Let me state at the outset that this is not an attempt to prove the existence of RPGs in the Middle Ages. This is simply a response to various disagreements, including people complaining about people showing up at Pennsic dressed as a) elves, b) vampires, c) zombies, etc, that evolved into proving the existence of the belief of a) elves, b) vampires, c) zombies, etc.
At first blush, the idea of an RPG in the SCA sounds rather ridiculous. Role playing games haven't existed that long, the fantasy elements are obviously taken from Tolkien and the like, tabletop wargames didn't exist until the early 1800's, and dice like that don't exist in period.
Except...
So we'll take these in that order.
1. The common idea is that "role playing games haven't existed that long" or variations on that theme. In fact, they have. Herein follows an excerpt; its subtitle is "From the ancient Romans to the Tudor Queen, everyone likes dressing up and pretending to be something else"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/queen-elizabeth-1-loved-live-action-role-playing-9151091/
Nobody larped like the Tudors.”
So says Lizzie Stark in her essay on the much-longer-and-richer-than-you-thought history of live action role playing.
Today, live action role playing (larp-ing) whisks you off to magical worlds where powerful magi cast lightning bolts by throwing little sticks at their friends, and the American civil war can happen every day.
But according to Stark,
Queen Elizabeth I presided over some serious, and seriously expensive, larplike entertainments.
For the Queen, who reigned from 1558 to 1603, the Earl of Leicester threw a massive party.
Amid a busy schedule of hunting, bear-bating, joust-watching, acrobatic shows, and plays, Elizabeth repeatedly encountered figures from myth who popped out of the shrubbery to poetically praise her and to ask for her assistance. For example, while returning from hunting one day, the queen passed over a pool close to the castle. A guy dressed as the sea-god Triton swam up to beseech Her Majesty on behalf of the Arthurian Lady of the Lake, who was being threatened by the evil “Sir Bruce.” After the queen cowed the enemy with the majesty of her aura, the Lady of the Lake glided across the water on a movable island to thank the queen. Later, the mythical musician Arion appeared out of a 20-foot-long mechanical dolphin with a six-piece band hidden inside—the boat was made up so that its oars appeared to be fins.
As Stark explains it, this love of role playing wasn’t limited to the English. “The Romans,” she says, “hosted themed costume parties.”
Julius Caesar enters the foyer, dressed as an Etruscan. But his costume is not unique.
“Et tu, Brute?” he says with a sigh.
This evidence rather neatly dispenses with the theory that fantasy role playing games aren't in period. But that's only one item on my list of four, so let's proceed.
2. The second item used to disparage role playing games is that "the fantasy elements (ie monsters such as werewolves, vampires, zombies, etc) aren't period.
Again, ...except...
which in part says
The name vampire came from the Slavonic languages, in which it appears in a host of phonetic variants most of which are similar either to wampir or to upiór. The Slavonic beliefs can be traced back to around the 10th century but those early vampires were not the aristocratic, elegant, lofty creatures that we know today. In their early days in the Slavonic folk tales of the Middle Ages, vampires were probably body-possessing evil spirits rather than actual persons, and their image was certainly more down to earth, gruesome, and more terrifying (see e.g. Novičkova 1995). It is only in the 19th century that the word vampire, together with the romanticized image it represents, returned to the Slavonic languages and created an etymologically interesting pair with its largely forgotten forefather upiór.
The important thing to understand from this paragraph, and indeed all the other paragraphs relating to the existence of monsters in medieval times, is that we are not concerning ourselves with the question of whether the monsters in question actually existed. Just as in Queen Elizabeth I's case; she was playacting or roleplaying while interacting with characters (known as NPC's in gaming terms) that she knew very well did not exist in real life. Similarly, there is no need to argue that vampires and zombies and ghosts and werewolves did not exist in real life; there is no contention of this. It is enough to know that people in the Middle Ages believed in the existence of such creatures enough to give them names. They called it an Upior where we call it a vampire; they called it "walking dead" or something similar where we call it "zombie". The name is unimportant.
3. Next on the list is the theory that tabletop wargames didn't exist until the 1800's. This is the easiest one to disprove; chess was, as everyone knows, already in existence around 600AD in India. The pieces in the Indian version of the game corresponded with the "Four Arms" of the Indian army; namely, infantry, elephants, chariots, and cavalry. The game was played for the strategic and tactical interests to develop the abilities of up-and-coming officers in the Indian army. If that's not a wargame, what is? These pieces clearly had differing abilities as far as attack. What's more, the chess board itself lends credence to the theory that terrain (control of the center) and roadways (movements of the bishops and rooks, particularly) played a large part in winning the game. I include one link here for the sake of completeness, and not because any real proof of the game of chess is needed.
http://wargamerscott.tripod.com/swordandshield/id12.html
So that's three criteria addressed and disposed of. The fourth is even easier.
4. "Dice like that didn't exist in period."
Except...
Numerous examples of 20-sided dice have survived from the Roman era. It's very obvious what they are and what they were used for.
https://www.wired.com/2008/06/what-version-of/
And just to dispel any further doubt, here's the picture of the 20 sider in question.
This particular 20 sider is approximately 2000 years old, per the linked article. It doesn't use Arabic or Roman numerals.
And for one final source:
Which resolves to a book titled "Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Role-Playing Games" by Lizzie Stark, which discusses not only Queen Elizabeth's LARPing, but King Henry VIII's as well. (See attached excerpt)
So inasmuch as SCA purists will argue that fantasy role playing games don't have a place in the SCA, between the facts that LARPing took place in period, monsters played a large part in everyday life, tabletop gaming very obviously took place, and dice existed, there is absolutely no reason to give any credence to the theory that people at some point didn't sit down at a table with dice and figurines, and pretend to go out and fight evil.
Baron Jonathan Blackbow
2/27/20
