Announcing a bonus special event as part of the Gender theme for the Historical Game Network: a livestream playtest of a new tabletop roleplaying game!
This livestream will feature four researchers who work in gender and history gathering round the (virtual) table to test out a new game World Weaver: Which Witch? written by myself, Tess Watterson, guest chair for the ‘Gender’ HGN theme. The recording will then be available to watch here on the Historical Games Network blog, posted with a reflection about how the game can work for playing with gendered histories.
Which Witch?
Over the years of researching and writing my PhD thesis about the gendered figure of the witch in fantasy computer roleplay games, I was often asked what I thought a “good” historical game would look like, especially for exploring witchcraft histories. There is no simple answer to that question, of course, as it really depends on what deeper ideas you want to convey.
I wanted a game system where the ‘meta’ parts of historically-inspired gaming were made into tangible mechanics that encouraged players to think more deeply about the relationship between storyteller and story. The game, World Weaver, is a story-within-a-story model in which players experiment with weaving together many different parts of a historical tradition or archetype to tell a story that is both historically grounded and imaginatively unique. The game is run by the ‘World Weaver’ – someone whose role is not mastery over the story in the way that a puppet master might pull on strings, but rather to facilitate this weaving together of an imagined world with the threads of story offered by the player’s characters. The basic system could be used for almost any historical topic, but the original version, which we will be playing in this livestream, is about witches. In developing their characters throughout the gameplay, the players will add new abilities or knowledge to their witch characters by drawing on any aspects from across the long and varied tradition of the imagining the witch, hence the game’s subtitle: Which Witch?
The game is designed to help us think about who becomes invested in certain historical narratives, and why. The way that we tell stories about the past is always informed by our identities in the present, but we aren’t always very comfortable with acknowledging that subjectivity. Feminist and queer histories grapple with these questions all the time – how can we talk about people from the past who’s stories resonate with us today but who had radically different terminologies and understandings of themselves? The multilayered story in Which Witch? is sort of like the ‘sucked into a video game or movie’ trope, but in this case, the players will tell a collective story in the world of our collective imagination – our Historical Imagination.
Watch Live:
To see how this all plays out, join us next Wednesday 28th May 6:30pm CDT (9:30am AEST) for a special livestream playtest on Twitch, hosted by Ludohistory, where a bunch of nerdy gender and history scholars sit around and play Which Witch?
Watch live at www.twitch.tv/ludohistory/ in a browser or with the Twitch phone app. You do not need an account to watch the stream or to view the live chat feed, it is free to access. If you would like to join in the live chat on Twitch during the stream then you can do so with a Twitch account, or the recording will then be available here on the HGN blog where you can comment as usual.
Your storytellers for this adventure are…
Dr Tess Watterson (she/they) as your World Weaver (@tesswatty)
Dr. Tess Watterson is an early career researcher working on medievalism, gender, and historical games, who’s PhD thesis focused on the figure of the witch in fantasy computer roleplay games. Tess is a classic example of the ‘drama kid to tabletop game enthusiast’ pipeline, loves all things storytelling, and believes the rule-of-cool attitude to games can also apply to disciplinary boundaries.
Tielah-Jade Cannon (she/her)
Tielah-Jade Cannon (she/her) is a postgraduate researcher in history and feminist media. She is currently in the final stages of her Masters thesis, focussing on the representation of historical women in fiction and how genre and form affect feminist characterisations. Outside of academia, she enjoys cross stitching, reading, gaming, and participates in her local musical theatre community, both on and offstage.
Marcus Jensen (he/him)
Marcus Jensen is an undergraduate researcher currently based at Oberlin College working primarily on queer theory, music history, and games. When not gardening, baking, or reading, he enjoys playing Balatro and Baldur’s Gate III!
Leandro Wallace (he/him/él) (@ide4fix)
Leandro Wallace is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Critical Indigenous Studies Macquarie University, working across Critical Indigenous Studies, Gender Studies, History and Game Studies. He is a member of En-Gender! as editor, conference organizer and cohost and coproducer of the podcast. He plays almost anything, but mostly on his laptop and when there is time, and with whomever wants to join!