Text and Hubris

My last post was on removing the game from roleplay. Today, I am going to talk about the problems with that and possible scenarios to overcome them.

We all know the reason why a game structure exists. It exists because there needs to be a way to resolve conflict and disagreements that arise in all stories (most of you know this as the “I shot you” “No, you didn’t” issue). Game structure acts as a method of adjudicating these conflicts in order to keep the story going.

This was all fine and good until people started to realize that by focusing on the game structure they could, essentially, make their character capable of never being hit. In this sense, the rules actually act to make the “I hit you!” “No, you didn’t!” problem worse. Now each player is concentrated on making sure their character is optimally built to hit and not be hit and modern games (I’m looking at you 4th Ed) emphasize this to no end.

That is why the term “game balance” exists. The enemies are slotted to match up with characters of a certain level who have spent their points in a game appropriate manner. The idea of story is all but dead, there is only the stat and the counter-stat.

Of course, people realized this and a whole myriad of systems rose up trying to find a way around the issue. Honestly, I have not found one that has succeeded. There have been a lot of attempts. Diceless systems such as the Amber system were less than successful primarily because they removed the chance element but kept the conflict-challenge element. This is the worst of all possible worlds in my mind. The dice pools and story concepts of White Wolf systems were solid and the removal of levels was a great thing. Unfortunately, the same issues rose in combining certain skills, powers, and traits. People sought out the best combination and forgot about story. Beyond this, White Wolf micromanaged their world concept to such an extent that players and Storytellers had little choice but to exist solely inside the World of Darkness. There were very few people out there who were creating new worlds with the White Wolf system. WoTC has pretty much failed from day one. The OGL was genius, but they’ve already blown any credit they deserve there. They made a card game and they should have stuck to that. When I go looking for a solid story, I don’t look to HASBRO. Sorcerer was an excellent game, but the system was so tied to a single concept that it made for good play but offered little in the way of creative flexibility when it came to the worlds. I’ve looked at the aspect system that FATE has which really sounds like a modification of the FUDGE rules to fit other systems. The flexibility of FUDGE and True20 are the main reason I tend to use them as systems now, but even they fall short. I’m not going to cover every game system I have played simply because this paragraph is already overly long. Suffice it to say that no system has yet found a way to hold to the narrative angle without the GM enforcing strictly.

So what do you do? If you remove the game structure entirely, you end up with a bunch of people trying to tell a story that falls apart. Players lose that care about their characters and the story suffers. If you include a game structure, you end up with players doing whatever they can to make their characters “succeed” even if that involves the manipulation of meta-content. There is no easy way out, but I’ll offer a few ideas.

The first option is called the “get good players and a GM option.” This was my standard argument for many years. If you have great players and a great GM this is a pointless article. If you like the narrative/collaborative style, you’re all playing it already. The system isn’t an issue in this regard because most you already ignore anything that conflicts with the story at large. This is a great option for experienced and established players, but how do you add new players? Narrative roleplay is a niche within a niche and both niches are growing smaller. GM’s need to reach out to bring in new players if only to help keep this concept of storytelling alive. The first option just doesn’t work here.

The next option is to try to make a system work. Shoehorn in rules and stretch rule concepts to such a degree that the narrative can work. Of course, this will only work in your specific story and conflicts will still arise. A GM can manage this dissonance to some degree but after awhile the system becomes a greater and greater hindrance to the story. Ultimately, if the game survives, you will descend into a freeform style which is right back where we started.

The last option is too look seriously at creating a structure that works to manage the story. This is not simply a character creation issue. This must be a whole new look at the idea of storytelling in general. I mean this both from a tabletop perspective and from a networked perspective. Honestly, I am talking about the re-emergence of storytelling in general.

This will be part of my project for next year. I will be looking at storytelling concepts both from the traditional gaming community and from a more general perspective. How do we tell stories? Why? How do we add to stories and what new opportunities in storytelling are out there? I really believe that we have just started to scratch the surface of this topic. Hopefully, what I discover will be of value to myself and everyone else who reads this.

As I peruse the sites and read more and more on RPG design, I begin to see the fundamental flaw. I am not a gamer, I am a storyteller. When it comes to system mechanics, I am not interested in making combat fun or easily devised combat scenarios and traps. I am not interested in any of those things. I am interested in what makes a story compelling. I want to know what drives characters to succeed.

In Doryn, in the far northern wastes, a young boy felt a great rumbling and watched as the earth before him seemed to split apart. He might have screamed but no sound was heard save the scraping of ice and the thundering of stone. His life could have ended there. In this moment he could have fallen into the depths of the earth and disappeared from the life and the world forever. His existence would have been nothing but a speck of momentary text on a site that no one reads.

When the earth stopped shaking and everything fell silent once again, the boy was still there, though. His name is Devid Kindas and as he is no longer afraid. He has stared into the face of the abyss and he is ready. He in not more than nine years of age, but he is ready.

Now I ask….ready for what? Who is Devid? I can tell you. I will tell you eventually. I will explain how his life melds into the lives of others and how it may come to shape the Northern Lands. This is story. I can’t tell you stats, he is bright, articulate, distant, and exceptionally aware. He is still a child, though. He loves to play tag or to be dragged on the ice by his father or their dogs.

Last year, the older boys in his village captured a live arctic fen (think a large reindeer-esque type of creature) and Devid is still proud that he was the only one brave enough to ride the sled they tied to it. It actually pulled him for several hundred feet before turning on him and trying to trample him. Here, again, he barely survived and he’ll always carry a curved scar on his left should where the fen’s hooves caught him.

This is part of Devid’s story. In a few more minutes, I could give you his father, his mother (in a panic right now), and a younger sibling.

This is story. We write stories. We share stories. We do not create games that can be won or object that are worth value. There is no gear, no item worth it, we create characters and worlds and that is more than enough.

@makzu

Most of the stories I write are interactive stories. I create the world. I fill it characters, create a series of plots and subplots that are constantly occurring and evolving and then drop other creative people into the midst of it all. They interact with my world. They push at it, tug at it, scream at it, rip at it, and out of it they create their own stories, their own narratives. I am, in essence, the meta-narrator. It is a job that I love. If only I could find a way to make it pay.

Not that it matters, mind you, I create worlds in my head every day. Some are pleasant, cheerful places, others are dark and terrifying. This is their nature because it is my nature. I put the work in because I must, I do it because it is who I am. Even if all the other people went away, I would still be here creating worlds. We don’t do this to play a game. If we do, then the time is wasted. We do this to create a circle of storytellers, to bring together people to create new narratives and new adventures.

For most of 2009, I found myself trapped in a loop. I was creating stories that weren’t new. They were simple, and nothing more than a sad rehash of other stories. I can’t do that. I realize that now. I need to create stories that move and flow and evolve. Stories that are unique in some form. I’m back doing that now. Even during this protracted illness my mind has been fluttering around my True20 system adaptation of the both The Sixth and another, unnamed, project. Now, I am also looking seriously at maybe writing for Pathfinder as well.

This is what the work gives you even when it doesn’t come to fruition. It gives you stories, it fills your arsenal of tropes, tricks, and hooks. It keeps you creating even when there is no one to share it with and even that is sometimes enough.

Most of the people who remain in this medium are not like me. Most of them simply want to play a game and then go about their way. My belief is that their time in this medium is limited. There are better options out there for them. I am looking to a different niche entirely and I really believe that is where the future lies.

The narrative is key.