In The Darkness...

It's only about about 15000 years since humans had to really consider that if they walked into a cave, they may meet a sabretooth cat, or giant cave bear. Since time humankind first evolved, the underworld has historically and mythically been a place of transformation or ritual initiation, a place filled with fear and unknowncreatures. Leonado Da Vinci found a cave in the mountains, and was at the same time terrified at what may lie beyond, but at the same time marvelled at the very same notion. If I recall correctly, he actually discovered the fossil of a prehistoric whale. We mine the earth for rare minerals, precious metals and gemstones, taking our chances against nature, whilst there are tales in all cultures of races of humans and non-humans who dwell beneath the earth's surface, some benign, others malicious in nature. We are evolutionarily hard wired to fear the subterranean, it is for the most part an environment which is not welcoming to humanity and therefore, down through time we have become preternaturally aware that it really is not a place we want to go. At the same time however, there's something of a fascination with the world below. After all, the unknown quantity of the inner earth has an allure that drives many to descend into the darkness, against what is considered better judgement to marvel at the stalagmites and stalagtites, the underground waterways and lakes, and even the life which against all the odds has evolved down there, being nothing less than alien life forms of sorts. Urban explorers similarly delve into the forgotten and neglected spaces created by man's colonisation of the surface. Cities are built on the remains of earlier settlement. Sewers, catacombs and burial pits are all there for the finding and exploring, legally or otherwise. Perhaps then, this hardwired fear and fascination are what maade Dungeons & Dragons and those games which followed in it's footstepsso popular as we instinctively react to the biological, pathological love/hate of the unseen world. Albeit in our imaginations, we equip ourselves with armour, lanterns and provisions and band together with other like-minded imagineers to seek out and confront thos creatures of darkness which we instictively fear at a genetic level, but which we also wish we could encounter. We escape our mundane existence by going underground in the catacombs of our imaginations, confronting the darkness, to hopefully live to tell the story of how we defeated the very earth and discover riches and with those riches and conquests, fame, even if only imagined. Do we crave that sense that we have faced up to our most primal fear and enemies, and vanquished the darkness itself? I think that is what perhaps drives us to imagine such adventures, collectively sharing in the experience of telling a folk tale as our ancestors would have done down the centuries, seated around a fire or hearth, as an elder or bard enthralled an audience with stories of the darkness, reinforcing that hard wiring, keeping alive the fear of the unknown and unseen. However, with the roleplaying experience, we commune with others, we actively direct the tale rather than passively listening. We do not hear tell of that Hobbit and his home which is a hole in the ground. We instead sit with him at his table, we enter Moria at his side, and we are thrilled and unsettled by the imagined dangers we must meet and overcome before returning once again to the light. Likewise, with other games, we similarly confront things that we never could in our real lives. Man has always looked to the skies and imagine what might exist beyond. We have supposed that any civilisation out there must be more advanced than our own and the storytelling experiences play to that. Man, for all his frail clinging to the earth, wants more from his experience, but at the same time is awed and cowed by the possibilities. Roleplaying gives us the tools to express our wonder and fear without leaving the safety of our comfortable existence. There are always going to be exceptions of course, and the tale of James Dallas Egbert III (sensationally dramatised by Rona Jaffe in Mazes & Monsters) shows what happens when the two worlds collide.

He became drawn to real life adventuring in the steam tunnels below Ohio State University in the late 70s. Whilst there, he became aware that there were more than just dungeon obsessed gamers down there, but also Wiccan groups, drinking and dining clubs and just plain curious types, also in the tunnels. And those tunnels were dangerous. Rapists and cat burglars used the tunnels below the campus for nefarious purposes, and all the time the university itself turned a blind eye. And so, when Egbert had a breakdown, those tunnels were where he initially went. He was in all respects putting himself through an initiation and by extension, those who against the wishes of the campus authorities searched for him therein. In the 80s, properly organised live roleplaying evolved with Treasure Trap taking over Peckforton Castle in Cheshire. You can read about it in old White Dwarf Magazines, and if you look on Youtube you'll find a rather fun little feature on the South Of Watford show (featuring the founders of GW no less, with Ben Elton presenting) OK, it may seem cheesy, even moreso in this day and age, but in the dark, even a relatively poorly rendered skeleton, lying in a dark tunnel, can scare the bejeezus out of the unsuspecting, triggering that same initiation experience whilst the suspension of disbelief is allowed to run free. And so, the next time you sit at a table with those Cheetos and Mountain Dew, tossing that D20 from hand to hand whilst imagining yourself on a quest in the caverns below the tower of the necromancer, remember that you are continuing something that your stone age ancestors began. You never know, it might make the whole experience all the better. TTFN