How have tabletop RPG’s broken the traditional forms of narrative
Notes
Slide 1
•Hello
I am Sam Betlem
•I
am going to be talking about how tabletop games break traditional forms of
narrative
•And how player and designer input in
these games create immersive worlds.
Slide 2
•First you have to understand what a
tabletop RPG is.
•It’s a social game played with no
console or platform. It primarily requires 3-8 people, dice and paper.
•These games are set in the mind as
appose to a platform
•A game requires one person to take
the role of storyteller while the rest play as players
•The storyteller creates the world
and fills it with quests, NPC’s items and lore
•Whereas the players create one
specific character and play through the storytellers world
•Together these two aspects come
together to make a dynamic world.
•What I want to look at how the
narrative is formed and changes because of these two inputs working together.
Slide 3
•I
am first going to be looking into various tabletop RPG games and compare the gameplay
style, setting and game world
•Dungeons and dragons is the
forerunner of these games published first in 1974
•A fantasy setting with hundreds of
adventure paths and novels written around the world settings
•With story's like the forgotten
realm books, (R.A Salvatore) and the drizit du erden
books, alongside the digital games like ice wind dale and never winter nights
it has a range of fantastic settings and story's to draw inspiration from to
help bring the game world to life.
Slide 4
•Another one of my favorite tabletop RPG’s
is world of darkness released in 2004 it is a relatively new yet popular
tabletop RPG
•A much darker aspect of tabletop
RPG. It emphasizes horror and anticipation throughout the game
•Set in our world where ghosts and
monsters wander the streets.
•Using a different dice system to
most other tabletop rpg’s, it uses D10s and requires a bit
more legwork from the storyteller to keep the game going smoothly,
•All the books are filled with
fantastic little horror story's on certain races and monsters that inhabit the
world, alongside some gorgeous artwork to bring the idea of the world to life.
Slide 5
•All flesh must be eaten is a much
smaller tabletop RPG made in 2000. It hasn't become huge compared to games like
world of darkness or dungeons and dragons. Yet the market is still there
•With heavy emphasis on survival, it
works on characters needing fresh water and food, and the mechanics work around
this aspect.
•The game uses a set of rules
similar to dungeons and dragons played with a D20 dice system.
•While not one of the huge tabletop
RPG’s it brought a new genre to this type of game. (though zombies not being
hugely original they are popular)
Slide 6
•Even
star wars jumped on the bandwagon
for tabletop RPG’s published in 2000 it has brought even more people in on this
still growing franchise.
•It is played similar to dungeons
and dragons, with a choice of set classes' and races to draw from, and using
the same D20 system.
•Bringing forth a sc-fi setting to these games drawing from
the films and books of this huge merchandise.
•This allows the players and
storyteller to draw inspiration from one of their favorite story's and have a
role to play in it that is their own, as a pose to another randomer’s interpretation of the world.
•Focusing heavily on space travel,
buying ships and upgrading them is a large aspect to play with when playing
this game.
Slide 7
•There are loads of different aspects to
take into account when playing the role of a storyteller. Its their job to keep
the story going, keeping the world interesting and full of aspects for the
player to interact with.
•This is a tricky skill to get used
to, taking into account player goals and what you want to achieve throughout
the game has a lot of challenges.
•Keeping
the game fun
•Keeping
combat fast passed
•Difficulty
balancing
•Fudging
Dice
•Almost
killing the players (killing players off
isent your aim, your aim is too keep them
interested)
•Description
of world is very important describing vast mountains, spider webs through a
cave. A street erchen begging for money, all these add
to the game world that has been created)
•Being everyone else in the world
can also be difficult a bit of acting and creativity is needed. Giving some
characters stutters and certain voices bring the players further into your
world and help them forget that they are just sitting, listening and watching
dice.
Slide 8
•Being
a player is normally an
easier role than taking that of the storyteller
•This dose not mean that they don’t
have challenges and difficulties of their own. Formulating a character can take
time, to really flesh out what he wants, looks like, acts like. Alongside
having an overall motive
•The real challenge for a player is
to stay in character, this goes for every character. It is just another aspect
of keeping the game world going rather than being plan old john from accounting
you are Us’wak the orc
ranger.
•By doing this you are helping the
storyteller create the world. And give it even more life, it also keeps the
game on track and creates unique narrative that cant be scripted by a normal
game.
Slide 9
•Tabletop
RPGs are games of imagination they
cannot be utilized if the players aren’t free thinking and creative
•Putting yourself in a world of your
mind takes time to get used to
•Yet when the game is one of
imagination, it allows people to break the format of traditional rules that
would come in say a normal RPG
•The tricky part of this Is if the
world is not described properly, the imagination viewpoint will shift from
person to person and be different from person to person
•Because of this being concise and
descriptive is key and essential throughout the game
Slide 10
•Making
a character is one of the most fun
and rewarding part of these games
•Every character has their own
motives and they are the players to come up with, you could be out for revenge,
fame, money or simply just to view the world.
•You can just make a fantasy version
of yourself portrayed in a make believe world
•Or you can stretch the idea further
making some of the most unique characters within a narrative
•One of my favorite characters I
have made was a insane priest who was paralyzed from the waste down he rode a
giant spider, and collected the bones off his victims to add to his throne
•This
was an extravagant character and my whole group loved him, he was hilarious yet
because of it, it pushed the rest of my
group to also create very unique and interesting characters.
Slide 11
•Making
a world is one of the most rewarding parts of these games
•Depending on what game you are playing
depends on the world design.
•The map on the left is a map I created a few
years ago for a dungeons and dragons campaign I was in charge of. It later
became the bases for all of our campaigns
•When making the game, first you
must set the scene, give the players a clear start that is interesting and
engaging failing this and players get bored before the game really gets going.
•Having a set main quest line is
important as without it there is no sense of emergency for the players.
•Railroading players along this
quest line is also important, however you must tie it in with the player
choices, having a crossroad of choices all of which lead towards your main
quest line is cheeky yet needed for a game of this style
•Of course you can create your own
history for these games however there is already a huge range of other medias
to draw from. Other storys, specific characters that could be
used, antagonists are all in the back of the world of darkness books. Or gods
which there are loads of detail on throughout the dungeons and dragons books.
Slide 12
•Compiling
these two aspects of both world and
character design in the hands of the players themselves, bring infinite
possibilities.
•The world is static yet alive for
the storyteller they must make it feel like it, letting player choices fully
shape the world around them.
•Bringing an idea of a character and
a world together from two different perspectives brings a fantastic amount of
uniqueness and variety throughout gameplay.
•A prime example of meaningful play.
Alongside that is can create some of the most unique narrative and story
developments. Because it is not a simple script set out by the storyteller
•With its unique way of playing it
breaks this trend and allows for an infinite possibilities of replay ability,
alongside originality and enjoyment
•When you collide these two fields
together it creates a narrative.
Slide 13
•A
narrative can be brought to life through
pure creativity or it can be drawn from inspiration
•These games have a much wider
franchise to what you might think with countless books and tales to add to the
world
•Digital game have also been
designed around these ideas, where you could draw inspiration from digital
games such as the star wars republic commander game, to help add setting for a
foot solider star wars game.
•Yet there are hundreds of other
medias that people draw from all of which then further a narrative
Slide 14
•“Someone
becomes the narrative” – This
is one of the people taking the role of a storyteller, creating the world and
how the narrative is portrayed and what the world is like how it feels, looks,
even smells. Because of this a tabletop rpg can go two ways when it comes to
narrative. It can fall on its face or fly it depends on the storyteller. If
they are not prepared to think on there feet and be very creative the world they have designed the world will
feel boring and tends to ruin a game.
•“Choices of characters to effect
the narrative” Now by this I mean that the story is always based on the
characters, it is from there perspective. A good story requires players to not
necessarily make the right choices but choices there character would make. This
forces the storyteller to adapt the story depending on player decisions.
•Story's in digital games can feel
restricted even when they are an RPG. Yet with the storyteller and player
working together it forces narrative to
even surprise the storyteller.
•”Together, the Dungeon Master and
the characters bring the game to life.” This is a
quote from the dungeon masters guide. It is true, through both interacting with
one another the story is shaped.
•So what
do you get when you bring forth, all these
aspects into one?.....
Slide 15
•A
fully dynamic narrative!
•A nion
impossible factor to achieve in digital games
•First
we start with Creation stage,
this is where everyone involves in the game creates an aspect of it.
•Next you have the collision of
these two creative outlets that might or might not interact act with one another as they had hoped, for both
storyteller and character alike.
•This collision of these two aspects.
•At some point this forms a
narrative. Weather it was what was intended or not the narrative is still
formed.
•The Narrative has then a power shift from player to
storyteller to player
and so on.
•This causes real emersion in
regards to a narrative in a game, which then causes the creation of Dynamic
narrative.
One
of my favorite campaigns that I ever ran was a story about a corrupt
government, however the story didn’t go down like I had planned. The game
started with the group being put into a gladiator ring and fighting for their
freedom. Shortly after this part of the game, the group ventured to a town. All
was going to plan, however there was a character called Cockers because he was
a bit insane and violent. He ended up killing the bar tender that the party was
staying at. The party woke to find there bartender dead with his head caved through. They all ended trying to find out
who killed the barman, in the end conckers discussed with me about framing an
NPC’s making a huge elaborate plot to
avoid detection of the party itself. This is an exsample of a, fully dynamic narrative I reacted
to player input and they reacted with mine. Causing a Dynamic narrative that none of us could of
expected.
Slide 16
•I
disagree with most of this,
why cant the story be the game. It is a plausible argument, people grew up with
games story's, How can that there for be unsatisfying.
•Is it because they are all similar
layouts.
•I do believe that restricting
players freedom of action will cause a game to ruin. It depends on the game
however, it depends if you want to interpreted the story as the game or the
gameplay as the game.
•In tabletop RPG terms the story is
the game.
Slide 17
•I
believe that game designers can learn
so much from tabletop RPGS.
•Storyline creation, interacting and
allowing player to shape the game and to let players warp the game itself.
•I'm not saying that digital games
could achieve this, not at the moment at least. After speaking to the forgotten
realms writer R.A Salvatore, he told me that the “Technology isn't capable yet,
to allow for the dynamic storylines of tabletop games”
•On the right we have the MDA
framework from Robin Hunikle normally this works one way for
players and the reverse for designers as these games require one person to take
the role of designer
• In my opinion this hypotheses is
slightly twisted when regarding a tabletop RPG
•The aesthetics of the game are
taken out of the main chain and become something that changes from person to
person. Which then creates a different form of aesthetics to what this is
commonly referred to as.
•I think that these games have great
potential and it is a shame that they are becoming out of fashion. I would make
sure anyone who is interested in following how a good game is crafted should
have tried these games for simple practice.
Slide 18
Thank you for watching
Are there any questions, query's or criticisms?
No comments:
Post a Comment