Never use a tool as if it were something else.

They’re a tool like any other, I guess, which could be used very well for excellent results, but rarely is.

I’m glad you agree with me, though.

Exercises I dislike less include trying to feel various feelings to various degrees (I actually think this is quite good, but the people who led the exercise kept feeding us crappy feelings like “perpetrator”, which were not really feelings). Exercises that include actually playing your character before the actual event is generally a good idea.

I think that the best way to reduce tension etc. is generally to talk, be nice, encouraging. Beers are good also.

In the case you cite, I guess the goal was twofold: partly to actually think about what these words meant in this particular setting, but mostly for us to meet, talk and bond. Giving us a pointless exercise is mostly for easing this process. But real people don’t need to be fooled badly into forming groups.

I think preparation is good, if it is chosen carefully and has some bearing on the actual event. The problem is people presenting drama exercises and costume making as something that it is not.

I don’t want to ruin your rant by asking for clarification or anything, but I’m curious as to what kinds of drama exercises you’re talking about. In the introduction post you said that “participants are asked to form groups to brainstorm from certain words without any further directions”, and that does sound rather pointless. If you could try to read the minds of the organizers, what do you think the point of the exercise was? Or was it really just a repetition of something they had done themselves and that was repeated without any meaningful framework?

Is the exercises the problem or is the real problem the need for preparation, especially preparation that doesn’t seem to directly affect the game?

First, we didn’t all know eachother, that was one of reasons for discussing it. Then , what we had planned to do was just some improvisation stuff, which really is roleplaying, but the micro version. I don’t see that as pretentious, maybe unnecerssary.

But the only point with it was to make people more comfortable with eachother, which wasn’t needed. Maybe because of something close to the reason you claim.

I should also say that I mostly agree with you post and you comment. It’s easy to be pretentious and hard to be good.

So what am I driving at? Well, something like this: trying to do drama exercises in a room with a handfull of people that you know is a bit like reading yout pompous bullshit out loud to your family. You generally don’t want to do that. My understanding is that most people don’t do drama exercises in that kind of setting. My question is if they realise why they are reluctant to do so.

It’s the old blue pill or red pill question. (Ok, not so old.)

Anyway, uh, once again he demonstrates some fairly thorough knowledge of the miasma that rolls around in my head, because I cannot help but agree. I have never really been able to have a conversation about games with anyone who’s that concerned about whether someone’s costume is made by hand or with the aid of a machine without laughing in their face, and most of these ridiculously ritualized exercises some people are so fond of are little more than New Age bullshit repackaged for role-players; our equivalent of homeopathy and healing crystals — more ritualized and vaguely defined superstition for the voluntarily stupidified would-be intellectuals… really, that whole goddamn insistence that making such a big deal out of what should really be a fairly simple process is really crucial and far more worthwhile than sitting down and talking just strikes me as counter-productive or useless at best and offensively pretentious or delusional at worst.

Which is not to say that a certain degree of authenticity can’t be useful or that certain exercises don’t have their uses, but this cult-like, “be-all end-all” devotion to these things some people have that makes me want to reach for a can of gasoline and matches.

In general, a little arson here and there could only do us good.