real american patriots

The real debate between the story game and the OSR-based Trad Game movement is inherently based in real world politics, even though many within both movements aren't entirely aware of the political origins of their positions. Allow me to explain -

Story Game RPGs were influenced in their development by such things as critical theory, which is an inherently leftist political and philosophical position, as well as post modern, as identified by Christian Giffen in his essay at story-games.net. In the Story Game movement, Rules Matter, since the rules act as principles by which even game masters must abide and act as a democraticisng force, much as the rule of law acts in civil society. Story Game RPGs are an emergent political movement in RPGs, since Story Game RPGs arise from the socialist thought of the Frankfut School, even if indirectly or without conscious intent to do so.

Sandbox RPGs political rise out of a more mainstream view of American social relations, with a central authority figure arbitrating and interpreting rules, and players deferring to his or her authority. The GM acts as the sensorium through which they perceive the game world. Ideally, the GM acts as a neutral arbiter and is merely the conduit to the objective world simulation in which the players participate, who survive by the virtue of their wits against an environment that would go on whether they were present or not. Player agency is both heightened and reduced in this scenario, as while player have the absolutely authority to control their characters they have no other ways to control the setting on a meta level. The narrative in these games are supposed to be emergent, not planned. This is what is known as sandbox play. For my purposes, I will refer to this impulse as the Sandbox Play movement, which is by definition a rejection of the Storygame RPG movement and is an expression of neoclassical ideals in terms of politics. GMs own their campaigns, and if players don't like it, they can leave. GMs also own whatever they choose to represent, and some even go as far as to fully embrace random reaction and encounter tables to determine NPC behavior and frequency of appearance in the game setting. In my limited experience, many sandbox gamers seem to identify with libertarian ideals and a full embrace of game theory and rational actor style economics. Sandbox gamers also, in my purely anectdotal experience, generally self-identify politically rightward. Gaming forums such as the The RPG Site generally have an audience that skews white and male (although I have met Sandbox gamers who do identify with the US mainstream political left.) Sandbox gamers are the John Galts of the RPG world, who suffer not any interference in their narrative property rights.