Releasing your inner Kanye West the game

I’ve spent the last couple months focused on crafting Print-and-Play, as well as playing solitaire games (usually print and play ones I just made :D) Which has been fun and probably good for my mental health but I decided I needed some kind of mental break, even a little one.

So I reached the Indie Megamix Mixtape, a collection of tiny RPGs inspired by music. I had fun reading the first collection so I’ve started the second one.

The first game in the collection is Every Superhero Needs Theme Music, a game about unleashing your inner Kanye West. 

I have to admit that, while I am aware he exists, I have never listened to Kanye West’s music and I have only the vaguest idea what he is like or what else he does. Judging from this game, he’s someone who’s not afraid to toot his own horn.

You get together with two or three other people you feel comfortable with. You then take turns drawing from a deck of eighteen cards, each one with a quote from Kanye West and a question relating to that quote. You either paraphrase that quote so it applies you or answer the question.

Okay, I have a very generous definition of what is a role playing game  but Every Superhero Needs Theme Music doesn’t make the cut. You aren’t playing any characters or telling a story. You’re sitting around, figuring out how to praise yourself.

Having said that, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t play Every Superhero Needs Theme Music or that’s it’s a bad game/activity. My first reaction was what the heck is this? My second reaction was that this is a pretty neat idea.

Setting aside the Kanye West connection, the game is about affirming yourself. That could just be arrogant but a lot of people I know aren’t good at feeling good about themselves. This game gives people permission to explain affirming themselves.

(Okay, that almost sounds like therapy. I swear, some of these indie games feel like they were designed after someone read a textbook on group therapy. Not that they should ever be used as substitutes!)

The idea that true art needs to be angsty and dark is a common one. Let’s face it, RPGs and Storytelling games would get boring pretty quick if they didn’t have conflict. 

However, having something that you can pull out in order to be positive seems like a really cool idea.