From body-horror battlemaps and hovering choral anthems to artistic reside visible and in-fiction language classes, precise play final yr had moments that shocked, delighted, and even instructed — inspiring waypoints for gamers and performers alike. As a professor who research troupes performing Dungeons & Dragons and different role-playing video games, I’ve hung out with lots of of reveals throughout hundreds of hours, watching and listening. These are the sounds, pictures, and concepts from 2023 that may persist with me for years to return.
Cassi Mothwin’s Jenga tower in area
Cassi Mothwin’s work this yr has been an attention-grabbing mixture of recreation design and efficiency expertise, together with the mixture audio drama and solo journaling RPG The Sticker Game, which received her an Indie Groundbreaker award and the prize for greatest actual-play video at Minnesota WebFest. Whereas not a prolific actual-play creator, her livestreamed playthrough of Chris Bissette’s solo recreation The Wretched is a fascinating expertise. With a deft use of digital overlays, her multi-camera setup turned humble wood blocks right into a stylized illustration of a doomed starship. A decent 40 minutes of gameplay with an introduction and a 15-minute postgame reflection, it’s additionally a reminder of the influence shorter classes and smaller methods can have on an viewers.
Gudiya cracks to let mild in
One other livestream you might have missed that earned kudos throughout varied net fests, together with a number of nominations and awards, was Gudiya, a playthrough of Bluebeard’s Bride that used the novel system to discover concepts of colonial and gendered violence in a South Asian setting. Three gamers are totally different points of the titular bride, and as their dynamic shifts, so too does the luxurious, animated illustration of Gudiya’s face by Stella Luna — a beautiful, and haunting, set of pictures of fracture and reintegration.
Worlds Past Quantity brings us to “The Rain Highway”
There’s lots of robust contenders for authentic music today in precise play, following within the custom of Griffin McElroy’s work on The Journey Zone. Musician J. Strautman of Planet Arcana follows within the McElroy custom of scoring and DMing (together with a gap theme that’s by no means removed from my mind), and the group led by Steven Melin at Dark Dice composes immersive, haunting sonic landscapes. There’s even in-character idea albums by the Dungeons and Daddies group.
The one second I’ve been displaying to college students, colleagues, and the curious has been the finale of Worlds Past Quantity’s first arc, “There may be an Ocean Vaster than This One,” which makes use of an authentic track by producer Taylor Moore with DM Brennan Lee Mulligan, “The Rain Road.” Impressed by Mulligan’s deep engagement with Celtic lore, and together with a mix of particular person singers and a choir sourced from everywhere in the world, the track is an expression of unity and hope renewed and brings the primary arc of this bold new precise play to an equally astonishing finish.
DesiQuest’s shiny glossary
Jasmine Bhullar’s love letter to the Indian subcontinent, DesiQuest, arrived a little bit later than anticipated, but it surely was money and time nicely spent. There’s a lot to like, with brisk pacing, considerate world-building, and a pleasant forged of characters (younger assemble Baccha has my entire coronary heart). However the present earns particular kudos for the selection so as to add pop-up witty definitions within the decrease third. The selection permits Bhullar and her stellar forged to proceed with out interruption or rationalization on this all-Desi area, whereas graciously inviting wider audiences in to share within the enjoyable. It’s one in all many small touches that make the mission sing.
Iyengar’s bear
Aabria Iyengar is greatest recognized for theater-of-the-mind-style play, and her prior instances in command of Dimension 20’s Dome had her calling on the abilities of Rick Perry and the artwork group to create projections and props, not battlemaps. That every one modified with episode 2 of Burrow’s Finish, the place Iyengar unveiled her monsterpiece: an undead bear, now being piloted by chipmunks. Half miniature, half battlemap, the bear was the primary signal of the true horror of this marketing campaign, in addition to a intelligent foreshadowing of the themes and plot factors but to return.
Honorable point out: Shoutout to CritRoleStats
Whereas most media now depends closely on what scholar Ludi Worth calls “fan information labor” — the work of compiling data, wikis, clipping moments, and extra — it’s the lifeblood of precise play. Having devoted, nerdy-ass (and detail-oriented) followers is nearly as necessary to a fledgling present’s success because the forged and crew. That is significantly true of Vital Position, whose gargantuan episodes have been live-tweeted by CritRoleStats for the reason that first summer time of airing. For the ultimate broadcast of 2023, the group (Andrew Okay., Singing Badger, Lauren Okay., and Katherine Okay.) acquired a shoutout by DM Matt Mercer and loremaster Dani Carr. In response, the group tweeted, “It’s been an honor and a pleasure to serve, document, chortle, cry, and expertise with this group, this present, and the individuals who create it. Thanks all for eight astounding years.” It was a touching tribute to a mission whose influence on audiences (and scholarship!) can’t be overstated — of a sort we doubtless is not going to see once more.