Nowożytna zabawa w Gospodarstwo a współczesne gry fabularne

The article compares contemporary role playing games with a court game played in the early modern Europe, which in the Nobles’ Republic (Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka) was called The Farm. This game came to the attention of Władysław IV Vasa (Władysław IV Waza), and as a consequence became very popular in his court. To play the game, the participants drew cards with various characters, and then dressed as these personas and role play them. The drawn characters belonged to social groups which were distant to the aristocratic elites. These could have been a soldier, servant, miller, peasant, etc., or residents of other geographical regions, such as Germans, Venetians, Maurs, etc. The article points out the similarities and differences between the two types of games.