Microblog: Children's Books and Tabletop Games

We hear lots of talk about how tabletop intersects with arts like video games, theater and even film. Yet surprisingly sparse is discussion about how it intersects with the very physical format its products share: Books. Recently I got to be on the periphery of two designers who I quite admire both talking about their interest in adapting the works of children's book authors they admired. Warren (of Barkeep on the Borderlands fame) was waiting with baited breath for Dr. Seuss' work to enter the public domain while Nova (who is writing the much anticipated Bridewell and Hiss) sought to write modules with more children’s storybook horror vibes, specifically citing Roald Dahl's style. That's when it clicked that both of these writers were (for lack of better words) already kind of doing this, even if unintentionally...

Let's start with Dr. Seuss and Barkeep because that's one that's out. If I had to describe Barkeep in a word I'd say "colorful." ((Also for what it's worth I'm mostly referring to the parts that Warren wrote, as Barkeep includes a LOT of guest writers... which admittedly adds to the varied feel that one might expect from a Seuss book. This also assumes that Warren had a pretty big say in the look and feel of the book, despite not being the layout nor graphic artist.))

Bold titles and color and personas who pop. So alive, yet so small, it's a book you can't drop. The writing is simple and direct and so clean, yet brimming with whimsy, do you get what I mean?

I was going to try to write this whole section in anapestic tetrameter, but this was supposed to be a short post and I think you get the point. Like how Barkeep's pastel color choice almost 1-for-1 echoes the equally pale yet vibrant pages of something like Oh, the Places You'll Go! Likewise the text elegantly flits between breezy and dense by slapping intentionally clunky vocabulary among easy gameable descriptions. The book does so love to use big flowery verbiage like the central Interregnum and the Pangoblinic Council (a faction that is eternally fun to say out loud). Were it not for the adult themes (something I quite like about Barkeep), this work would absolutely be suitable for an ambitious low-level reader who needs just a bit of handholding to dive into deeper prose. 

If you put Dr. Seuss in a blender then spilled him on B2, it'd probably look a lot like this. When you see playful titles with colorful adjectives and excellent alliteration like "Beleaguered Bouncer" you can see the influence seeping through. The module's name even has a winking alliterative flair whose construction goes beyond good branding.

Barkeep favors varied lists and playfulness and nonsense smooshed together in a way that you're meant to not only accept but embrace. Its central Chaos temple highlights how varied and truly chaotic the events you can encounter will be, splicing the familiarly fantastical (wizards) with the familiarly mundane (tennis). Like seeing all the Whos in Whoville decorate their city with Christmas ornaments despite there being no mention of the Who messiah. It's a kaleidoscopic approach to setting that's less kitchen-sink and much more Seussian in my opinion. 

One might think "Oh but aren't big lists and whimsical results a big staple of OSR/OSR adjacent works?" and I'd say you're absolutely right. But are you going to also tell me a Flail Snail does not sound like something Dr. Seuss would make up for The Dungeon Book?

In contrast (sort of) we have the works of Roald Dahl. Less gumshoe, more True Detective. As a child I had the distinct misfortune of being in a French immersion class (yuck) but my one light in the tunnel was getting to read Roald Dahl (outside his native language... which I spoke natively... but that's beside the point). Revisiting some of his original work as an adult the biggest core of these books, more than the unsettling atmosphere or looming shadow of "adults", are the books' focus on character.

If you've read any Roald Dahl work you can pretty instantly conjure any of his characters into your mind, even if you don't remember their names. This is in no small part due to exaggerated and cutting descriptions. So too have I found that both Bridewell and Hiss zero in on characters as the central artifact of their respective games. Characters drive the plot, characters each push and pull against each other, and most of all (more than most any other RPG supplement I've read) characters are memorable because they feel real. And I want to emphasize feel there.

Miss Spider feels real, despite the events of James and the Giant Peach being quite fantastical, there's a level of humanity both to how she's treated and how she's just trying to do what's right by her (...as an anthropomorphic spider). Mike Teavee feels real, despite (much like other Charlies and the Chocolate Factory antagonists) his obsession for television being an obvious exaggeration. The eponymous Matilda feels real because she is literally so me ToT even if most children don't share her savant abilities, many have known what it's like to be stifled by adults.

Similarly Nova's cutting and direct descriptions of characters creates caricatures that (due both to how they're placed in the scenario and relative to each other) feel real, despite being altogether quite exaggerated. In spaces that initially inspired this little microblog there's a sentiment that goes something like "subtlety doesn't survive contact with the table" and it feels like Bridewell takes full advantage of that to craft something delicate and subtle using pieces that are quite overt. 

Likewise, much how the works of Roald Dahl have an inexplicable unsettling twinge to them, the light horror atmospheres of Bridewell and Hiss ten to focus most on the uncanny and the cruelty of humans, more than big spooky ghost or guy with a chainsaw horror vibes.

Lastly (because I want to keep this brief) if you end up reading Hiss pay close attention to how it treats children in a world of adults. I won't spoil anything, but "adults can be scary" was a staple of Roald Dahl's writing and it feels clearly echoed in one particular faction.

I could go on with the comp lit comparisons, but this was mostly supposed to be a fun lil microblog about how the books we admire as kids probably (unconsciously) end up influencing our writing as adults. Warren has clearly picked up a flair for the lyrical and luscious lists of the late Seuss himself. Meanwhile Nova's ability to hone in on characters that are all at once exaggerated enough to be memorable, while relatable enough to be real, feels like a tactic absorbed through the works of Roald Dahl (as are her works' general "melancholic horror" atmospheres).

 Growing up, one of my favorite books was If You Give a Moose a Muffin, so maybe that's why all of my games are tinged with an air of fatalism, a love of animals and the spirit of comradery? What about the books you read as a child? Do you see threads of their style in your own writing?