Dino-Pirates of Ninja Island

So I was reading a "Story Hour" (the accepted term for stories that are in some way or other the output or creation of a game), and it wasn't great.

I mean, the game was probably lots of fun, and the writer was reasonably talented, so it was acceptable as far as all that goes. But it was rock-solid dull. No amount of wit or adventure could save it from its own inherent dullness.

I struggled with why that might be, and realised that in the story, our hero had no interesting relationships with other characters. The story was really just a recounting of one person's accomplishments or failures, whatever those may be, but with no sense of who mattered to this person. There was no sense that and of this person's relationships had the potential to transform the character.

And great stories are exactly about that: about transformative relationships.

So then, why so many crappy stories?

Relationships are really really really hard to model in a game -- especially a game where the modelling focuses much more on either physics or narrative structure (narrative being the darling of the current crop of game invention). But relationships are first of all, much more complicated than either phsyics or narrative. People are complicated, and nowhere more so than in how they relate to other people. Our feelings for others are so often a tangled ball of emotions and experiences and expectations that even the simplest, most mundane relationships can explode unexpectedly.

Second, and perhaps more important, playing relationships at the game table can be pretty awkward. Especially if you want to get to the kinds of emotions that drive fantastic stories. Imagining trying to play out Hamlet vs Gertrude with your buddy. How could you possibly play all the conflicting and horrifying emotions that are rocking those two people in that scene? Just even describing such things is going to be hard and weird.

And yet, stories that don't push the characters' relationship to the edge are stories that don't much grasp hold of the reader.

At the same time, most games reward individual success more than group success -- whether through the acquisition of experience points or wealth, and the then game-significant impact of those rewards. In most games, the best policy is to play a heartless psychopath who unthinkingly betrays his colleagues. You're more likely to end up with a powerful character if you take that approach, at least, so having your character possess strong connections to other characters is disincentivized.

So, there's no hope? Games can only produce crappy stories?

Not entirely. I've been in some games that have included potent relationships -- mostly between characters who are friends, and then an opportunity for one to let the other down emerges, and tension ensues.

This is one of reasons I like character generation systems that encourage connection between characters prior to the game beginning. A group of characters who are all old friends, or at least part of a larger group of friends or relations, makes for more immediate drama right off the bat.

Take for example Joshua's latest Freeport game: the characters include Ricardo the suave womanizer and his long-time partner in crime, Lash the greedy hobgoblin. These two have stuck together through thick and thin, and just having that decision made ahead of the game helps to defuse the Heartless Psychopath type of characterization. Another pair of characters in the game likewise started out with a past, and unsurprisingly, the party is partly split into these two groups. So it's an interesting dynamic from the get-go, and there's opportunities for further interesting things to happen.

This was my favourite thing about Spirit of the Century -- the idea of having the characters all assembled via a series of pulp novel blurbs is sheer genius. So of course I stole it for DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND.

Are there other mechanics that can successfully model the sorts of intense relationships that characterize great stories?

Photo by Dimitri Castrique

Here's three models of how to run a campaign. Terminology borrowed, again, from other media. This is based on some of the discussion that came out of the game-runner's chat, again (shout out to Kirin for organizing it… you demanding attention whore, you.) This isn't exactly rocket science, but it helps to have this stuff spelled out and written down, as a take-off point to deeper discussion, hopefully.

Episodic: This is like a classic TV show. Each episode is a self-contained story arc, and events in one episode have little to no impact on what comes in subsequent episodes. Like The A-Team or Knight Rider (to use some examples from my childhood) if you missed an episode or two (or more) it didn't really matter, as long as you knew who the characters were, what the basic premise of the show was, and a few other key things like that.

Using this model for roleplaying games is a nice one, especially if 1) you're using published modules that don't necessarily have any linkages between them, and/or 2) characters (and possibly players) have a tendency to come and go, and the same cast of characters can't be counted on to be integral to each episode. I.e., if you've got someone who's attendance is spotty because of a difficult work schedule, working his character in on the nights that he's available is easy if you follow this model, as is assuming that said character simply isn't available on nights when the player can't make it.

Serial: This model, on the other hand, assumes that the campaign is one, giant narrative arc. Much more "real life" in feel, it's not broken up into discrete episodes, and stuff from the very beginning, or anywhere else throughout the campaign can be relevent throughout. This model isn't really well represented by other media, although shows like Lost or Alias probably come closest, since the "episodes" are discrete broadcasting chunks, but not necessarily episodes in the classic sense, with a discrete beginning, middle and end. This campaign model is best suited for very regular play with very regular players who really enjoy the unfolding narrative over time. As with non-episodic TV shows, if you miss an episode, you could be in trouble and quickly fall behind, becoming confused by the narrative flow that's gone on without you.

These two models are really the endpoints on a spectrum, though. I'm going to suggest a hybrid model that leans somewhat towards episodic campaign play, as the ideal model for most groups to adopt. While I'm at it, I'll add a few tips on how to mix and match a few of the good points of each opposite end of the spectrum to improve the experience a bit. Feel free to chime in on what you like and why; i.e., what strong and weak points does each model have, and how they can be improved.

Hybrid (episodic): This type of campaign is characterized by a strongly episodic nature, yet it does have some elements that tie the episodes together more tightly than merely repeating the same characters over and over again. Some examples from recent fantasy literature include Harry Potter and the Dresden Files; each book is self-contained, and includes its own major conflict, climax and denoument, but at the same time there is a thread of "metaplot" that goes through each episode; it's not recommended that you miss one or pick them up out of order, for instance, although if you did you could stumble through it OK.

This is a good model for, again, the group that doesn't always have the best attendence. For most adult gamers these days, that probably means you; real life and outside obligations tend to make the regularity of gaming sometimes spotty for folks, especially as they pick up careers, families, etc. The secret to making this work well, I believe, is to allow the episodic nature to take the forefront, but make a few recurring villains or conspiracies pop up from time to time. Don't be subtle with these references, as time and occasional missed sessions by some players may not make subtle ties evident. Have an end-game in mind for some point down the line, although that doesn't mean you need to be in a hurry to get there. As you approach this endgame, you can have threads start to come together and wrap up; in the meantime, feel free to let them dangle until you figure out what to do with them. Despite that, the "main" action of each episode needs to be under better control; I prefer to give these episodes a kind of narrative structure, with defined acts that are characterized by their place within classic story structure; i.e., a beginning, a period of rising action/tension, a climatic resolution to the main conflict of that episode, and a small denoument that closes out the episode, ties up loose threads that aren't meant to carry forward, and points a bit towards whatever action might be next on the horizon.

Adventure Paths, as published by Paizo, could be a good example of this. Each adventure is an "episode" but you're not really expected to play them by themselves; they fit into a greater framework made up of the entire adventure path together.

In theory, you could also do a hybrid (serial) which leans more towards the serial model, and which might be more appropriate for a game in which attendance is not a problem, and you play often and frequently. However, I think you still do things basically the same way in that regard, with just a decreased emphasis on "closing out" episodes. In fact, I think most of the campaigns I've run probably approximate this model more closely than hybrid (episodic), but my group has frequently been dogged by attendence issues; we don't always have exactly the same crowd every time we play, and it's not infrequent that the time between sessions stretches beyond two weeks. I think this has made running that kind of game more difficult for me, so I'm leaning more towards "closing out" each session (or two together, tops) as a kind of episode that still feeds into a greater, bigger plot, but which has a greater degree of closure at more intervals than what I'm running now.

So any tips from the peanut gallery on how to maintain that great X-files esque conspiracy model with a greater story emerging from play over time, yet with more discrete episodes, I'm interested in hearing it.

Last night I participated in a chat/panel discussion on gamemastering with some other great DMs. One thing that I think happens frequently is that we understand something intuitively, but we don't really understand it intellectually. That kinda happened to me last night a little bit, and some concepts that I understood (and have even used) intuitively were spelled out for me intellectually in a way that I could better replicate them and understand how and why they work, I think.

One of the things I love about RPGs is all the paraphernalia. Of course the polyhedral dice, rattling across tabletops, and on occasion miniatures (though I lack the patience/time to paint my own), but folders, charts, maps and especially screens.

DM screens are a staple of many game systems, and even though I rarely have papers or anything I want to hide from my players, I love those folding cardstock thingummies. One of my favourites of recent years is Green Ronin's Narrator's Screen for True20. It's attractive (without goofy illustrations on the front (although I'll admit, the illos on the old-school screen (at left) impressed twelve-year-old me)), and the design is well-laid-out and it's made from extra-sturdy cardboard so it doesn't get as flabby and useless as some other screens I've made use of over the years.

But as I pointed out a while ago, it lacks at least one basic necessary for smoothly running True20 (damage conditions). And as a screen for running the rambunctious sort of game DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is meant to be, it's missing a whole pile of stuff.

So I've created a bodgery of a document that you can print off and use to update your True20 Narrator's Screen. It includes tables for the revised rules around Stunts, Reputation, Scenes, Minions and more! Just cut out the little boxes and tape them over the boxes indicated on your Narrator's Screen, and hey presto! You've got your own perfectly-arranged DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND Narrator's Screen.

Download now!