Publish at November 17 2015 Updated October 21 2025
On one of those rainy weekends when there's nothing to do, I was drawn into a role-playing project by a young neighbor. A story of investigation in the Middle Ages, with a gallery of characters.
I protested, citing my advanced age. "On the contrary, we need an old enchanter, and you'll be the most believable!" he replied. I climbed the few flights of stairs and joined the group.
The Middle Ages provide a framework with ill-defined contours, allowing invention and sparking the imagination. Fiction seizes on it or draws inspiration from it. Game of Throne, but also Eragon, Hunger Games,... Don't you know anything about the Middle Ages?" asks my neighbor. That's no big deal... With the game, we don't pretend to be faithful to history, but just to recreate an atmosphere and an environment."
The most concrete aspects, such as craftsmanship, rustic architecture and domestic animals, sit side by side with magic, sorcery and a whole supernatural bestiary. The codes of realism are constantly overturned by the appearance of fantasy or references to the present. In this way, Hunger Games blends an archaic, artisanal society organized around villages with surveillance and combat equipment far superior to that of the 2010s. "Anything goes," says my neighbor.
And I'm tempted to believe him. To set the mood, he's come partly disguised. A cap hides his forehead and ears. It's stuffed with "raw sheared" wool. With two rolls of cardboard, he made horns that fall on either side.
From the smell, and the green tint of the whole, it's obvious that the bonnet has waited a long time in a damp place before becoming a gaming accessory... the player is very red. It's 50° under his cap.
Bestiary
The bestiary is an essential component of some role-playing games. Fantastic monsters rub shoulders with domestic animals, and the designer can invent them from scratch or create variants of existing creatures.
Enthusiastically, my neighbor patiently explains how to decipher the character and monster sheets. The abbreviations are numerous, each action has several possible effects, and it's often the die that decides their magnitude. An animal will be defined by its power, its strengths and weaknesses, its defenses, its mode and speed of movement. None of this is set in stone. For example, speed can vary according to the terrain and the result of a dice roll... I'm having trouble keeping up. But what possessed me to think that this would be more stimulating than watching the rain fall outside my window!
Whether you use common, mythological or invented animals, the game will only be richer if the players know them and know how to describe them, and bring them to life with words.
I quickly grasp the mechanics, and the little figurines, cards and documentation are invaluable memory aids. I'm now introduced to the characters.
In our literature, the Middle Ages are often an opportunity to create "trognes", individuals with a disquieting appearance and manner. Role-playing games also allow us to invent strange, contrasting characters: merchants, storytellers, monks, balladeers, knights errant, craftsmen, knights, lords, fairies and witches.
Having a picture of the economic and social balance that exists between the village's inhabitants lends consistency to the game. And the characters must be sufficiently contrasting to bring uncertainty and allow for elaborate strategies.
In life-size games, which sometimes bring together hundreds of people in countryside settings, it's preferable to be able to physically embody your role... But in a board game, there's nothing to stop you choosing a character that's far removed from who you really are.
"My hosts sense that my attention is waning. To get in the mood, one of them suggests music that evokes the Middle Ages. Minstrels playing trumpet, harp, chalumeau or organ? Er, no, more like a metal band with a five-syllable Germanic name, I'm told."
I decline the musical proposal. In silence, I'll understand the rules better. And I let them explain the spatial organization of the game.
Rural landscapes, forests, fields, wells and mills are all spaces in which to deploy a scenario. You can hide, flee or, on the contrary, lie in ambush, waiting for the arrival of a victim. Some places will allow you to search for food or resources, while others contain traps. Role-playing creates often complex landscapes. Invention plays an important part.
To put us in the mood, one player opened a bottle of cider. The drink made him lyrical: "You see, Maylis de Kerangal tells us that writing is like creating a landscape, but a landscape reconstructed by memory... Wait, I'll find the text for you:
To understand what I've kept of what I've seen, you have to go back to the idea that writing is like creating a landscape. In the sense that landscape architect Gilles Clément tells us that a landscape lies before our eyes, i.e. that the real landscape is what we keep within ourselves once we've closed our eyes. It's a relationship with memory.
Well, game designers invent landscapes. Their maps are like travellers' souvenirs. "Places whose representation is filtered through memory."
Yellowed and damaged paper, brown ink, penciled lines. I can see that the code hasn't changed since The Lord of the Rings!
Dé roulant tells us on his blog how he drew his own map in 2009 using Gimp. If you're interested in this theme, you can visit a veritable mine of images and inspiration, as well as a forum for exchanges between enthusiasts. The Cartographers' Guild site can take you on a journey for hours! Like a role-playing landscape, it can be explored in several directions, where you can get lost and find treasures, but sometimes also dead ends from which you'll quickly emerge.
It seems that ancient weapons have a greater power of fascination than today's technical monsters. Their names are as evocative as their owners. There's no question of using a simple knife to stun your fellow man. The heavy Gork axe, the dagger or sword, the scimitar, the targe... All the more reason to look the part!
The encyclopedias devoted to the theme of the Middle Ages published in the mid-90s by the mythical magazine Casus Belli can only encourage us to go further. Now that the magazine has temporarily ceased publication, the publisher has generously made them available on Calameo: Volume 1 is mainly designed to extend famous games. Volume 2 delves deeper into certain aspects of role-playing. The illustrations, maps, characters and animals are of the highest quality and well worth a click!
But it's already late, too late to start a game. No matter. Role-players like to share, and my guests feel they've spent a rich afternoon reminiscing about the principles and classics of the game.
One of them has overindulged in cider, another has itchy hair under his custom bonnet. We'll have to say goodbye. But I promise, next time we'll attack a game, and I'll play the old enchanter.
Illustrations: Frédéric Duriez
Resources
Casus Belli Medieval Fantasy Encyclopedia - Volume II
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casus_Belli
Dé roulant Cartography: let yourself be guided consulted on November 5, 2015
http://de-roulant.over-blog.com/
Cartographer's Guild consulted on November 5, 2015
http://www.cartographersguild.com/content.php?r=113-Cartographers-Choice
Role-playing passion Directory of bestiaries
http://www.jdrp.fr/categorie/bestiaire-19.html
Fédération française du jeu de rôle - fonds documentaire: some theses on role-playing, players, and learning. accessed November 6, 2015
https://ffjdr.org/pourquoi-pratiquer-le-jeu-de-role/
Bastien Charbouillot Role-playing, a reality in fiction IEP de Lyon 2008
https://www.academia.edu/2188875/Jeu_de_r%C3%B4le_une_r%C3%A9alit%C3%A9_dans_la_fiction
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