Post by Storyteller on Feb 27, 2014 11:03:14 GMT -7
Stories aren't linear.
"But Mailanka, stories don't involve choices. They're static. A murder mystery, for example, ends the same every time."
Except they do involve choice. That's where tension comes from. If we knew who committed the murder at the beginning of the whodunit, then the story loses much of its appeal (and where it has appeal, it has it because it creates other tensions). A good whodunit provides numerous interesting possibilities for who committed the murder, and presents them all as plausible. Thus, it should be possible to write an alternate ending or an alternate take on the story where another person could have legitimately done it. The same applies to romances, or adventure stories or any kind of narrative, really. Drama, suspense, tension turns on interesting choices and interesting questions. That these stories inevitably have one ending is irrelevant. They must seem to be able to have multiple possible endings. The choices must be presented as legitimate. Even in tragedies, we must have the illusion that disaster could have been prevented, "if only..."
Guess what good gameplay depends on?
"A game is a series of interesting choices"
-Sid Meier
Yup.
I think if you reflect on really great sessions you've enjoyed, many of them have blended the game-mechanics choices with your narrative choices. Who murdered the wealthy-but-unlikable businessman? Are you willing to spend your investigation bennies in this scene or that one? Are you going to accept the corrupt cop's assistance in this? Can you trust him? Are you willing to accept an investigation benny for falling in love with the obvious heiress-femme-fatale? I'm sure you can think of your own examples of interesting mechanics choices, interesting dramatic choices, and confluences of the two in your own games, or mechanics that deliberately impact drama (Legends of the Wulin and Fate both take flying leaps into mind)
I'd argue that not only is it possible to make a good story-game, but I'd offer as proof the fact that we've been doing so quite happily for years and years. I'll go further and argue that the tension between these two elements is one of the things that makes RPGing so compelling. It's certainly the secret to my success. That's one reason I really dislike "Fluff vs crunch." If we only wanted fluff, we'd just read books or tell one another stories. If we just wanted crunch, we'd play abstract board-games. We want both! That's why we RP (and many other game-genres do this too, from boardgames with rich, fluffy backgrounds to computer games with RPG elements and narrative choice-structures)
"But Mailanka, stories don't involve choices. They're static. A murder mystery, for example, ends the same every time."
Except they do involve choice. That's where tension comes from. If we knew who committed the murder at the beginning of the whodunit, then the story loses much of its appeal (and where it has appeal, it has it because it creates other tensions). A good whodunit provides numerous interesting possibilities for who committed the murder, and presents them all as plausible. Thus, it should be possible to write an alternate ending or an alternate take on the story where another person could have legitimately done it. The same applies to romances, or adventure stories or any kind of narrative, really. Drama, suspense, tension turns on interesting choices and interesting questions. That these stories inevitably have one ending is irrelevant. They must seem to be able to have multiple possible endings. The choices must be presented as legitimate. Even in tragedies, we must have the illusion that disaster could have been prevented, "if only..."
Guess what good gameplay depends on?
"A game is a series of interesting choices"
-Sid Meier
Yup.
I think if you reflect on really great sessions you've enjoyed, many of them have blended the game-mechanics choices with your narrative choices. Who murdered the wealthy-but-unlikable businessman? Are you willing to spend your investigation bennies in this scene or that one? Are you going to accept the corrupt cop's assistance in this? Can you trust him? Are you willing to accept an investigation benny for falling in love with the obvious heiress-femme-fatale? I'm sure you can think of your own examples of interesting mechanics choices, interesting dramatic choices, and confluences of the two in your own games, or mechanics that deliberately impact drama (Legends of the Wulin and Fate both take flying leaps into mind)
I'd argue that not only is it possible to make a good story-game, but I'd offer as proof the fact that we've been doing so quite happily for years and years. I'll go further and argue that the tension between these two elements is one of the things that makes RPGing so compelling. It's certainly the secret to my success. That's one reason I really dislike "Fluff vs crunch." If we only wanted fluff, we'd just read books or tell one another stories. If we just wanted crunch, we'd play abstract board-games. We want both! That's why we RP (and many other game-genres do this too, from boardgames with rich, fluffy backgrounds to computer games with RPG elements and narrative choice-structures)
