Holding On’s sobering story of a dying patient elevated its gameplay
Michael Fox and Rory O’Connor’s Holding On:The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr is a collaborative game in which players, taking the role of nurses, tend to an ailing patient in his final days, setting out to ease his troubled mind by uncovering past traumas.
As a game it didn’t necessarily impress upon release last year, but critics seemed to find something worthwhile in the game as a narrative experience. What was notable was the distinction made between the underlying gameplay and the story on the surface. It’s a common discussion in video game studies (and quite a divisive one) – and one which makes just as much, or just as little, sense in the world of tabletop games. So, what roles might stories play in tabletop games?