Relatively recently, like in the past year, I've stumbled across "story-games".  Story-games are pretty much just like roleplaying games, and really they are RPGs, though there's some debate on that point with a few of the wilder ones.  The main thing with story-games is that they are designed specifically to create stories, like the kind you read or watch on TV, during play.  The rules don't just allow for stories, but if followed will actively promote them.  For me, that's always been my goal in RPGs, though I couldn't articulate it for a long time.  Needless to say, I'm very excited, and I'd love to share this with my friends.  Unfortunately there can be a bit of a learning curve, especially with regard to old habits, and in some cases active resistance!

Unfortunately, I don't have many friends, or even many aquaintances.  I really need to get out more.  So I've tried to pitch these cool new games to these people, either a specific game or as a concept, and I've met with little success.  For those who weren't simply irrationally afraid of change, the two big hurdles seemed to be "roleplaying vs. rollplaying" and "character control".

There has developed a notion in RPGs that dice are "bad", and that a session that passes by without using any dice at all is some kind of holy grail of "in-character" awesomeness.  (This assumes, of course, that there weren't any major scuffles, because dice in combat are ok).  I've heard it said that "dice get in the way of roleplaying" and that "if a player can just go to the dice in a social conflict, he won't roleplay."  Story-games use dice (or cards or whatever) and aren't ashamed of it.  Much of their power to craft drama comes from the dice.  Drama comes from something keeping you from getting what you want.  Your character's struggling and suffering is what powers that drama.  Just like a combat where the dice are throwing you curveballs while your character's life is on the line, social conflicts can be just as risky.  Just as the best combat tactics might still lose you the combat, even the best argument might lose you the debate.  Just as terrain and range can add creative constraints to enhance a combat encounter, so too can "social" rules constraints enhance a seduction scene.  Sure, you can just go diceless and trust the GM.  You can even do that with combat.  But when the GM says, "sorry, you lose" you might be left wondering if that was the best call.  You might even feel a bit of resentment since the dice are "impersonal", but the GM isn't.  Also, the GM, as your friend, is likely to "play it safe".  He's your buddy.  He doesn't want to hurt you.  But a little (or a lot) of hurting is where the drama lies.  By pulling his punches, he's robbing you of your opportunity for awesome drama.  If your main focus is just kicking ass and taking names, or poking around inside of a fictinal world and seeing "what would happen", then that's not as big of a deal, but if you're looking for character-driven story then there's more of a chance for hard feelings for play to fall flat.

The other issue is character control.  In a game where a fight to the death isn't the only way to resolve a conflict meaningfully, there's got to be a way to "coerce" characters into backing down or even acting in a certain way.  This could be as innocuous as intimidating somebody into running away or as powerful as convincing somebody holding a gun to a prisoner that shooting him is the best thing to do.  In most traditional RPGs, people generally don't have a problem with PCs forcing their will upon NPCs with an Intimidation or Diplomacy or Bluff check, but if you tell a player that they have to abide by an NPC's Intimidation check, or perhaps worse, another PC's Intimidation check, that player is generally going to be pissed.  But think about cool movies or literature for a moment.  Have the heroes of that fiction never been coerced into doing something that they knew was a bad idea?  Have they never been provoked into an emotional outburst at a bad time?  Or even without an NPC's influence, haven't you seen the hero make things worse for himself out of pride or anger or a sense of duty?  Sure, you could just do these things when they feel "right" during a game, but for most people it's hard to reconcile "hurting" yourself.  You want drama, but you're likely, at least sometimes, to not go as deep as you could, to not risk as much.  On the other hand, even if you do dig deep and really screw yourself, knowing that it was a "self-inflicted" decision can take some of the dramatic sting out of it.

Related to character control is also a common sense of "gamer paranoia".  Now admittedly, I've often succumbed to this as well.  It's the "yeah, but what if [fictional, often unlikely situation] happens?"  Basically, everyone is afraid that ***hole players are going to "break" the game.  In this case specifically, they're afraid that some ***hole player is going to make "your guy" embarrass and humiliate and denigrate himself for the amusement of the other players.  First of all, this isn't (barring magic, I suppose) "mind control".  The NPC can't make you do denigrating things any more than a real person could coerce you into doing the same in real life.  It would take some serious threats to the things I hold dear to make me do those sorts of things, and that's the same kinds of things that would have to happen to make your character do those sorts of things.  There's nothing stopping your fellow adventurers from killing you in your sleep, stripping you naked, violating your corpse, and displaying you on a pole with a sign that says "Dead Horse Humper", but you don't hear people worrying about that in their RPGs, because it almost never happens.  So that's the other thing.  Whatever game you're  playing, all of these horrible worries almost never happen in actual play.  Which leads to the last thing.  If these things do happen at your table, STOP PLAYING WITH ASSHOLES.  Play with friends.

Anyway, I think that story-games are great and I'd love for more people to experience them.  If drama, human emotion, difficult choices and stories about being human (even if you're not) are what interest you, then story-games are where it's at!

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"If you fudge dice rolls, your system is failing you!" -Sons of Kryos

"I genuinely think that some people measure their free will by reading how unhappy their GM is." - TonyLB

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A good rant, like normal.

I have to agree with you here.



As far as interparty conflict I onced played with a friend of mine who was playing a somewhat sadistic fighter. We were traveling wtih a heavily gaurded caravan through a really nasty forest and when a friend of my character ( an npc dwarf) became injured and unconscious he tried to slit his throat and take his axe and equipment. In true to my character  fashion, I told my Dm that I wished to cast sleep on the fighter. It worked, and instead of him killing my friend, I killed him. My friend was furious that I had killed his character the that pretty much ended the session right there. My DM at the time agreed that my characters actions were entirely appropraite considering we were severly wounded, low on healing, he was trying to kill a character that my pc had grown up with, and in a dangerous place.  I do have to admit the betrayel was incredible, and one of the most intense in game moments I've ever had.

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-Quithion
"We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be" A Cherokee Feast of Days
Captain of the First Flaming Whale Airship Corps.

Thanks!  This and other articles/rants were inspired by my interest in 4th Edition D&D and my subsequent visits to the WotC forums.  There (and elsewhere) it seemed that 85-90% of the gamers I talked to where locked into this 1980s-style "Rules are bad", "ROLEplay don't ROLLplay", "Metagaming is a mortal sin", "DM is god", "Good DM == Good Liar" mode.  Not to say that there isn't some merit to some of that, but it seems that these mantras have been pounded into them for so long that they are unable to grasp other options.

I've been gaming for a pretty long time (though not as long as some), and I've gone through most of the "phases", "hack & slash", "RP heavy", etc.  I've experience the common "20 minutes of fun in 4 hours" effect, and I've decided that I want more.  I want like, 3 hours of fun in 4 hours, at least.  I can remember a couple of awesome, memorable, stand-out scenes from my gaming experience.  That's two (maybe a couple more that I'm not recalling right now) in about 15 years of regular gaming.  I want that kind of awesome to happen every session!  I'm tired of waiting for the players to "find" the adventure.  I don't want to be the one "driving" the story.  I want to be the one setting up the ramps and sharp turns and roadside fruit-stands in order to make the players' drive exciting and interesting.  (And to the degree that I'm a player, I want to drive, not sit in the back and offer suggestions on which way to go.)

I'm very frustrated at the moment because it seems like nobody wants the same things that I want (well, very few do).  I may not even be very good at playing the way that I want to, but I'm never going to improve if I can't practice, you know?

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"If you fudge dice rolls, your system is failing you!" -Sons of Kryos

"I genuinely think that some people measure their free will by reading how unhappy their GM is." - TonyLB

[dice type=fudge]3dF[/dice]

I'd be willing to play in a game like that :)

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-Quithion
"We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be" A Cherokee Feast of Days
Captain of the First Flaming Whale Airship Corps.

Yay!  Well that's nice to hear!  I've read about it, and I've even listened to actual recordings of it and it sounds all great and stuff.  I've only gotten to try out a little of it in games like "The Shadow of Yesterday" and "Agon".  It was only a couple of times, though and not with a full group.  Let me tell you though, with the focused nature of those games, I came away mentally exhuasted (but in a good way). :)

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"If you fudge dice rolls, your system is failing you!" -Sons of Kryos

"I genuinely think that some people measure their free will by reading how unhappy their GM is." - TonyLB

[dice type=fudge]3dF[/dice]