NPR ran a story yesterday about a pretty cool collision of art and gaming: Fight for America! is a wargame hosted by a Brooklyn-based art nonprofit called the american vicarious. It is a reenactment/gamificaton of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, in seemingly amazing 1:64 scale detail. (I'm stealing all the pics here from the NPR article, which used images provided by the american vicarious.)
Participants are divided up into the Red Team...
...and, of course, the Blue Team...
...and a GM dressed like Uncle Sam guides them through the day...
The NPR article does a really good job of leading the reader through one person's experience as they attempted to find Vice President Mike Pence with the rest of their team. A slight spoiler alert: They do find him, and then the fact that they vote on whether or not to hang him to close out the game is...well, a little chilling.
I'd like to believe that there's power in gaming that really could help us recognize what it's like to be in the shoes of those with whom we disagree. That chance for empathy is one of the (many) really cool things about RPGs in general. There has to be a LOT of unexplored space to use games like this. I'm a little bummed I missed the test runs in NYC last month, but I hope to catch it when it returns to the States sometime after a run in London starting June 8. You can check out the Fight for America! website here.
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Have I really put two political posts on here in less than a week? Is this even a political post? I was tempted to tie it into the gaming I usually talk about by writing out some sort of feat or item that helps a character wield a flag as an improvised weapon. But...for obvious reasons...nah. (Plus, why not take the "high road" while also artfully taking credit for such a horrendous idea by mentioning it...? It's my blog, I'll take the win/win whenever I can...)
Y'know what, it's Presidents' Day, so I'll just end with a quote from George Washington, from his farewell address written to the American people in 1796. It sure seems to fit today's topic; he's writing about political parties here...
However combinations or associations of the above
description may now and then answer popular ends,
they are likely, in the course of time and things, to
become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious,
and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the
power of the people and to usurp for themselves the
reins of government, destroying afterwards the very
engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
