RPGaDay 11&12

 


11. Tact

My first thoughts here relate to the high school gaming club that I ran for a few years. Tact is one of the most important lessons that we were teaching our students through the club, especially with regard to respecting each others communication with the group, allowing people the chance to say their words, and trying to push the story forward in ways that will not cause problems for the other players (even though the ramifications of those words might cause problems for the characters within the liminal space of the game). A lot of the students who were drawn to the club were often lacking in tact, and my decades of experience running games at conventions and in various home groups tend to suggest that this can be a widespread issue across the hobby. Is this simply because TTRPGs tend to attract neurodivergent folk? This is probably a stereotype...but stereotypes exist for a reason. I'm trying to be tactful in what I'm typing here...

12. Loss

Tragic backstories are the obvious answer here, but the tragic backstory starts and often concludes before a characters starts their journey in a session. 

I'm actually more interested in the losses sustained during the course of play. Stories aren't fun if everything is won, and this can usually be explained by a lack of tension coming from the rules or the GM/Narrator. Loss can be anything, loss of health, equipment, allies, ground made of the path to a goal's completion... It's just something that makes the goals end up a little further away, or makes it a little harder to achieve. A loss miht even just be a loss of focus and direction, a former goal is no longer relevant and now another goal takes over (meaning that characters need to reassess their priorties).

Two steps forward, one step back (or one step to the side). 

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