Cross-posted from the Fifth World weblog.

I’m going to put all my cards on the table right now: I’m not a role-player. I have never been a role-player. Jason has tried many times to get me into role-playing, and it just ain’t sticking. And I’m not alone. Many role-players have wondered why more women don’t get into tabletop RPGs. Which is strange, since with its focus on communal storytelling and improvisational acting, you’d think that if anything, role-playing games would have trouble attracting male players.

Various suggestions have included the math-heavy and violence-laden nature of Dungeons & Dragons. I think it’s fair to say that D&D completely dominates the RPG industry, and taking a look at D&D’s rulesets, it’s all about math and combat. Now, I don’t mean to make broad, sweeping stereotypes about women, but I know that neither of those things appeal to me personally. (Granted, it’s the improvisational acting I have the biggest problem with, but the focus on math certainly doesn’t help.) For many years, male role-players have been trying to bring more women into the fold. I think The Fifth World could be very effective in doing that. In designing the Mythos System, Jason has tried to downplay math and combat as much as possible and encourage the development of character and storyline. Not only do I think this will attract more women to role-playing, I think it will attract a different kind of man as well.

But for those used to hack-and-slash RPGs, the transition into the Fifth World mindset might be a little awkward. I think a lot of old-school role-players will find themselves flipping through the beta ruleset wondering, “What the hell do you do? Hunt and gather? What kind of boring-ass game is this? What exactly is supposed to go into a Fifth World story?”

Which brings me to the point of this article. While I’m not a role-player, I am a writer, and I’ve been tasked with the goal of penning the first Fifth World novel. (Unless someone else beats me to it. And by all means, go for it!) The novel, which will be based on the playtest campaign that we’re going to begin shortly, is going to be fairly standard RPG fantasy fare. It’s going to revolve around war and conquest, and there are going to be shadowy villains and attempts to destroy the world. But that’s far from the only type of story that can be told in The Fifth World.

Most post-apocalyptic stories are, frankly, kind of downers. A little ironic, given the fact that the whole concept of the apocalypse was thought up to give impoverished peasants hope that someday the pain would end and their oppressors would finally get their comeuppance. Lately, the unspoken assumption is that the post-apocalyptic world must be far worse than the pre-apocalyptic world; as a result, most of the storylines in these settings tend to revolve around hard-bitten characters fighting their way through a brutal world in search of one last ray of hope (often a piece of technology left over from the pre-apocalyptic world). The Fifth World is a return to the original meaning of “apocalypse.” Fifth Worlders are happier, healthier, and all-around better off than Fourth Worlders. Remains of Fourth World technology (such as nuclear weapons or nanobots) are feared and despised, and anyone who tries to return to the lifestyle of the Fourth World (agriculture) is either evil or stupid or both. It’s not a utopia, but it’s better than what we have now. That knocks out the possibility of most—if not all—clichéd post-apocalyptic storylines.

So what do you write about, if you want to write a Fifth World novel, play, movie, etc.? Well, here’s an idea: who’d like to try their hand at a Fifth World book club book? You know, one of those inter-generational stories of the bond between mothers and daughters? Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood-type stuff? The kind of book that Oprah would love? Why not? The Fifth World describes a tribal future, and what are tribes if not extremely tight-knit extended families? All the complexities and drama of interpersonal relationships are there, and with that comes infinite story possibilities. Adults teach children what it is to be a member of the tribe and all the responsibilities that come along with it. People deal with the deaths of family members, close friends, spouses and lovers. Speaking of lovers, how about a romance novel? Most of the drama in tribal societies revolves around love, after all! Finding love, losing love, adultery (the #1 reason for discord in tribal societies), jealousy! The list goes on and on. Post-apocalyptic chick lit for a role-playing game? Is it really that unthinkable?

The Fifth World is all about thinking outside the box. It’s about reconsidering the way we play RPGs. It’s about reconsidering the way we live our lives. So when crafting a story for The Fifth World, whether you’re a GM coming up with a fun campaign for you and your friends or a writer with a slightly bigger audience, don’t just replace dragons with mutated rats and dungeons with nuclear warhead bunkers. Let’s not fall into the old clichés where the setting is the storyline and every single tale has to remind you that yes, an apocalypse did happen and yes, the world is different. This is indeed a very different world, but the difference is not defined by scarcity, either of material possessions or of safety. The difference is that it contains more of what we in our isolated society are most lacking: family. Friends. Bonding. Why not write stories that reflect that?

It’s not exactly your average dungeon-crawl. But then again, The Fifth World isn’t exactly your average role-playing game.

Now go play!