Vintage Car image courtesy freeimages.com / ilker

When first I listed this article as a to-do, it represented a very straightforward concept, but I’ve taken so long to get around to writing it that other notions have presented themselves. I now find myself in possession of three distinct and – at first glance – mutually contradictory ideas on the subject.

With these new thoughts, the article has changed direction substantially.

Rather than exploring the first idea in depth – one with relatively small footprint in terms of applicability – it is now an exploration of those contradictions and an attempt to wrestle some rational course between them, and in the process, has a developed far greater footprint.

The terrain may be rocky and unexplored, but that’s never stopped me before…

Technically, this article isn’t a sequel, but it’s all about a related subject. So it’s close enough to count as a Blog Carnival entry, for my money.

Nostalgia: The Beginning

According to my dictionary, “Nostalgia” is 1. a yearning for past circumstances, events, etc; 2. the evocation of this emotion, as by a book, film, etc; or 3. homesickness.

According to “The Right Word At The Right Time”, one of my best references for such matters, “Nostalgia” originally meant only the third meaning, and then in the form of an acute longing for one’s home or past that expressed itself in actual psychological or physical illness. The term was first coined in 1678 by Swiss medical writers, and entered English in 1780. The modern meaning has been diluted somewhat from this original meaning and now refers to any wistful or sentimental longing, in particular for times past.

Nostalgic as a description has assumed a still broader meaning, coming to refer to any allure, memory, or desire that targets a past experience, whether painful or not, real or not. While this was considered a dubious extension of the term in 1985 when the reference book was written, that broader interpretation has subsequently rubbed off on the root term, and has also diversified to include any emotional connection to any aspect of a past time-frame or era, whether it is one that the person feeling the emotion experienced or not, through the power of association. For example, someone who used to spend their days dreaming of living in a tropical paradise who eventually realized this dream and finds that life is not the idyllic existence that they thought it would be, may experience nostalgia for the time when they lived in ignorance of the reality, or when they could dream of a perfect life.

Thus, when I listen to music from the 1950s, before I was born, and it reminds me of other aspects and attributes of the 1950s in some appealing way, the term “Nostalgic” or Nostalgia could be considered applicable. The same terminology is applied to Civil War re-creationists and Medieval Re-enaction Societies. Quite often, the reality of the period in question is set aside in favor of some idealized or abstracted (and highly aggregated) representation of a hypothetical depiction of the era.

The term has not been generalized quite far enough to consider fantasy RPGs as a form of Nostalgia for a medieval period, but can be applied when considering visions of the world of the future crafted in ‘past eras’ or to a past architectural, design, or artistic style.

The Premise Of Distance

The notion that started this particular sleigh-ride is something I have called “The Premise Of Distance” – the notion that You can’t be nostalgic about something unless it seems to be permanently separated from you, either in time or in distance.

If some singularly profound event shatters an individual’s innocence, according to this premise, the person experiencing those events can feel nostalgia for that lost innocence even at the instant of revelation. If an individual has pleasant associations with a place that they have spent time, or would like to spend time, they can feel nostalgia for the place even if it still exists – provided that the individual can never visit it in real life. Similarly, if a particular impression of a place is conjured through a gestalt of impressions that turn out not to match the reality when the place is actually visited, one can feel nostalgia for that impression. Even the discovery that some hated group are not completely evil, that people are more complex than the simple black-and-white vision that had facilitated that hatred, can lead to nostalgia for the “simpler time” before “everything got so complicated”.

It was my thought that the Premise Of Distance broadened the definition of Nostalgia to encompass legitimate applications of the term in its modern sense that are not currently recognized as such, while generalizing and simplifying that definition into “an emotional reaction to a source of Nostalgia or a mild (sometimes wistful) yearning to cross the distance between the person experiencing the nostalgia and the subject of the nostalgia”.

That alone would make for an interesting article, if only I could find some applicability to RPGs, and intended to craft an article looking at the idealized perceptions of multiple eras that could be the subject of a nostalgic reaction to expand on the theme once I found that applicability. But the article was put on hold for further contemplation until that applicability could be identified.

The Theory Of Universality

Some time after formulating the Premise Of Distance, that list of eras and places that could be “subjects of nostalgia” sparked a new thought. This notion, which I have called “The Theory of Universality,” came to me all in a flash, but taking readers to an understanding of it will be a slightly more involved process.

The starting point was contemplating the impression that Nostalgia is far more widespread in modern times due to the rapid pace of progress. Each decade of the 20th century had such distinct social, cultural, and political changes that each was sufficiently removed from the preceding decade to invoke a sense of nostalgia amongst some. But much of that change was driven by the rapid development of technology; in pre-industrial eras, where life for any given individual was not all that different from that enjoyed by the individual’s parents, or grandparents, or great-grandparents for that matter, nostalgia would have a much smaller foothold.

On the face of it, that seemed reasonable, but something about it didn’t seem quite right to me. To identify the flaw in the reasoning, I decided to play Devil’s Advocate and attempt to disprove some element of the assertion.

The assertion is clearly based on two assumptions:

1. That nostalgia cannot exist without change; and
2. That change is slow in historical periods such as those used as a model by fantasy RPGs.

Assumption 1 exists comfortably with The Premise Of Distance if you define ‘change’ in the right way, as any alteration in individual circumstances (social, political, economic, technological) that it places a distance between what is and what was. That left it fairly well supported by the various definitions of Nostalgia and impossible to argue with.

Assumption 2 immediately seemed very much shakier. Assuming that it can be broken, the concept that nostalgia will only exist as a widespread phenomenon in modern times also collapses.

The Theory of Universality is a counterpoint to the original notion, based on the assumption that the starting impression will fail because Assumption 2 is false-to-fact. It states that Nostalgia is equally applicable in all eras based on differences within eras and regions, no matter how minor. This is a direct contradiction to the starting point because it directly assumes that Assumption 2 of the original statement is inaccurate. If I could prove the theory, it would – by extension – disprove assumption 2.

The Static Kingdom That Ain’t

So, to test the accuracy of the theory, we need to take a look at this notion that in medieval times – the so-called “Dark Ages”, change was slow. Modern Historians strongly disapprove of the term “The Dark Ages” precisely because it offers the impression of a stagnant society. If they are correct to do so, it would indicate that there was sufficient change, year-on-year, for nostalgia to exist, even though the term had yet to be coined.

I decided to proceed by listing all the sources of possible change – in the sense described in the discussion of Assumption 1 above so that I could determine whether or not there were enough of them to potentially induce nostalgia after they had occurred. If I could, it would prove the Theory of Universality, and contradict the original statement. My primary source for this research was “Life In A Medieval Village” by Frances and Joseph Gies, a book with which I remembered having some minor disagreements when I first read it, though overall it remained an impressive resource, and a number of documentaries on the period that I have watched over the years. I didn’t have to be comprehensive or specific; it would be enough to show examples of change and some indication of how quickly those changes occurred.

Administrative Changes:

Villages in medieval Europe were the place of residence for the vast majority of the population. Prior to their arising, the landscape consisted of isolated and disorganized “islands of cultivation” separated by tracts of wilderness, “patches of uncertain authority, scattered family groupings clustered around a patriarch, chieftain, clan, or rich man, a “landscape of anarchy” in which the strength and reach of the individual dictated the extent of his personal holdings. In the tenth century, villages emerged as the dominant population center. These were clusters of dwellings surrounded by areas of cultivation, marked for the first time by an abstract identity attributed to the location as a collective. The central focus of these new collectives varied from place to place – in the Mediterranean hilltop castles, in Northwestern Europe and England it was the church and the manor house.

Some degree of cooperation was needed on which fields to leave fallow, and on ensuring equal access by the village animals to the pasture stubble after the harvest was complete. But sometimes cooperation wasn’t enough, or didn’t come naturally, and had to be imposed. Circumstances played a big part in such decisions. The Gies book focuses on a particular village which they declare as typical, and for which substantial records have survived (making it suitable for in-depth analysis). Those records show that eight families were especially involved in the administration of the village, and were also the source of much of the social and legal complaints ruled on by that administration. Sometimes, the trouble-making was at its height when that family was ascendant, indicating a family abusing its position and being called to account by its neighbors; more often, the disruptions were heightened when another family was ascendant, “demonstrating” the ineffectiveness of the administration to maintain civil order, in effect demanding new administrators be appointed/elected.

Yet, we aren’t talking here of rules of only a handful of years; the sum of these years of ascendancy totals centuries. Each individual period of ascendancy averaged a decade or more. The experiences of one’s youth would therefore have been quite different to those of one’s maturity, and different again to those in one’s elder years.

Political Changes:

The medieval hierarchy of nobles meant that there were hundreds of nobles of different rank, and an entire hierarchy that was relevant to any given individual. While the immediate superior was always in the prime position of relevance, his superior and the demands made upon the local lord by him always devolved to the common man for satisfaction. With three, perhaps four members in this hierarchy, all changing at least once each generation, plus the news of births, deaths, and marriages, that’s twelve-to-sixteen changes every twenty years or so. Throw in a system in which the personalities of the ruler have a more substantial impact on day-to-day life than is the case even with modern prime ministers, presidents, and parliaments, and the importance of these changes becomes hard to over-estimate.

Doctrinal Changes:

Even if one granted that the source material was unchanging, the interpretation had to change with the social context. Every development that affected that context therefore counts double, and is doubly significant.

There is considerable evidence that the source material was not, however, unchanging. Diversification in religious beliefs and doctrine was considerable as what was one church continued to splinter. Sometimes, it seemed like each monastery and priest had his own faith, not just his own congregation. The changes may have been small in many cases, but were occasionally profound. You cannot overlook the creation of the Anglican church by Henry VIII, for example.

Military Changes:

You don’t have to look very far through the armor and weaponry sections of the D&D PHB to realize that life throughout the medieval period, in terms of military capabilities, was a constant cold war punctuated by periods of hot war, but look even more deeply into the subject and you will soon learn that even this impression is one based on generalizations. Every single aspect of the design of arms and armor was revolutionized through trial and error, theory and inspiration in the service of this philosophy of military force or that, and with every refinement, weapons evolved to take advantage of whatever flaws remained or were introduced.

Quite often, a refinement would be both a benefit and a drawback; either the tactics evolved to maximize the benefits and minimize the vulnerabilities, or the design was rejected or further modified, or – when put to the test – the development failed. It should be remembered, too that the designs that have survived into modern documentation are only those that were successful enough to become standard equipment, at least for a time.

A constant source of passing fascination are the many, many variations in the design of pole arms. Every one of the dozens of designs of head existed for what seemed like good reason or military theory that was believed to be sound and rational. Yet, to modern eyes, most seem to be patently ridiculous and posturing in the ostentatiousness of their design.

Light Horse or Heavy Horse, plate, chain, scale, or leather mail; speed over protection; shield size and design; the combinations and variations are innumerable. Players and GMs are wont to treat these elements as entries on a Menu – entree, soup course, main course, dessert, mix-and-match to create your own custom meal. In reality, at any given time, there was a state of the art in technology and military thinking & tactics, one specific combination that was believed to be the most effective.

The other way in which the PHB misleads is that it aggregates developments from all over Medieval Europe into one consolidated vision. In reality, French designs were different to German designs were different to English designs, and so on. These differences weren’t just cosmetic, and not all of them showed on the surface; each was not only optimized to a particular military theory, a particular compromise between protection, mobility, and expense, but it was also optimized around the use of a particular weapon, or vice-versa.

The upshot of all this is that the way one generation fought, what they wore, what they were armed with, and – in the fine details – what tactics were created to exploit the capabilities of these factors, were quite different generation-on-generation. The broader principles may not have changed much, but the specifics did.

War:

And, speaking of fighting, a lot of it was in organized wars. Quite often, wars were between localized concentrations of forces gathered from throughout a kingdom or region. Wars, or the preparations for war, were a constant factor in ordinary life. And the outcome of these wars could have a profound impact on the lives of the ordinary citizenry, through the imposition of additional tax burdens, through the forced recruitment of manpower into military service, through the need to defend themselves, their lord, or their homes.

Technological Changes:

Crop rotation was well known to the Romans, but in the middle ages this developed into a complex system of open field management. At one time it was thought that this system arose in Germany, spread into France, and was carried to England by the Anglo-Saxons, but this theory has fallen into disfavor in recent times without a plausible alternative gaining acceptance. What is indisputable is that by the late 7th century it was well-established in England, with a specific reference to the practice in a law by King Ine of Wessex and suggestive references in numerous other laws.

The consensus at the moment seems to lean toward a naturally-convergent evolution in agrarian science. Efficiency and the scientific principles of agriculture are the same everywhere. Nevertheless, it is clear that gradual changes occurred over time.

There were also more revolutionary developments. The heavy and often-wet soil of Northern Europe demanded a heavier plow and more traction than the sandier Mediterranean soil; uncredited inventor after inventor refined the basic plow, fitting it with coulter and moldboard, increasing its size and altering its shape until it required several plow animals to draw. Stepwise refinement such as this was the only way that it could occur; initially, poor and unreliable crops could not support animals in sufficient number to sustain the requirements. The process was one of progressively bootstrapping to a better productivity which in turn enabled further refinement of the technology.

There were many other such developments, for example in the shape and design of collars and yokes, the techniques of crop rotation, and the use of fertilizers and clover to restore fertility of the land, and with each, the task assumed greater complexity and required greater management skills.

Legal Changes:

I’ve already made reference to laws being passed, laws that clearly affected the lives of ordinary people. In every society, disagreements arise, and with every alteration to the way in which land was used, new potential for disputes arose and new laws needed to be passed, interpreted, administered, and enforced. On top of that, social developments and the rise of the professional class brought new relationships, new ways of violating trust, and new laws to deal with the problems. And even beyond that, this is the era when individual property beyond personal effects began to become a reality, and that brought new legal issues – and new sources of change. When you have nothing, or only a handful of items to call your own, every addition is a significant event.

Economic Impacts:

The 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries saw a sustained economic and demographic boom, the product of the improvements in agricultural technology. On top of that, there was a profound shift in social structure as independent professionals arose and the economy shifted from serfdom to peasantry. From workers who labored on behalf of another for a share of the produce that resulted to hired labor and a cash economy, in which the worker farmed the land, sold the produce, and paid rent to the landowner for the right to do so. This is a matter that I have discussed more extensively in the past, though I don’t have a link to the precise article because my internet is still down (search Campaign Mastery for the words ‘Serf’ and ‘Peasant’ and you should find it).

Put all these changes together, and even if there was some element of clustering of these changes that the reference material doesn’t make clear, substantial changes nevertheless would have occurred in the course of a single lifetime. It is more probable that – even discounting weather and its impact, year-on-year – few years would have been the same as the one that preceded it, and still fewer decades. This is exactly the situation that we are all aware of in the 20th century. Therefore, in any realistic situation, I have to consider the Theory Of Universality to be proven.

The unreality of Fantasy Societies

It follows that fantasy societies which exist as timeless, unchanging entities for periods of years, decades, or centuries are completely unrealistic under normal circumstances. It might perhaps be true of a society of the long-lived, whose existences proceed at a more languid pace than the mercurial existences of humans, but even that is not an assumption that can automatically be made; rather, that would be a deliberate choice on the part of the GM.

This all puts the GM in a difficult position: Either

1. uphold the unreality of the simply background construct, and restrict nostalgia to the extremely elderly, or;
2. integrate sufficient minor developments into recent history to justify more widespread (and defined?) nostalgia within the game society.

The Theory Of Relative Differentialism

Having reached this point, I started thinking about possibly manifestations of The Theory Of Universality. Almost immediately, I focused on the question of context and formulated the Theory of Relative Differentialism, which states: Any differences between generations, eras, and locales will be amplified through the power of memory and rose-colored glasses readings of history to the point that they will support nostalgia in a widespread way.

Let’s pick that apart, briefly. Any changes experienced will result in distance between the way things are and the way they were. If necessary, small, subtle and insignificant changes will be amplified in significance sufficient to distinguish one time-period or locale from another. This occurs because of the human capacity to re-edit and reinterpret memories, and the tendency to suppress negative experiences that lends a “rose-colored hue” to the past. Any generalizations or summations of the history of a given period will tend to make it larger than life, and therefore more important than the relatively mundane contemporary reality. The mere fact that change occurs naturally and unstoppably (even if there is no change that is actually significant) means that any time period can be the subject of feelings of nostalgia from the moment the period ends.

This is clearly the exact opposite of the premise formulated as a starting point on the path to the Theory Of Universality, and yet it also holds as accurate assumption 1 of the two assumptions on which that premise was based. It differs only in rejecting the second assumption as still another example of a modern generation thinking they invented some social phenomenon.

The distinction between most human eras is thus revealed to be an artificial construct, a tool for generalization that makes history easier to grasp. The 1980s were no more “the ‘me’ generation than the 1970s were the ‘decade of flower power’ or the 60s ‘the decade of the cold war’. Those time periods may have contained events that fit those general themes, but there was more to them than that. Nostalgia and nostalgia-rooted TV shows like Happy Days may suggest that the 50s were a simpler time than the modern era, but if they were, it was only because people at that time were more ignorant of the forces impacting their lives. In truth, this perception is an illusion created by perceiving events and movements as having a beginning, a middle, and an end, rather than being a continuity, an evolution of what came before that in turn evolved into what came after. History is really a tapestry of many interwoven threads. Seeing the “beginning” and the “end” minimizes the confusion and complexity caused by grappling with the issues without knowing how things will turn out.

A Universal Theory Of Nostalgic Relativism

The results of putting all this together is a Universal Theory Of Nostalgic Relativism.

• Any real changes experienced through the years will be amplified by public perception when considered after the fact. In the absence of real changes of sufficient magnitude, imagined changes deriving from exaggerated perceptions of history will substitute for such differences.
• Something of recent past eras will therefore be sufficiently distinct in the minds of the populace that nostalgia will be a real human phenomenon in any era. Something of any past experience will be sufficient in the mind of an individual that it can be the basis of personal nostalgia for that time and place and the experiences that occurred.
• Almost every character with any exposure to the way things used to be will find something to attract them to some aspect of the past, creating nostalgia of varying intensity.

It’s like people wishing they could relive their childhood, or idolizing it as a time when everything seemed “so simple” or “so perfect”. Innocence and Naivety are idolized as happiness, completely forgetting that every childhood had its miseries, its small revolts and punishments as the limits of parental authority were tested, its social agonies as peers subjected us to cruelties. Our first loves are often remembered as our most intense loves simply because we had no yardstick of comparison, and the “simplicity” of life makes them seem (in retrospect) more superficial than they felt at the time.

Does that mean that everyone will embrace nostalgia about some part of their lives or about some past time-and-place with which they forge an emotional bond? Well, no; it means that the potential is implicit in every human (and perhaps in every sentient species, though xenopsychology is a little beyond the scope of this article). There are two types of personality that strive to reject nostalgia (under the definitions that I have arrived at) that occur to me right away, and there may be others.

Nostalgia Vs Modernism

Some people reject the past and insist that looking ahead to the future is the only sensible approach to life. This produces a clear and obvious conflict with nostalgia, which is rejected as “soft-headed” or “wishful thinking”.

Yet, there is demonstrable validity to the counter-argument that “those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it”. The conflict therefore manifests as interpersonal conflicts between those with ideals founded in the past and those who are willing to ignore those ideals for the sake of an “open mind”.

In reality, both arguments have a measure of validity. Not all nostalgia is founded in accuracy, not all changes can ever be fully understood due to the complexity of interaction between the many tapestry threads of history, and you can’t ignore the challenges of today to live in the past; but, at the same time, observing and analyzing the events of the past can yield undeniable guidance to the likely outcomes of applying the same policies and reactions to the same problems.

Nostalgia Vs Pragmatism

Some insist on being “practical” and “pragmatic” rather than daydreaming about the way things were or might have been. This is a similar story to the conflict between Nostalgia and Modernism, but this time around the altar of sacrifice is dedicated to ‘practicality’ and relatively short-term interests.

Again, both sides have valid points to make. If you never move beyond the past, progress is impossible. The USA and England would still be mortal enemies were this the case, as each side perpetually relived the political differences that led to the American Revolution. The conflicts between Northern and Southern US states, that still resonate with some, can only exist through the power of exaggerated nostalgia. The Middle East is replete with conflicts that go back to past generations and that conflate the way a political entity behaved in the past with the way they will behave now: genuine grudges are perpetuated beyond relevance through generalization and the misattribution of cultural and political phenomena to a collective group rather than those who set and implemented a policy in the past. Australia’s relationship problems with its indigenous peoples are another example. There are many, many, more; the sheer number of examples highlights the power of nostalgia as a social force.

But, at the same time, the social, political, cultural, ideological and economic influences that caused certain behaviors in the past will also operate into the future. There are clear parallels between the events of 9/11 and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and the responses to those events are also remarkably similar, and should another nation-state (or equivalent body) launch a sneak attack in the future, the response will be similar again.

You can’t say that the current political administration of Russia is the same as the Communist Government of the Cold War, but many of the influences that dictated the behavior of the latter still exist, and so similarities can be ascribed to the behavior of both – sometimes accurately, sometimes erroneously.

The benefits of Nostalgia

At this point I’d like to follow up on a point I made earlier: The GM either runs his game with a deliberately unrealistic element, or has to integrate enough detail into the recent background of the culture and society to enable nostalgia to be available as a character element to both PCs and NPCs.

Why choose to do the extra work? What’s the benefit to GMs and to RPGs?

Well, first, is Realism alone a sufficient justification? I don’t think so. The needs of Gameplay and good storytelling and, well, fun, have long been established as trumping any petty realism.

That means that if any extra work required is to be worth the effort, there needs to be some concrete benefit to the game. Five benefits suggested themselves in fairly short order, two that apply to both PCs and NPCs in equal measure and three that apply to the campaign when nostalgia is utilized by the GM:

• The Benefits To Characters
  • A Source Of Characterization
  • A Source Of Expression
• The Benefits To Campaigns
  • A Vehicle For History
  • A Source Of Motivation
  • A Source Of Adventures

Okay, so the symmetry would have been prettier with one more Benefit To Characters. You can’t say that “Enhanced Realism” is the missing part of that symmetry because it doesn’t really fit any of the categories completely; it’s sort of off on it’s own. But if it gets listed first, that gives us a nice 1-2-3 progression that will do until something better comes along. At least, that’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.

So let’s take a closer look at just what these benefits are (other than realism, of course), because labels alone aren’t all that useful.

A Source Of Characterization

When describing or thinking about a personality, you can say something like “identifies with the Roman Empire” or “longs for simpler times”, but both of those are more ‘active’ than might be desirable. Selecting a quality of the Roman Empire and stating that the character is “Nostalgic” for that quality describes a condition in which the personality is shaped, but not dominated by, the subject, achieving that increased level of passivity and nuance. It takes the trait out of the category of influences over behavior and choice, and places it into the category of influences that dictate how the character feels about that behavior and those choices.

What’s more, Nostalgia comes in all sorts of strength levels, easily accessible by adding an appropriate adjective to the front of the description. “Desperately Nostalgic” or “Obsessively Nostalgic” increase the strength of the emotion back towards the levels of “Longs for” or “Identifies With”, respectively. “Moderately Nostalgic” is a non-sequitur, that is the default interpretation. “Mildly Nostalgic”, “Vaguely Nostalgic”, and “Slightly Nostalgic” are, successively, even less intense.

The second refinement comes from being able to isolate the effects to one part of the character’s life; this generally only works with the default intensity of nostalgia because the more intense forms would spill out into a broader impact, while the lesser forms are so diffuse that they don’t make sufficient difference to the character to be so pinned down. The most effective way of describing these more focused forms of nostalgia is with a supplemental term: “Nostalgic in Interpersonal Relationships”, “Nostalgic in culinary preferences”, “Nostalgic in personal affectations”, “Nostalgic preferences in costume/wardrobe”, “Nostalgic tactical perceptions” – you can be as narrow or broad (yet unrestricted) as you want.

But, most importantly of all, each of these says something about the character being described, something that is easily apprehended by the player and yet can be so subtle and far-reaching that it touches every aspect of the character to some extent while never being a dominant influence. “Nostalgic Identification with Napoleon” carries overtones of command style, arrogance, personality, wisdom, and the shortsightedness of ambition. It might or might not extend to the character wearing Napoleonic costume. It implies that the character knows the history and tactical choices of Napoleon in intimate detail, and is probably a noted expert in Napoleonic French History. It speaks to the value code of the character. And the intensity of manifestation of each of these applications is up to the player. Even if each is so moderate in effect that Napoleon is simply a constant referent in the character’s dialogue, the totality and breadth is still sufficient to render the base characterization – “Nostalgic Identification with Napoleon” – a profound and succinct description of a hefty slice of the personality.

Nuance and Subtlety come with the territory.

It doesn’t have to be a “real” person. If the campaign background defines a character, King Alvas The Great, who is legendary for his ability to balance two competing interests while working around both to achieve whatever he feels the need to accomplish, “Nostalgic Identification with King Alvas The Great” speaks directly to the character’s idolization of the legendary figure and, therefore, to the impact that this hero-worship has had on the character’s own life, ideals, principles, and so on.

If the campaign background speaks of a war with the Orcs in which the “monsters” were routed and pursued to the fringes of civilization, driven into the badlands desired by none, a character who is “nostalgic for the Orcwar” conveys volumes of meaning about the military style, attitude, and ambitions of the character. This is powerful, strong medicine!

A Source Of Expression

But if “nostalgia” can be used as a succinct summary of a complex set of interrelated influences in this way, the same ease of apprehension means that the character can be more easily and effectively roleplayed. Simply filling the way the character speaks with references to the subject of the nostalgia, or letting the character periodically indulge in a more concentrated expression of the mood, conveys all those aspects of the personality to everyone who hears them. It’s not only a shorthand for the use of the player running the character, it’s a readily-understood shorthand for expressing the resulting persona.

Consider the character of Colonel Potter in M*A*S*H, a series that I assume most readers have at least some exposure to. With his constant references to his cavalry days in WWI, and to his WWII service, the character is able to bring an extremely personal perspective to any topic of conversation, while at the same time conveying both military affinity and old-world values and being affable and personable – or firm and indomitable, depending on context and tone of voice.

Expressing nostalgia for something also expresses everything that the nostalgic trait impacts or implies about the character.

What’s more, it offers a relationship with others who share, or who can relate to, that nostalgia, one that can be expressed simply by talking about the subject of the nostalgia or the mood of nostalgia itself. “Sometimes I miss the old days, when….”

A Vehicle For History

Let me paint two alternate pictures for your mind’s eye. In the first, the GM gives all the players detailed descriptions of past events and leaves it up to each player to (a) stay awake while all this is related to the group, and (b) to abstract those parts of the background that are relevant, or of interest, to their characters from the morass. In the second, the GM provides only the level of information that is common knowledge about events (in brief) and supplements this with a more substantial description only when (a) more information can plausibly have been obtained by a character and (b) when that character expresses sufficient interest in that particular period of history to justify his having sought out that additional information. Which of these two scenarios is more conducive to ready absorption by the players, collectively? Which leaves them most ready to engage with the campaign history, if and when it becomes relevant?

Nostalgia is a great vehicle for providing the campaign history in a realistic and restricted way that is more easily digested.

You could even subdivide the campaign history into, say, 40 small segments, and then restrict character explorations to one such segment per point of intelligence.

“But,” runs the counterargument, “anyone with a skill in History would have been educated in all periods, not just in a chosen few.” To which I reply: we all have had subjects during our educations that resonated with us and interested us, and subjects that did not. Which of the two would be retained a dozen years after the fact, even if in a diminished capacity? For me, it was Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and Descriptive History. I still have probably 90% of the maths that I studied, 70% of the Chemistry, and know even more Physics than I did then – though most of the Formulae that I memorized so carefully in the latter case didn’t survive even a year. But it’s in History, and (Practical) English Language, and Comparative Sociology, and all the sub-fields that come with Systems Analysis, that my education is now vastly greater than it was back then. The retention of information is not consistent; it relies on regular supplementing and refreshing, and that only happens with professional relevance or personal interest. Without that interest, when the teacher was droning on about this or that, the individual is at least half-daydreaming and the information is going in one ear – and out the other as soon as it is no longer of immediate need.

What this means is that each character would bring something different to “the party” even if two or more have exactly the same knowledge skill, especially if these choices are made blind, i.e. without knowledge of what others have chosen.

A Source Of Motivation

Obsessions always make great motivations. An obsession with the conquerors of the past is likely to manifest in the individual becoming a would-be conqueror himself. These motivations are usually too extreme for PCs under most circumstances – there can be exceptions in the superhero, Lovecraftian, and pulp genres – but for NPCs, they are fair game. And what is extreme nostalgia but a desire to turn back the clock at any price>

A Source Of Adventures

Finally, campaign histories are always great sources to mine for contemporary adventures. Legacies, and disturbing truths, and obsessions, and historical context, and past injustices – these are all encapsulated in, and can be delivered via, adventures. Nostalgia for the relevant times and/or locations thus becomes a means of delivering relevant historical information when it becomes relevant.

This benefit stretches beyond the superficial. If a PC is nostalgic for (i.e. interested in) the “Coppace Revolt” (to invent an incident from whole cloth), and the GM bases an adventure on that incident, the character is going to be more engaged in that adventure by definition!

Are these benefits enough to justify making nostalgia an accessible tool within the campaign, despite the extra work? That probably depends on how much “extra work” we’re talking about, but if it’s relatively minimal, then I think the answer has to be “absolutely, yes!”. And the added realism comes as a side-benefit.

The Practical Problem Of Background

The key, then, when turning our attention from the theoretical to the practical, lies in finding a way to minimize the amount of extra work involved. Ideally, even to reduce the total workload of campaign prep, because any increase in pre-campaign prep not only overburdens an already-overloaded GM but also makes character generation and integration into the game world more work for both GM and players.

Well, my comments under “A Vehicle For History” above hint at a way to achieve just that. Instead of committing to a vast tract of information from which the players have to abstract a relationship to recent history in light of their chosen characterization, put the cart before the horse – with cue cards.

1. The GM starts with the outlines of a historical incident or place in story form.
2. The GM lists the virtues that could be perceived as applying to each era and geographic region for the players, key-word style, and a one-line summary of how that virtue can be justified for his own records.
3. Players choose the virtues that their characters will most strongly identify with. [OPTIONAL: the number of eras chosen may be based on INT as described earlier. Note that the same virtue will recur in many times and places].
4. Players use this information as a tool to refine their characterization concepts.
5. The GM then provides a single paragraph expanding on that virtue and its relationship with history, defining the nostalgia experienced by the character.
6. [OPTIONAL: If the character has a history skill, they may choose that many eras for further expansion, whether or not they are the ones singled out in Step 3. If the period is already a paragraph, it becomes two or three more substantial paragraphs further expanding on the historical period; if it is not, it becomes a single line.] [SECOND OPTION: The GM may permit the character to focus even further by choosing the same era more than once in this step, adding a paragraph or two to the total each time.]
7. The player and GM then discuss the ways in which the character could be impacted by, and might express, their ‘nostalgia’.

An example:

1. Outline

The GM starts with the outlines of a historical incident or place in story form:

S-58 to S-48: The Soulwar: A Demonic invasion that is narrowly repelled with many demons slaughtered. Details to be provided. S-43: Thela-vastuzia: The necromancer Zaal-algath slaughters the village of Edensberry down to the last man, woman, and child, and uses their spirits to animate a flesh Golem that is half-constructed of demonic remnants from the Soulwar and half of mortal remains. The resulting Nightmare Golem is a thrall with extraordinary demonic powers, which enables Zaal-algath to destroy the thriving town of Thistledown, providing him with the raw materials to construct two more of the Nightmare Golems. This force then descended upon the city of Althraxis, and were destroyed by the Archwizard Thela-vastuzia who reawakened the spirits of the departed within the Metaplane of the constructs at the cost of his own life, releasing them from the control of Zaal-algath. The three Nightmare Golems destroyed Zaal-algath and then warred upon each other until only one remained, which fled into the Nether Reality. Thela-vastuzia was honored and hailed a hero for the nobility of his sacrifice.

 
NOTES:

• S-43 = “Start year -43”, a date relative to the starting date of the campaign. An approach of this type is recommended because it’s quick and succinct, and dates are easily converted to whatever in-game calendar the GM decides to use at a later date).
• Note the way the GM populates the history with any building blocks that he uses, in this case, the Soulwar.
• It is clear that the GM is using some variant cosmology of his own design. Two terms are employed in the above narrative:
  • METAPLANE: Each Construct is effectively a specific form of pocket dimension topologically surrounded by the external reality most perceive, which is used in a manner similar to a Soul Jar or Phylactery to hold the Spirits that animate/empower/inhabit the Construct.
  • NETHER REALITY: A spiritual analogue of the Astral Plane through which Spirits transit to the outer planes upon death. Pockets of the Nether Reality can spontaneously manifest sentience, curdling to form a semi-physical body, creating Devils (LE), Demons (CE), Angels (LG), [Unnamed] (CG), and [Unnamed] (N).

2a. Subjects Of Interest

From this synopsis, the GM extracts a list of the virtues that are embodied within the story, listing them as a list of key terms:

S-43: Thela-vastuzia: Necromancers, Necromancy, cruelty to innocents, Demonology, attempted conquest, hatred of Necromancy, heroic sacrifice, famous Archwizard, Nobility, Metaphysics, Golems, Demon-hunting, popular heroes, Soulwar.

 
NOTES:

• Observe that several of these terms would be subjects of fascination only to NPCs: Necromancy, cruelty to innocents, and Demonology. Others might be relevant to particular character classes – Paladins and Clerics might choose Necromancers, Demonology, Demon-hunting, or hatred of Necromancy, Paladins would add the Nobility aspect, Wizards might choose Metaphysics, Golems, or famous Archwizards. Fighters might be interested in the Attempted Conquest aspect of the story. And just about anyone could be interested in the heroic sacrifice or popular heroes of the recent history.
• The cynical, or those who are used to the way I do things, might note that this story seems designed to appeal to a broad cross-section of the PC classes, making it almost certain that at least one PC will look into it. This would be a preferred approach when I expected to base one or more adventures around the incident. However, until he knows exactly which aspects to focus on, the GM can’t expand too much on the historical tale – he doesn’t know what to focus on.
• Note that the GM considers this incident to be sufficiently relevant to the Soulwar, even though it is peripheral to that event, that he has listed ‘Soulwar’ as a keyword.

2b. Thumbnail Synopsis (Everyman Knowledge)

From the synopsis, the GM also extracts a one-sentence summary of the incident:

S-58 to S-48: The Soulwar: A Demonic invasion that is narrowly repelled with many demons slaughtered. S-43: Thela-vastuzia: A Necromancer created Half-Demonic Golems in a campaign of attempted conquest which were destroyed through the heroic sacrifice of the Archwizard Thela-vastuzia, who was honored and hailed a hero for his nobility.

 
NOTES:

• This summary explains some of the key terms but not all.
• There is very little in the way of cause-and-effect; the summary teases more than it explains. It’s just enough for a player to decide whether or not his character would be interested in knowing more.

3. Player Selection Of Events Of Personal Interest/Identification

The cumulative summary of all the events is provided to the players as the “common knowledge” of history, and the list of keywords relevant to each incident is provided by the GM to enable the players to select the past events that they are going to have studied in greater depth. Players list the events they have selected and the keyword(s) for the incident that the character is going to be particularly interested in. Normally, only one keyword is permitted per incident, but any overlaps come along for the ride.

That means that if the player selects this incident for its ‘popular heroes’ aspect, and selects another incident for it’s ‘Nobility’ aspect, the Nobility aspect of this event gets listed as a “free keyword”:

S-43: Thela-vastuzia: Popular Heroes, Nobility

 
Let’s also assume that another character chose the “Demon-hunting” keyword and (in a similar manner) got the “Soulwar” keyword as a free add-on:

S-43: Thela-vastuzia: Demon-hunting, Soulwar

4. Expanded History: Common Version, Customized Version 1, Customized Version 2

Armed with the lists submitted by each player, the GM now has a choice: he can provide both players with the same expanded content, or can produce customized versions for each character who has selected the incident as a subject of interest.

This is a more difficult choice than it first appears; both approaches have virtues and liabilities. If there was unlimited prep time, the customized-version choice is notionally superior, though it runs the risk of version conflict and involves a great deal more work. But there is hardly-ever unlimited prep time; in the real world, I would go with the common-expanded-content option unless there was a compelling reason not to – for example, knowledge suppressed by the Church might not be available to anyone but a Cleric. So this is something that I would decide on a case-by-case basis.

If I decided that a customized version was appropriate for one or more of the reasons listed, I would start by generating a ‘Common Version’ and then revise it to incorporate the additional material, possibly trimming out some of the content that wasn’t so appropriate to the specialized character so that the overall length stayed roughly the same.

As for the question of version conflict: who cares? Scholars don’t all agree on everything. Minor differences between versions of the same story are only to be expected!

In the case of the example, I would probably go with the common version for all if I were doing it for real, but have chosen to deliberately do customized versions simply to demonstrate the technique.

S-43: Thela-vastuzia: One survivor of the Soulwar was tainted by demonic corruption and turned to Necromancy. No official notice was made of Zaal-algath’s activities until he slaughtered the village of Edensberry down to the last man, woman, and child, and used their spirits to animate a flesh Golem that was half-constructed from demonic remnants from the Soulwar and half from mortal remains. The resulting Nightmare Golem was a completely subservient thrall to the Necromancer and gifted with demonic powers to employ at his direction of far greater effect than the capabilities of the original demonic ‘components’. Edensberry was a key battlefield in the late Soulwar, chosen by Zaal-algath because it contained the Demonic remains that he needed for his vile creation. With his Golem in tow, Zaal-algath marched overland to the thriving town of Thistledown, which he utterly destroyed just as rumor was beginning to spread of his initial act of savagery. This new slaughter gave him the raw materials and captured Spirits to construct and animate two more of the Nightmare Golems. This force then descended upon the coastal city of Althraxis. The expertise of the Archwizard Thela-vastuzia is often overlooked in the face of his reputation for bravery. He was, at the time, the leading expert in the metaphysics of animated constructs. He employed his expertise, at the cost of his own life, to make the Nightmare Golems of Zaal-algath turn on their creator, and then war on each other until one remained, which then fled into the Nether Reality. While one-quarter of Althraxis was destroyed, because of The Archwizard’s heroism, the majority of the city was saved, and innumerable lives beyond spared. He was honored and hailed a hero for the nobility of his sacrifice. A statue was constructed in his honor in the heart of Althraxis.

Starting from this common ground, it’s easy to refine the text to emphasize the different aspects of interest to the different characters, mostly by adding to the second paragraph. And, of course, like any writer, I would take advantage of the opportunity to polish the text. First, “Popular Heroes” and “Nobility”:

S-43: Thela-vastuzia: One survivor of the Soulwar was tainted by demonic corruption and turned to Necromancy. No official notice was taken of Zaal-algath’s activities until he slaughtered the village of Edensberry down to the last man, woman, and child, and used their spirits to animate a flesh Golem that was half-constructed from demonic remnants from the Soulwar and half from mortal remains. The resulting Nightmare Golem was a completely subservient thrall to the Necromancer and gifted with demonic powers to employ at his direction of far greater effect than the capabilities of the original demonic ‘components’. Edensberry was a key battlefield in the late Soulwar, chosen by Zaal-algath because it contained the Demonic remains that he needed for his vile creation. With his Golem in tow, Zaal-algath marched overland to the thriving town of Thistledown, which he utterly destroyed just as rumor was beginning to spread of his initial act of savagery. This new slaughter gave him the raw materials and captured Spirits to construct and animate two more of the Nightmare Golems. This force then descended upon the coastal city of Althraxis. In order to gain the expertise needed to construct his Golems, Zaal-algath had sought out training from the greatest experts of the time. One of those consulted was the Archwizard Thela-vastuzia, who keenly felt his responsibility for having failed to recognize the evil of his former pupil. He was, at the time, the leading expert in the metaphysics of animated constructs. To redeem his personal honor, he employed his expertise, sacrificing his own life in the process, to turn the Nightmare Golems of Zaal-algath against their creator, and after his destruction, to war on each other until but one remained, which fled into the Nether Reality. Although one-quarter of Althraxis was destroyed, the Archwizard’s heroism saved the majority of the city, and innumerable lives beyond spared. He was posthumously honored and hailed a hero for the nobility of his sacrifice, and a statue was constructed in his honor in the heart of Althraxis. Ever since, it has become a magnet for those wishing to swear an oath upon their honor, pledging themselves to emulate the Nobility and sacrifice of Thela-vastuzia if need be. With each such deed, the luster and stature of the Archwizard’s reputation grows; he is now revered as the greatest example of Nobility and Honor since the days of the Soulwar.

… and then “Demon-hunting” and “The Soulwar”:

S-43: Thela-vastuzia: During the Soulwar, many weak men were swayed by the blandishments and temptations offered by the invading Demons. While most of them lost their lives when their Demonic masters were overrun. One survivor, tainted by demonic corruption, turned to Necromancy. No official notice was made of Zaal-algath’s activities until he slaughtered the village of Edensberry down to the last man, woman, and child, and used their spirits to animate a flesh Golem that was half-constructed from the mortal remains of those murdered and half from demonic remnants of the Soulwar which, due to their origins in the Nether Realm, had not decayed despite dismemberment and destruction. This creation, named by Zaal-algath a Nightmare Golem, was a completely subservient thrall to the Necromancer which possessed demonic powers of far greater effect than those of the original demonic ‘components’. Edensberry had been a key battlefield in the recent Soulwar, chosen by Zaal-algath because it contained the Demonic remains that he needed for his vile creation together with sufficient living souls to empower his creation. With his Golem in tow, Zaal-algath marched overland to the thriving town of Thistledown, which he utterly destroyed just as his initial act of savagery was being observed. This new slaughter gave him the raw materials and captured Spirits to construct and animate two more of the Nightmare Golems. This force then descended upon the coastal city of Althraxis. The expertise of the Archwizard Thela-vastuzia is often overlooked in the face of his reputation for bravery. He was, at the time, the leading expert in the metaphysics of animated constructs and other Metaplane creations (a metaplane is a pocket of Nether Reality, the birthplace of Angels, Demons, Devils, etc, which arise when a curdling of the Reality produces spontaneous sentience, which then clads itself in a metaphysical body constructed from the Stuff of the Plane. This is the realm through which souls travel to their final rewards upon death. Metaplane constructs include everything from Golems to Phylacteries). Thela-vastuzia employed his expertise, at the cost of his own life, to make the Nightmare Golems of Zaal-algath turn on their creator, and then war on each other until one remained, which then fled into the Nether Reality. While one-quarter of Althraxis was destroyed, because of The Archwizard’s heroism, the majority of the city was saved, and innumerable lives beyond spared. He was honored and hailed a hero for the nobility of his sacrifice. A statue was constructed in his honor in the heart of Althraxis.

7. Adventure dressing and foundations

I thought that I would throw in one final section of the example to highlight the campaign value derived from these efforts.

The PCs could pass the statue of Thela-vastuzia, now surrounded by relatively new buildings, in a resurgent Althraxis. One might swear an oath to the spirit of the Archmage, and the PCs could witness such oaths being made. The PCs might visit the ruins of Thistledown or Edensberry, a stark reminder of the legacies of the Soulwar. One of Zaal-algath’s other experiments, hidden and abandoned, could be accidentally awakened while the PCs are nearby. It might even be housed in a purpose-built Dungeon, designed to weed out the weak and unworthy. Necromancers are notoriously hard to kill, and there’s no hint that a body was recovered after the conflict at Althraxis. It is not hard to believe that Zaal-algath might have prepared a contingency plan against his defeat. All that is needed is for the PCs to find themselves in the middle of events, or better yet, inadvertently responsible for his return, so engaging the sense of honor of the character who took that as his area of interest. Finally, what happened to the Golem that fled? It has all the personal power of a Demon Prince. If, as has been hinted at in the write-ups, Thela-vastuzia defeated the Necromancer by reawakening the spirits of those used to create it, half of them demonic in nature. Furthermore, there is also the question of what happened to Thela-vastuzia at the end – could he have been trapped within the Golem? A schizophrenic Demon Prince, who opposes and hates Demons half the time, might be fun. A cult might seek to expel the spirits of those who have ‘usurped’ control over the Golem with “True Believers”, one at a time, creating a true, ‘sane’, Demon Prince who will (they hope) reward those who brought about his newfound unity.

This nexus of adventures related to the historical incident are not a campaign in and of themselves, but they could certainly form a vital and vibrant part of one.

Conclusion: Nostalgia and the RPG Character

Nostalgia can be a powerful tool for the GM, enabling stronger and better-defined characterization for PCs and NPCs alike. It can be used to bring recent game history to life in a more dynamic way, and can be the foundations of adventures deriving from that history and the accompanying sense of nostalgia. It might not seem all that important a tool when you first consider it, but this article shows just how powerful a tool it can be.