Five Things RPG Players Can Learn From A Sea Shanty Festival

I recently had a good time at a sea music festival. I’ve listened to a variety of nautical music on YouTube and Tidal, and even seen the Longest Johns play at a bar, but I’d never been to a festival like this before, and I didn’t know what to expect. I ended up feeling like someone who had only read about RPGs before, going to my first con and getting to play. It’s much more of an interactive, in-person hobby than I expected. I was struck by just how similar the folk tradition of shanties and sea music is to RPGs, and I picked up on five things that maybe us dice rollers can learn from the capstan turners. 1. Sometimes it’s okay to use the wrong word just to get people’s attention.A shanty is a specific kind of working song used on the ships of the 19th century to help smaller crews coordinate their pulling and pushing on specific tasks, like turning a capstan, raising a sail, or turning a pump. Other kinds of music sung by or about sailors are not shanties. There were no shanties in…