Interview 1: Seraphina on RPGs, Board Games, and Eisegesis

This interview is the first in a series of essays and interviews about repurposing board games in RPGs. I wrote it as part of the design process for Violent Delights: A chess-based RPG about Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.An Interview with Seraphina Garcia Ramirez Seraphina Garcia Ramirez is the author of the excellent “I want to fight my friends in the back of a moving truck” (Rascal News) and “Expressionism in Practice: A Case Study of Triangle Agency.” Sera is whip-smart consultant for analog RPGs and a beloved moderator for the Dice Exploder discord. Anyone who consults her on their game and anyone who has playtested something with her inevitably wonders, “Is Sera the best kept secret in tabletop RPGs?” I am not exaggerating!Earlier this year, Sera stirred up some age-old discourse when she asked a question in her blog, “What do we mean when we say a game ‘supports’ play?” In this piece, she argues that the game text is insufficient to explain certain acts of play. What caught my…