Weather the Cuckoo Likes

Chaos, truth, and living in a conspiracy theory

Some of my readers will know that as well as being somewhat obsessed with politics I am also an out and proud geek. I started playing D&D back when it came in a red box and the numbers on the dice had to be filled in with a crayon. That was a little over 40 years ago. Roleplaying games have been a feature of my life since I was 9 or 10 years old and I’ve never ‘grown out of’ them.

For a bright, socially awkward kid these games had the appeal they still have to bright, socially awkward kids. The idea that a game existed that was really only limited by the imagination of its participants and allowed you to be anything and do anything in a story being told by you and your friends (all of whom might not otherwise have friends)-well that’s not just a red box and a few rules. That is an infinity of wonder and something kids will do with or without a set of rules guiding them.

And some adults too.

One of the games I discovered along the way in my 40 year life as a geek was called Over the Edge. Over the Edge was first published in 1992 and was created by Jonathan Tweet and Robin Laws, two of the most imaginative and productive game designers to ever work in the geek’s defining industry. The thing about Over the Edge that is relevant to the political issues I want to talk about is that in terms of subject matter it was a much edgier, adult and bizarre creation than D&D was.

Over the Edge was not about knights and dragons, cunning thieves and Tolkienesque wizards. It didn’t draw from fantasy and fairy tales, or from mythology and Robert E.Howard. It didn’t take place in imaginary lands reminiscent of medieval England if medieval England included elves.

Over the Edge was the roleplaying game of conspiracy theories.