Read/Play 🎨
How extreme can you take the concept of a lyric game? Or perhaps, even, a game? In this short collection, Sean Patrick Cain isn’t aiming to create something that’s necessarily playable. Instead they are ‘playing’ with the concept of a ‘game’.
Name: Read/Play
Contributor/s: Sean Patrick Cain
Publication date: 2019
Price: $1
System/Genre: Varied
How extreme can you take the concept of a lyric game? Or perhaps, even, a game? 2019's #2WordRPGJam tried to push the boat out and see what’s possible. In this short collection, Sean Patrick Cain isn’t aiming to create something that’s necessarily playable. Instead they are ‘playing’ with the concept of a ‘game’.
The joy of this format isn’t in the playing, instead it is in the envisioning. How little information does a group really need in order to collectively agree to ‘play’? How many rules can we leave unwritten, relying on shared values, culture norms and memetics?
What results is something that feels almost like the punchline of a joke (indeed, the Author often uses a descriptive line or two as the set-up, with the title then being the punchline), but it’s not really fair to call it a joke, as there’s a kernel of playability underlying the playful word choice.
Indeed, one of the games looks eminently playable. The simply titled: Shop. Wear. could without a doubt be ‘played’ by a group of friends. Even if that ‘play’ lies far outside a conventional RPG experience.
All in, Read/Play encapsulates a sub-genre of the indie ttrpg scene that is rarely examined by reviewers, mostly because the discourse often takes place through creation itself. But once you step into this puddle, you’ll discover an ocean.