Hello, dear reader. First of all, thank you for starting to read this piece. Reading, listening to ideas, feeling them, and following a journey is a true virtue. You have now become a part of Sığınak as well.
Pouring the world that lies behind my daily life into the association’s columns section is an activity I truly enjoy. The persona I present in my digital world is, in fact, a reflection of my real inner self—of who I am. When I first started playing TTRPGs back in 2007, as a high school student, I realized that I was genuinely capable of being creative and productive. As I began to understand that feeling every line of the books I read within my mind was not an anomaly—but rather a sign of how deep my imagination truly was—I felt as though I had finally taken hold of my true self.
An Individual Journey
My introduction to books dates back to a very early age, largely thanks to my family. Especially during my primary school years, my family was genuinely supportive in this regard. After countless fantasy children’s books, I found myself drawn into an intriguing vortex—The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, the Lovecraft series, Ultima, Diablo, Warcraft, and many more. Imagine a vortex so captivating that you enjoy being swept away by it—staying up all night reading when you’re supposed to be in class the next morning, dreaming your way through thousands of pages, living in a world built of imagination.
At some point, reading alone begins to feel insufficient. You reach a stage where you imagine a dragon accompanying you as you board a bus. Instead of merely dreaming, you start writing—trying to give form to those inner visions with pen and paper, even before sharing them with others. People may see someone from the outside and hear only what they say, never imagining what is truly happening inside their mind. And it is within this creative inner world that you experience reality with a sense of peace.
Community Philosophy
When I first created my own worlds, I didn’t share them with anyone. At a certain point, this began to feel rather selfish. After a brief search online, I quickly discovered that there were communities where I could come together with others who were like me. At a time when my foreign language skills were limited (and, honestly, I still think they are), I began looking for people like myself in İzmir. The mistake I made, it turned out, was this: the people who thought like me were already the friends around me.
Once we started sharing these worlds among ourselves and then, together, stepping into broader communities, I realized that there were many people like us—each with their own worlds, and each eager to share them. Based on core principles, I would present my own world, and through the roles my friends played—acting according to that world’s rules—we collectively brought a new world into existence. The world I shared went beyond the rules of today; it ceased to be merely a product of my imagination bending reality and instead became something living.
From that moment on, every person I met and every character I introduced became part of that world’s vibrant, colorful garden of flowers.
Universal Connection
One of the oldest practices in the world—still alive today and prominent in the arts under the name theatre—is, at its core, storytelling. What early humans once did by gathering around a fire, we now do around a table. From the very beginning of human history, we have been telling stories. Continuing this shared act today, as a community gathered around a table, is in fact carrying forward a time-honored legacy of world history.
As I mentioned above, when I began creating my own world and writing my own stories based on the works I had read—and then started telling those stories—the more vividly I could make people feel them, the more they could internalize the experience, as if they were living inside the story themselves. And strangely enough, all around the world, people like me—and me like them—continue to carry on the art of storytelling.
Why Do We Play Games?
At its core, what we do within these fundamental principles is to feel like the character we take on and bring that character to life. In essence, it is a form of improvised theatre—portraying your character by improvising within the chain of events narrated by the storyteller. The exotic worlds and rule systems of TTRPGs may sometimes make the experience feel like a video game, but the emotional intensity and truly inhabiting a character draw us deep into that world, allowing the storyteller to feel the very heart of their own creation as well.
Playing TTRPGs and developing a world is not an escape from real life; rather, it is the opportunity to be part of a story for a few hours each week. To go even further, it is about bringing a utopia to life and carrying forward a shared legacy of worlds. We are delighted to welcome anyone who wishes to take part in this collective heritage among us.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. If you wish, you can also share your thoughts with me at canyurekli@siginak.org.tr.
I’m not sure whether it’s my current state of mind or simply my fondness for seriousness, but it looks like I’ll be meeting you in writing several times a week. If you’d like, you’re also welcome to join us through Sığınak’s WhatsApp group.
The Philosophy Behind the Thought
Hello, dear reader. First of all, thank you for starting to read this piece. Reading, listening to ideas, feeling them, and following a journey is a true virtue. You have now become a part of Sığınak as well.
Pouring the world that lies behind my daily life into the association’s columns section is an activity I truly enjoy. The persona I present in my digital world is, in fact, a reflection of my real inner self—of who I am. When I first started playing TTRPGs back in 2007, as a high school student, I realized that I was genuinely capable of being creative and productive. As I began to understand that feeling every line of the books I read within my mind was not an anomaly—but rather a sign of how deep my imagination truly was—I felt as though I had finally taken hold of my true self.
An Individual Journey
Community Philosophy
When I first created my own worlds, I didn’t share them with anyone. At a certain point, this began to feel rather selfish. After a brief search online, I quickly discovered that there were communities where I could come together with others who were like me. At a time when my foreign language skills were limited (and, honestly, I still think they are), I began looking for people like myself in İzmir. The mistake I made, it turned out, was this: the people who thought like me were already the friends around me.
Once we started sharing these worlds among ourselves and then, together, stepping into broader communities, I realized that there were many people like us—each with their own worlds, and each eager to share them. Based on core principles, I would present my own world, and through the roles my friends played—acting according to that world’s rules—we collectively brought a new world into existence. The world I shared went beyond the rules of today; it ceased to be merely a product of my imagination bending reality and instead became something living.
From that moment on, every person I met and every character I introduced became part of that world’s vibrant, colorful garden of flowers.
Universal Connection
One of the oldest practices in the world—still alive today and prominent in the arts under the name theatre—is, at its core, storytelling. What early humans once did by gathering around a fire, we now do around a table. From the very beginning of human history, we have been telling stories. Continuing this shared act today, as a community gathered around a table, is in fact carrying forward a time-honored legacy of world history.
As I mentioned above, when I began creating my own world and writing my own stories based on the works I had read—and then started telling those stories—the more vividly I could make people feel them, the more they could internalize the experience, as if they were living inside the story themselves. And strangely enough, all around the world, people like me—and me like them—continue to carry on the art of storytelling.
Why Do We Play Games?
At its core, what we do within these fundamental principles is to feel like the character we take on and bring that character to life. In essence, it is a form of improvised theatre—portraying your character by improvising within the chain of events narrated by the storyteller. The exotic worlds and rule systems of TTRPGs may sometimes make the experience feel like a video game, but the emotional intensity and truly inhabiting a character draw us deep into that world, allowing the storyteller to feel the very heart of their own creation as well.
Playing TTRPGs and developing a world is not an escape from real life; rather, it is the opportunity to be part of a story for a few hours each week. To go even further, it is about bringing a utopia to life and carrying forward a shared legacy of worlds. We are delighted to welcome anyone who wishes to take part in this collective heritage among us.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. If you wish, you can also share your thoughts with me at canyurekli@siginak.org.tr.
I’m not sure whether it’s my current state of mind or simply my fondness for seriousness, but it looks like I’ll be meeting you in writing several times a week. If you’d like, you’re also welcome to join us through Sığınak’s WhatsApp group.
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