Table Top Role Playing Games and the Magic Circle

In a currently-needs-to-remain-undisclosed project recently, I was doing a lot of thinking about table top role playing games (TTRPGs). I was talking a lot about the way that narratives are crafted by both the individuals playing and the people who have gathered together to create a communal narrative.

One of the things I wanted to talk about but coudln’t due to the topic at hand was the nature of the play environment when it comes to TTRPGs. There’s a lot that can be said for the dynamics of the structure of the play environment and the way that people create that space. In many ways, we could talk about ritualisation, the concept of ritual space, and how play works with these dynamics. But I think, first, I need to talk about the magic circle, and how, I think, TTRPGs disprove the idea of it.

The magic circle was first theorised by Johan Huizinga, one of the founders of the discipline of cultural history. Now this is an old scholar. He died in the 1940s, so his work is even older, but Huizinga was the first one in Western academia to really approach the topic of play seriously. Contemporary scholarship in play studies and game studies still either rely on his work, or reject his work, because it’s the first calling point. His book Homo Ludens, first published in 1938, starts with the idea that play is foundational and essential to culture.

While Huizinga didn’t really spend a lot of time on the term ‘magic circle’, he did reflect on the idea of it. Later game theorists took the idea and ran with it more fully, especially in the realm of digital games. But the idea that Huizinga did sketch out was that all play is present in sketched out locations; play needs demarcated space that is away from the non-play of everyday life. Playgrounds and tennis courts are examples of how this space is presented as a place away from the rest of life, therefore allowing play to take place.

All play moves and has its being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the 'consecrated spot' cannot be formally distinguished from the play-ground. The arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice, etc, are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e. forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart.

Essentially, play is set apart from the rest of life that is designated as non-play, and when we enter these spaces we play. When we leave these spaces, we cease playing. Like a literal magical circle, the boundaries are upheld to create a special space.

On its surface, TTRPGs seem to uphold this idea. You don’t play until you gather around a table - or a zoom call. You have your special accoutrements: you dice, your maps, your character sheet. These are all things that have a special use for your play, and you only play when gathered around the table. When the day is over, you return to your life and are no longer playing.

However, I think when the play is given more attention, we start to see that the magic circle of the TTRPG game is not as well maintained as it initially seemed. Players move in and out of character given different environments, showing that the play circle is more porous. Players can also feel differently about play in different environments and with different people. Some players may feel uncomfortable playing with a different community and therefore feel unable to fully engage with the environment, even if the space is prepared and presented in the exact same way.

Players also can often learn from their characters and play sessions, and the release and escapism of the play allows players to take things back with them in the every day. Players talk about how their play impacts their day to day, and their day to day impacts their play in return.

I think TTRPGs present us with exactly how porous play is, and how it’s not as specially put aside from the everyday as it may seem at first. I think the magic circle is overly simplistic, and highly relies on play being something special and sacred. But the special and sacred can be profane and every day, just like TTRPGs.

https://xxpodcastxx.com/table-top-role-playing-games-and-the-magic-circle/