D&D (Dungeons & Dragons).
They're in fact not starting from scratch, so to ensure everyone can hit the ground running on the same foot, we need to shine a light on those biases, and unspoken notions that you may be expecting without even knowing it!

D&D's Biggest Problem

This preconception problem is best demonstrated whenever tabletop players try to entice newcomers into trying their hobby for the first time.

However positively and joyfully a fan may view TTRPGs, and desperately try to infuse that passion into a welcoming pitch for their friends, the response is quite often one of pulling back and saying "I don't get it" or "Yeah, okay, that doesn’t sound like my thing.".

This isn't because that fan is doing a bad job of singing the praises of TTRPGs, or that their friend really wouldn’t enjoy them, it's genuinely a communication problem - a problem D&D has always faced.

Realistically, because TTRPGs are bespoke to the individual and shift to suit the style and interests of the players, there is no one simple answer for "What is it?". In fact, most fans when trying to convince their friends to try TTRPGs speak loudly and proudly about the format’s freedom and limitless potential!

"You can do anything!"
"You act as character, you say anything you want, and then see what happens."
"It's persistent so you're going on this adventure together, you build it out over years!"
"It's like a movie but you choose what to do."

These are some real quotes I received from TTRPG fans when asked to pitch their game, and below are the responses from their friends.

"What are you actually doing?"
"I don't get it, you're just sitting around imagining things? Like what is really happening?"
"What's the real thing though, is there an app, or is there a thing?"
"What's the point? Like why would you do this?"

Now, maybe you already have responses locked and loaded!
But the point is that, hopefully, from reading those few examples you can see that there's a huge misalignment in perception here.

The players are absolutely dripping in passion and unbridled enthusiasm, they're trying to be inviting and open, as if to say "This is amazing, I love it, why can't you see that it's amazing?".

And the friends are confused, but not unwelcoming, they're curious to understand why the fans like this, but any follow up explanation just seems to confuse them further.

A Corporate Step Back

To give some greater context and insight, let's step back from the individual experience for a moment to consider the branding of something broader, a TTRPG brand like D&D.

What is your image of D&D as a brand, as a product?
Conversely, if you are a fan, and you already play TTRPGs, what do you most enjoy about playing them?
Now, is your answer to those two things the same? Is it even similar?

D&D's brand to a stranger would likely be seen as steeped in Western Medieval Fantasy, something about dragons, wizards, swords, there are dice, and perhaps a boardgame element? It's a game, and those are the keywords contributing to a stranger’s sense of what the D&D brand is.

How does this align with the quotes from some fans of D&D above? There’s no overlap, they may as well be a world away.
What makes TTRPGs special to an individual has no connection to how D&D brands itself as a company, and therefore no bearing on how a stranger will perceive it.

Communicating Your Conception

The biggest mistake I've observed, and have made myself, when trying to communicate a vision of something - is to give an example of what it is NOT. It's all too easy to try and explain why you love TTRPGs to someone, and when they don't understand, they want an example, you show them a stream or youtube video, but then talk over it saying "not this though… it could be like that… when we do it it's like this...". 

Giving an example may as well be an all-too-sudden conclusion when pitching anything, and the questions you've left hanging in your audiences’ minds are going to be answered based upon whatever example you’re now showing them, for good or ill. 

So, how can we show an example of what TTRPGs mean to us if we don’t have anything to show?
How can we clearly identify and communicate the magic we perceive in a way that can be understood and decoded by others?

Actionable Advice

1. Be Honest With Yourself

If you want to spread your love of TTRPGs you must identify and clarify what that magic spark of TTRPGs is for you, and be honest.
If you haven't been pitching D&D as "dragons, wizards, swords, and dice", why not? 
Is it truly because you don't enjoy and value those things?
Or is it because you don't think the person you're pitching to will be all that interested in hearing it?

Maybe you've never played WITHOUT those things so you genuinely don't know how much you care.
In which case, try a different setting, a different style, expand your own experience so you can gain a more rounded understanding of what you enjoy, and why.

2. Provide Positive Examples

This is good advice for any creative endeavour, examples should only be used positively to highlight what something IS.

This is why people who play D&D in ways that don't evoke "dragons, wizards, swords, and dice" are doing themselves a huge disservice by even referring to their hobby as "D&D", it garners confusion and builds a false image that must then be deconstructed.

Human nature is to make quick judgements, assumptions, and assign labels based upon what we've been exposed to, the marketing industry relies upon this behaviour.

If you must use an inaccurate example, do the same trick Screenwriters have been using for decades, and rapidly combine multiple iffy examples together! It’s “Jaws meets Robocop”, it’s “Murder on the Orient Express but in the Star Wars universe”, these work to create an image befitting the positives of each without leaving any room to think over the negatives unique to one or the other. Although exactly what that combination means will vary between each person you tell it to based upon what they personally view as the positive elements.

3. Question Complacency

My goal with starting LIS10 with this (quite abstract) Lesson is to get everyone on a more open, unbiased starting point, so we can walk down a new path we build from scratch. Where everyone can feel freely able to ask questions that mightn't have occurred to them if they thought of LIS10 purely through the lens of a TTRPG’s stereotypes.

If you've been playing D&D for decades, you know what you like, you know some things you don't like, but how often have you actually questioned yourself on your reasoning, or challenged something you've thought to be true since you were 12?

These questions could range all over from social considerations, to mechanical, to narrative, or even motivational.
I've always found it a healthy exercise to point at something I like, or something I don't, and really crack that thought open to determine if it’s even true at all.

Worksheet

The purpose of the worksheets accompanying each Lesson is to provide another pathway of reflection and creative discovery.

This is not homework, it's not a quiz, and it shouldn't be seen as a hassle.

I've always found that I learnt more from something I could approach, and interface with, in multiple ways.
If you just read through a LIS10 lesson, or watch one of the videos, maybe that speaks to you, or maybe you find it confusing or think that that particular topic was irrelevant to you.

The worksheets are simply an alternative way of prompting you to find something meaningful, something worthwhile, that you can grow from.
Maybe that's something completely disconnected from the lesson itself!
There are no right answers here, this is your journey.