How come protagonists arriving at the fantasy world from the real world isn't a more common motif in RPGs?

How come protagonists arriving at the fantasy world from the real world isn't a more common motif in RPGs? Even before it got spread so thin by Japanese light novels, a lot of class fantasy literature (some of it primary influences on early tabletop gaming) used it. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Barsoom, Three Hearts & Three Lions, the Infinity Concerto, the Narnia books...

You'd think there'd be way more support for the concept in early game books.

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I wanted to write something snide about your implying or general moronation, but then I reminded myself about pic related.
    Are you happy about yourself? Do you sleep at night?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Level with me for a sec, buddy. What kind of threads do you want to see on the board? b***hing about ragebait and shitposts I get. Whining about generals is almost understandable. But why be upset at decent questions? It's a step above another elf ass thread or a worldbuilding thread.
      How are you supposed to ask questions now? What are you even allowed to ask questions about?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >This thread
        >Decent question
        That's the thing. It's not decent. It's not even a genuine question. It's just part of the brown paste, filling up the catalog

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Then what is a good question?
          What do you think is an acceptable thread?
          Give us an example of the quality of posting you think we should strive for.
          Is there a single thread on this entire board that gets your stamp of approval?

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            I can tell you that it's not this one, considering there is no discussion going and except for homosexuals like you getting their panties in a twist after being called out, NOTHING is going on in it.
            So here goes the whole "hurr this is genunine thread and you are just mad durr" non-argument. It's not an actual thread. Never was. And it's not the matter of subject, but intention and formatting said intention.
            If you can't spot an aimless bait thread on your own - you are part of the problem.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              >Several people make honest posts on the subject
              >but I can't see them because I'm too busy hurfing and durfing
              >the people who told me to frick off are the problem!
              Jesus, the lack of self awareness you display is astonishing.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >Several people make honest posts on the subject
                List 5 of those post.
                Come on, prove there are at least 5 of them in this robust and interesting thread that has any sort of content other than bumpgay pretending he has a genuine interest in the subject, with his standard autistic "care to elaborate?" and "never thought of [this banal, obvious and boiler-plate thing]"

                >This thread is bad.
                >What kind of thread would be good?
                >Not this one.
                Gee, thanks. Really fricking helpful.
                I didn't ask what ISN'T a good thread.
                I asked what IS a good thread.
                Can you really not answer such a simple question?

                ...so why are you participating again?

                >T-this is a genuine thread
                >I-it has merit
                >Y-you participate!
                Black person, literally THE ONLY thing going in this thread is your pathetic attempt to keep it afloat.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                List 5 good threads you've created.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Anon. Read this post very carefully so you don't miss the point.
                I am not telling you what threads you should like or dislike.
                I am aware that you think this is a bad thread.
                I am not trying to change your mind about this thread.
                Okay? Are you with me so far? Good.
                Now, for the third time, please tell me what you think would be a good thread. Describe a good thread, or give examples of a good thread.
                I feel like this isn't a difficult thing to ask of a person.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Why did you bump this thread from the last page to reply to a 16 hour old post? I doubt that the person you are responding to is even awake, yet alone reading this thread.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Hello newfriend! Due to the 24 hour nature of the world and the fantastical powers of the world wide web you may have heard of, image board posting can happen over long periods of time over vast distances, which can then be read later rather than needing it to be an immediate social media style discussion. Posting while a thread is close to falling off before going to sleep or work is quite common and functional. Not all threads need to be immediately filled with things you specifically care about. The catalogue doesn't have to be just filled with a permanent stream of entertainment for you.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Hi Bumpgay, spending all day bringing threads back from the dead is neither functional or normal. Ironically it is you who uses this thread like it's some kind of social media chronicle that needs to be kept active until the sun goes out. Everyone who's spent more than a week on /tg/ can recognise you and knows you use the same old excuses for your homosexualry each time and I take great pleasure in knowing just how uncomfortable being called out for this makes you.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                It's always fun watching someone not get it this hard.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              >This thread is bad.
              >What kind of thread would be good?
              >Not this one.
              Gee, thanks. Really fricking helpful.
              I didn't ask what ISN'T a good thread.
              I asked what IS a good thread.
              Can you really not answer such a simple question?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        The real crime of bumpgay: people get so assmad about his vague "conversation starter" shitposts that they start attacking anyone who asks a question.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Anon, we had this thread a week ago. And three weeks ago. At least in this case, OP has the decency to switch image when generating them.
          It's a shitpost and spam, plain and simple. There is no "b-but we can salvage it" or "let's make it a genuine thread then". That era is gone, and pic related

          I wanted to write something snide about your implying or general moronation, but then I reminded myself about pic related.
          Are you happy about yourself? Do you sleep at night?

          is precisely why you can't turn it into anything useful: because third of the people left already.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Plus, there is always the obvious:
          If OP is interested in any sort of discussion, why his entire contribution is providing a bait-laced opening and then leaving to frick off? Could it be that he has zero interest in whatever subject he's currently reposting from his shitpost list?

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >bait-laced
            I think you've spent too long on Ganker. Not every post you don't like is "bait".

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              And I think you didn't spend long enough on /tg/ to even gauge what's up, you dumb homosexual.
              It's a chain-shitpost, reposted at least once per month, and you are still acting like you're in a genuine thread. Yes, a very genuine, and very non-bait thread that right off the bat projects as follow:
              >why X isn't more common?
              >muh Y that everyone (supposedly) hates
              >it is used in n, m and k, so it has to be great, even if different medium
              >[Statement indicating common thing is uncommon, without providing any proof]
              Truly, the peak of honest-to-god discussion starters! Not bait at all. Not projecting anything. Actual discussion guaranteed!

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I think a lot of people play ttrpgs to pretend they are someone else, or at least to look like someone else who just gets to act like they wish they could, rather than wanting to play that direct a self-insert. Its close either way, but the distinction is important to them. I don't think its a particularity conscious choice, but that one is more appealing than the other. Might be linked to shifts over time about story telling being less about fish-out-of-water and more about being socially connected and important but that's just a gut feeling.
        Probably also linked to the frequency of character transplants as part of very young adult lit which gets phased out after 12ish for slightly more subtle self inserts?

        idk man, sometimes people just get too worked up about spamming or other problems they see as an aggregate and then apply that vitriol in limited specific places. I try and find things in the catalogue that seem earnest, ask and answer questions and otherwise engage. Sometimes its interesting, sometimes its the dragonspammer or some autistic polish guy.

        And I think you didn't spend long enough on /tg/ to even gauge what's up, you dumb homosexual.
        It's a chain-shitpost, reposted at least once per month, and you are still acting like you're in a genuine thread. Yes, a very genuine, and very non-bait thread that right off the bat projects as follow:
        >why X isn't more common?
        >muh Y that everyone (supposedly) hates
        >it is used in n, m and k, so it has to be great, even if different medium
        >[Statement indicating common thing is uncommon, without providing any proof]
        Truly, the peak of honest-to-god discussion starters! Not bait at all. Not projecting anything. Actual discussion guaranteed!

        Heaven forbid someone try asking a similar question once a month. We might run out of Ganker if they don't stop posting!
        Really though, if you've seen enough to pick out that sort of pattern, might be a good idea to take a break from /tg/ for a bit and do something you enjoy instead of getting mad its not as stimulating as it once was.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Yes, heavens forbid when people make THE SAME FRICKING THREAD time and again, and expect anyone to not just participate, but give a flying frick about then,

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            ...so why are you participating again?

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          >Probably also linked to the frequency of character transplants as part of very young adult lit which gets phased out after 12ish for slightly more subtle self inserts
          Good observation, haven't actually thought about it until now.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Anything not tied directly the topic of traditional games needs to be banned from /tg/. All lorehomosexualry, coomershit and world*ilding needs to frick off to a separate board. Only discussing gameplay or wip projects should be allowed

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          loreshit and worldbuilding are both directly tied to /tg/, what the hell is wrong with you morons

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Because the players might do something like introducing modern scientific knowledge and ruin the GM's railroad. In other forms of media it just conveniently never occurs to anyone.

      Frick off already you cancerous piece of shit, there are other sites you can go to if this one has you so buttblasted.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >conveniently never occurs to anyone
        Never read Connecticut Yankee or Lest Darkness Falls, I see.
        The latter is great, btw. About a historian sent back to the latter days of the Roman Empire, who struggles to reinvent printing and telegraph and things to prevent collapse. It's also a good example of how it's harder than your players think.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I'm not schizo enough to understand what this graph is supposed to mean.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >Graph axis are not properly labeled
        Go the frick back to elementary school

        >newbies can't even recognise anon count graphs anymore
        I'd say lurk moar, but it's obvious you won't last here another 3 months, after already spending here one.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Graph axis are not properly labeled
      Go the frick back to elementary school

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Games Workshop's "You are not welcome" and the troony jannies decision to make /qst/ are absolutely masterclasses in how to kill a community stone dead.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Except as the graph shows, /qst/ creation didn't cause any sort of fall of poster count. It kept more or less the same until summer 2021 and is in free-fall ever since.
        Care to guess what sort of shitposting got sanctioned by mods back then?

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          /qst/ was created in 2016, the year of the big election tourist influx, there were plenty of warm bodies to replace the people who left, but shitty phoneposting politics-tards are not a good replacement for the creative people who left.

          Also, bump for angryanon's memetic hazard comedy hour

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            If you want to "/qst/ killed /tg/, because creative types left", you missed the mark by about 4 years.
            Nazimod gutted and filleted anything even resembling creativity out of /tg/. /qst/ is the aftermath, not the cause, and it's already barely related.
            And again, somehow /tg/ weathered both nazimod, election tourists and all sort of crap... but not bumpgay and him getting backed by mods. It's genuinely worse than with nazimod, because at least back then people were looking for creative solutions to get stuff still posted, while nowdays the catalog is simply flooded by bot-tier threads.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              Oh for frick's sake, autoposted without the last sentence:
              So even if you make an actual thread, if it's not going turbo-active, it will be simply pushed out by the spam, to the point I can't even leave a thread when going to work, because a spamming homosexual is going to push it out.s

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              >Nazimod was the real villain
              Oh sure, no argument about that. 2015 /tg/ was a shadow of its former self. But the last vestiges of creativity around here went to /qst/ and never returned.
              >bumpgay!
              Is a memetic hazard for morons. You end up like those amogus idiots who start seeing it everywhere, and suddenly every thread is a bumpgay thread, and every poster is bumpgay. It's a cancerous meme that serves no purpose but making you mad about nothing.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Bumptroon is very real and has very specific behaviors that always out him as the fat ugly autistic troony he is in reality. You're either delusional, uninitiated, or on the discord troony defense league, because there is absolutely no scenario in which the bumptroony isn't as real as the smaugtroony or virt.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Whether he's real or not doesn't change the fact that you've allowed him to become your personal boogieman.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Rolled 5, 2 + 2 = 9 (2d6 + 2)

                >Bumpgay isn't h-
                >thread gets necrobumped off page 10

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Boogeyman are made up.
                This thread meanwhile was dredged by [...] from the very bottom of the catalogue.
                This is the previous post [...]. Gee, I guess bumpgay isn't real, and the fact this thread was effectively dead for 9 hours is also a mere coincidence

                What part of "whether he's real or not" did you guys not understand? That clause means "it doesn't matter if he's real," so the fact that somebody just did that shit doesn't change the point.
                And anybody at all can necrobump a thread, maybe just to spite you guys and see if you sperg some more. Which you did.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >What part of "whether he's real or not" did you guys not understand
                The part when you called a real, observable behaviour "boogeyman".
                Boogeyman are explicitly not real, you dumb homosexual.
                Also
                >bumpgay is a single person
                >not the type of behaviour
                Found your problem, you dumb moron

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Something can exist and be somebody's boogeyman at the same time, like you and deodorant.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Boogeyman are made up.
                This thread meanwhile was dredged by

                Rolled 5, 2 + 2 = 9 (2d6 + 2)

                from the very bottom of the catalogue.
                This is the previous post

                You're so brain broken by yelling at shadows you can't read. Go outside, get some air. Go play a game maybe.

                . Gee, I guess bumpgay isn't real, and the fact this thread was effectively dead for 9 hours is also a mere coincidence

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Holyshit lol you actually can't even reconsider your own neurosis when presented with direct evidence. Your pattern recognition is making connections where there are none. At this point the most likely is that someone or several someones are fricking with you because its funny.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >At this point the most likely is that someone or several someones are fricking with you because its funny.
                This. tbh Senpai.
                t.bumpgayman

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >he's still hodling
      Lmaoing at your life, I've sold it back in 2020 and I'm still rolling in cash.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Because the earliest RPGs already had an element of self-insert. Sure, your fighting man or magic-user was sort of supposed to be Conan or Gandalf in-universe, but the way you played them was more about immersing yourself in the fantasy, "what if *I* were a badass warrior or wizard, and how would I make my way to riches and power in this fantasy world?"
    Portal fantasy was certainly known to the creators of OD&D in the 70s, but back then it was either exactly the kind of pulp they were emulating (John Carter) or it was kid stuff they wanted to avoid (Oz, Narnia, Wonderland). And given the challenge-based way they played, odds are, if you wanted to play a normal dude from 1980 tossed into D&Dland? The typical DM would've assumed you were looking for a way to break the campaign by inventing gunpowder or some shit.

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >How come protagonists arriving at the fantasy world from the real world isn't a more common motif in RPGs?
    Because it's lame. I want to roleplay a cool person, I don't want to roleplay some random guy.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      John Carter was a pretty cool dude, if I recall correctly

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        John Carter was not a cool dude. The martians were all just losers compared to even an average human.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Nah, Carter was a kickass soldier who set foot on Barsoom, took a quick look around, and decided who needed punching first, and went to it. He was a badass even before he got to Mars, and became a double badass once he was there.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Because in RPGs, it loses its use as a literary device that lets the reader discover the world with the protagonist. All that remains is a character with no ties to the world you're playing in. And if the player is an isekaigay, they probably expect to get some OP powers or items in exchange for that zero investment.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >All this pointless projecting
      >Instead of honest "I find it dumb to play self-inserts"
      Remember anon - honesty is worth more than gold

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >>All this pointless projecting
        Are you really going to say that genre expectations aren't a thing?
        If I tell my players we're going to be running a noir game they're going to expect cynical detectives and a cold urban environment. I could run them through a lighthearted globe-trotting 1920s treasure hunting game full of parodies of noir characters but they're going to be a little upset at that.
        Similarly if I say "we're running isekai" and the game doesn't start with truck-kun and some cheat skills the players are going to ask why I called it an isekai.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Why would you call it an isekai, then? Portal fantasy is the non-weeb-homosexual term and carries none of that baggage.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >Okay guys we're gonna play this really cool game
            >Everybody plays as real life humans that magically get transported to an alternate world. It's a portal fantasy game
            >"Isn't that basically an isekai?"

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              That's when you hit him with the book

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                A compendium-edition of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        You can play the same kind of homosexual you are in real life as long as this version of you has a place you come from and people you care for on this plane of existence.

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Because having your character come from a small, isolated village achieves the same thing while still allowing the character to not just be a self insert

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    On further consideration, it would also probably be even more difficult for players to deal with pc death if the pc was exactly them.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    It's funny, even the DND cartoon had this but you don't see it too often in actual DND.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Some of the weirdness about that anon's asspain about threads is also missing the point that not all threads have to be over 300 posts of stimulating engagement. There can be jokes, images and other things scattered in with answering questions or throwing ideas at the wall. If the questions are basically answered and whatever issues are resolved, the thread can just drift off or someone else can try starting up conversation on linked ideas.
    It seems mostly like they're just upset /tg/ isn't a constant stream of novelty for them to consume.

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    You ever wonder what made them the "Forgotten" Realms? Ever read

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    It's a lame concept when done more than once, and invites power creep to no end. Unless it's a setting about bringing modern technology, a person from the real world has no advantage over the locals, and likely even at disadvantage due to knowing nothing.

    It also invites a lack of role playing. Your character is from the "real world", then who will your character be? In all regards, even if they have a different name, they're just the player living out their own fantasies as if they were the character without having to live in and deal with the consequences of their actions, as they're an alien component without real connection to the world.

    I feel there's been a drastic uptick in meta gaming and self inserts with RPGs in general, and people are forgetting they're supposed to be playing a character, not themselves.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >It also invites a lack of role playing
      Strongly disagree, playing yourself in a strange situation is also role playing. It's one thing to dislike a trope, it's another to try to redefine concepts in order to exclude a trope because you don't like it.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >Playing as yourself is role-playing
        No it's not, you massive moron. If that were the case, every game is a role playing game.

        There's a significant difference of weighing what YOU would do, versus putting yourself in the shoes of another character. Doing things you personally wouldn't like or care to do, but is in sync with how the character would react, is a mainstay to the genre.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          >every game is a role playing game.
          It absolutely is if you are playing a role, including "what if I was in this situation, what would I do?" Get mad all you want, this is basic shit.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >Be autistic
            >Genuinely incapable of playing a character other than yourself
            >Call other mad when they point out your brain-damage

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              Now you're just shitposting because you can't muster an argument other than "It just is how I say it is, okay? Shut up!"

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                I'm not even that anon, you big dum-dum. I'm simply pointing finger and laughing at your inability to play anything else than yourself and lack of self awareness that's brain-damage, not a norm.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >inability to play anything else than yourself
                And where did you get that notion, moron-kun? 'Cause that's something you made up, whole cloth.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I mean I play RPGs set in fictional version of the "real world" already, none of these characters are self inserts, they're their own people with pasts and circumstances different than my own. If a portal opened up that took these characters to another world they wouldn't start to act like my self insert.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >people are forgetting they're supposed to be playing a character, not themselves
      That's been out since Dragonlance at least. Its always been a difficulty most people have, abstracting beyond their own general experiences is difficult for a lot of people. The ones who are able to do so reliably tend to be the GM. Not saying I'm in favour of it, just a human tendency that's cycled around enough times to become the norm.
      That being said, it could be interesting to have a game where everyone plays as themselves. There was a 4 book post apocalyptic game series of different flavours of apocalypse where you were suppose to make your selves and hometown the setting, haven't played it.
      I suspect it would get weird with players being very attached to events though.

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    >bumpgay posts are legit!
    >because they are!
    This is your brain on being a fricking moron

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      You're so brain broken by yelling at shadows you can't read. Go outside, get some air. Go play a game maybe.

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Dumb thread, I won't give you a real reply, stop posting here already.

  13. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Reminder that time travel and isekai are not the same thing

  14. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Rolled 5, 2 + 2 = 9 (2d6 + 2)

  15. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I have an honest question to raise.
    My friends are of the opinion that isekai is the only true way to play RPGs that take place in a non-Earth (non-familiar) setting, because they feel that they can't roleplay a character in a foreign setting. Since they'd be discovering the place along the way, they believe that they wouldn't be sufficiently in-character because they don't know everything the character knows.
    I disagree, because I don't think that level of verisimilitude is required and they're focusing too hard on that, but I can't convince them otherwise. What are anons' thoughts on the matter?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Try running an a game their way and see wha happens? The most difficult part would be if one of the player characters dies, but it's worth doing just to see how the handle it.
      Or make a gazette pamphlet about the world so the have a decent stating point.
      Might help to have the initial area be closer to the familiar and become stranger as they explore the world.
      For wha it's worth I think if the can't use their imaginations well enough to get 1 layer of distance from themselves they're medium moronic but you might be suck with it.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Thing is, every single game we've run is along those lines. It's always either
        >PCs from another world
        >present-day urban fantasy
        >20 years in the future slight sci-fi
        and frankly I just want to romp around in a new setting. I want to have something strange and different without having the PCs be separate from that world.
        But I'm also the forever GM, the frickers never want to run jackshit. I hate it.

  16. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    The sort of sentiments and norms associated with that style of plot are more easily approached from a historical fantasy or urban fantasy perspective

  17. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >transported to ye olde medieval times
    >don't speak latin or middle english
    >accosted by the guard
    >men in party don't know how to sword fight
    >can't into magic
    >die
    >women in party beaten for violating modesty laws
    >game over

    I'm thinking based.

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