RPGaDay 19&20

(Let's hope we don't get jumbled up again... I must have been tired that day)

 

19. Desire

Desires, goals, motives, needs, things that people want are one of their key defining factors... however, a lot of games ignore this vital part of character development. Perhaps it's left as an element of the fruitful void, which is that part of the game that rules circles around but which is ever addressed in the rules so the players can work it out for themselves at the table.

As a bare minimum I give every named NPC a desire, when they need a bit more rounding out, I give them a positive desire (something they are trying to achieve) and a negative desire (something they are trying to avoid). Then I give them a strength and a weakness... most NPCs don't need more than this, but if they become key parts of the story, I might work them up with a full character sheet. At the basic level, the desires of NPCs pull on their narrative, and their web of needs impacts on the player characters to tell a richer story.

When desires conflict, that's when negotiation needs to happen and when stories start getting juicy. Those are the moments I live for in a session.

20. Promise

What is the promise in a TTRPG? What is the promise broken that causes people to leave a gaming group and never come back to the hobby? That's one of the key areas I'm trying to explore with my three-way tension model. I'm looking at what people want out of a game, which is predominantly a form of escapism or distraction from the daily events of life around them (which feels like it's getting more important these days), or a method of socialising in a safe space (which is pretty much the essence of "play", ancd something that a lot of adults lose as they mature). 

A number of factors may contribute to whether the promise of an idealised session is made manifest in a group's experiences. This can come from the rules... where a form of ludonarrative synergy occurs when the claims of the game are actually felt by the players. On the other hand, ludonarrative dissonance can occur when the game doesn't live up to the promised experience, often when the rules provided work explicitly against the type of stories they claim to tell (and often require a lot of house-ruling and home-brewing to get the expectations and experience to align). 

This can come from the unmet expectation of players and GM/Narrator, where each might want the same type of experience from their session, and everything falls into place... or where expectations vary and cracks start to form. 

A part of the promise is the acceptance that not all things will be centered on a single individual. This is generally a communal hobby (unless you're doing solo RPGs, but even then the expectations between player and rule set are an issue). 

Maybe no promises should be made, and everyone should just go with the flow... if something good comes out of it, be happy. If nothing good has happened, change the way things are played and modify the experience until something good does happen. No promises that this will work, but it's fun to explore.