[Practical Play] Conflict, Characters and Consequences - Part 1

These topics have been explored on other sites but I think that as I approach talking about my D&D 4e project more intently I will begin to have a wider audience that might have a slightly different approach to games. Here is my take on, what many of us call, Story Gaming.

I have one primary goal at the gaming table: to tell a story. That is my main objective. If I can look back and go "that was a great story" then I am the most satisfied about a game. If I go "ah, we fucked up the rules" or "hmmm, I didn't feel much of a connection to my character, this session" then I look for ways to fix that but if I can still say "wow, but it was an awfully powerful yarn we wove" then mission accomplished. Let me be clear. I am here to tell a good tale. Other aspects of this hobby only make telling a good story, for me, that much better. For many games, following the rules only make the story more gripping and push things in unexpected directions and character immersion and investment adds to the pathos developed in a story, but they are not the goal. They are tools with which the story is being told. Everything I talk about here and at the table reflects on that goal and feeds into the process of having fun.

That being said, this is a game we're playing. We're not doing free form. We're not talking about pure improv or storytelling time. We're talking about players sitting around a table and interacting with a rule set to help us manufacture a story we all participate in.

Finally please note that if there is a GM role I still refer to them as a player. I make no distinction here between players and GMs. We're all playing a game and actively bringing fun to the table. If someone isn't then I suspect they shouldn't be at the gaming table in the first place.

What are the elements of a good story? That one is a far more complex discussion and, no doubt, fills volumes of books. I will point out the three things that I think make story jump out in our hobby:

1) Conflict
2) Compelling Characters
3) Consequences

(alliteration completely accidental)

In this post we will focus on Conflict.

Shit Happens
And if it doesn't your game is dull and we're not having fun. That is a broad generalization and there are a few non-conflict oriented stories you could tell but they are few and far between. If you want your game to be exciting and you want everyone to be invested then you need conflict. Conflict means adversity and challenges to the player's goals. Note what I said right there, the player's goals. There are two points that need to be discussed about said goals:

• Only a player can know her goals and the ONLY way others around the table can act on them is through communicating said goals. Everyone else around the table cannot and should not guess at what they think another player wants. Another player says what they want and it's up to everyone around the table to deliver just that. Time spent guessing and second guessing is time wasted at the table. If one of the players created her character focusing on what velocity her machine pistol's rounds will clock while tearing through zombies and everyone else is telling tales about the challenges of interracial relationships in the elven kingdoms and how to does the group solidify peace, then that other player is going to be really disappointed and not invested until the bodies start to drop.


• Get to the conflict! Movies and music are rarely about the quiet moments. Every word, every roll, every moment you are gaming you should be devoting to conflict - either resolving it or informing it. And the moments you spend informing it should always at most be less than the moments you spend resolving it. Talking about the war and what kind of catapults we'll use, or making plans, or chatting in character may inform the conflict but after a while you need to get on with it. Watch the clock very carefully. When these moment start exceeding the moments where we actually decide if we win or lose then it's gone on too long. Don't talk about the conflict, act it out. Don't plan around the conflict, run straight for it.

That last bit deserves another mention. Too often - WAY TOO OFTEN - I see players that run from danger or conflict. They try to defend against it happening to them or limit their actions to avoid problems. A hint here, people, the game is ABOUT problems. If there are no problems and your character has won then chances are there is no story there. Players should find out what they want to fight against and constantly be dealing with those issues until they find something else that interests them to fight against.

For example: Many games have the ability for PCs to have "dependant NPCS." These are side characters that support our PCs and round our our character's relationships. Do not bring an NPC into the game that you not want to see threatened ALL THE TIME. And you need to inform the other players at the table HOW you want that NPC threatened. Is it about losing them as a contact? Is it about them betraying you? Is it about their suffering and your inability to stop it? And whatever you decide is what should happen at the table. It isn't the only thing because there are other players but part of the fun is seeing how the players' various conflicts become enmeshed in the narrative.

So how do we bring conflict to our games? Well I mentioned two already - players communicate what they want to have conflict over and players run toward conflict. Some games have the first written into the rules - Spiritual Attributes in The Riddle of Steel, Beliefs in The Burning Wheel, Aspects in Spirit of the Century, Keys in The Shadow of Yesterday, and to a lesser degree mechanics like Humanity or Morality in the Storytelling system. In other games you need to develop ways to bring those things to the forefront because I will tell you that is the most important part of this style of play. If you do not know what the other players want at the table you are limiting the amount of time your playing the game, telling the story, and instead, trying to find the fun bits.

In games that do not have an explicit mechanic that communicates conflict then you can either make it part of the first session, use other similar mechanics or come up with your own mechanics.

Communicating Conflict
Making it part of your first session is important to the process of telling good stories regardless of other methods you use. Rule One: Make your characters together. Listen carefully to what everyone else is saying about making those characters. Feed into that. Using the game Dread as an example, it uses a simple set of questions that inform us what the players want the game to be about. I start nearly all of my games out with this now. Usually six questions that say what themes and ideas the group wants to explore. If someone comes up with a character (PC or NPC) that you like then use that character to come up with your own decisions. Don't reinvent the wheel. If someone has some abusive guy in their brainstorming then use that same guy for someone in your ideas that might be abusive. If someone comes up with a name for a place use that name or refer to that name (it's the next town over from Lockhaven). The player that might be taking the GameMaster role should not only be paying VERY close attention to this process but should also be creating and brainstorming her own characters, creating them along side the other players. I GUARANTEE when you do just this simple process and pay attention to what's been developed at this point through an entire story arch, your games will be more fun.

Standing on the Shoulders of Mechanical Giants
Many of the games mentioned above have good mechanics for driving home player story needs. Use them in your games. For a while every game that did not have them got BW Beliefs. Beliefs are simple in concept and difficult in practice.

Beliefs in Brief
The beliefs is constructed with an ideology, a goal and an action. The ideology gathers the source of the belief, the goal says what the character is going to do to pursue his beliefs and the action says how far the character is willing to go to accomplish it. keep an eye on the prize! This tells everyone how each character is to be challenged. I had a character recently with a belief that said "Reinhardt is the anchor I need to my elven heritage. I will sleep with him to know what it's like to be an elven woman." This belief tells us a lot. It not only puts into question whether or not I get to sleep with Reinhardt but also questions my sexuality and possibly even my gender. One of the other players is playing a gay character and to challenge my beliefs his character approached mine and said "My sexuality is constantly in question by others. I find you attractive and that confuses me because you seem to be a woman. Sleep with me so that I may put these questions to rest, please." AS touchy feely as I play her she said "sure." Now we roll. What's at stake? The other player says "If I win I establish to myself my sexuality as a gay man because it becomes plain that you are, in fact, a man." Sure, it's in my beliefs that I want to sleep with Reinardt as a woman so it is clear that I want my womanhood to be in question.

In games with experience you can use Keys and instead of gaining XP from killing things only you could gain XP from fulfilling Keys. You might have a Key that says "I want to be king of this land. Gain 100XP when I take significant steps in trying to become king. Gain 200XP when my pursuit of the crown puts me and others in danger. Gain 500XP for challenging the current crown directly at great risk to life and limb. Gain 1000XP for denouncing the throne." In a scene a player does any of these things they get XP. 'nuff said?

Read one of the aforementioned games and rip off their story mechanic. Talk about how it went on Story Games. They will help you adjust any issues you're experiencing.

As for creating one? Use the general method of reward for whatever game your running - XP, hero points, kudos, chips, whatever. Then everyone writes down what they want to be rewarded for. For instance, in the Artesia: Adevntures in the Known World setting the tarot of the world is also the reward system. But instead of general actions that give the players Arcana Points I said "pick three arcana to align yourself with. For each Arcana come up with an explicit goal you wish to work toward. The degree you put yourself in danger and cause complications in the pursuit of your goals, the more of that Arcana you gain."

The last piece I'd like to bring to your table is how to push toward conflict. First off, don't be shy. Don't worry about your character. Worry about the game. Worry about other players at the table and what they have told you they want. Worry about whether everyone is having fun. Don't worry about your character. Everyone has more fun the more misery, damage and problems your character has to face. Only after taking some really heavy adversity does the character's triumphs really shine. Also, by running toward adversity, instead of away from it, you feel better about the outcomes even if they aren't character positive. If you're the one that says "and he loses his arm!" or "hey can that guy we see down the hill be the scary bounty hunter that's after me and he has my sister hostage?" Shit YEAH!!! Who wouldn't think that was cool? Don't plan for disasters. Don't paint your character into a safe corner. Don't play it safe. An action hero doesn't think "gee, maybe I shouldn't jump off that moving train because I could take some damage." FUCK THAT! JUMP! It only makes the chase that much more exciting. Think of ways to complicate your characters life and I assure you your games will be more exciting and the outcomes, no matter what they are, will be more satisfying.

So there you have it. The first step in developing great stories with your games is to focus on conflicts. By communicating what you want in your games your more likely to get exactly what makes this fun for you and identify where players may have incompatible ideas of what's fun. Secondly, celebrate adversity! Drive your flawed and hobbling characters toward their inevitable doom - or at least on their way to be maimed.

Let me know what you think of the topic and what your experiences following this advice. Thanks for reading and in a few days we'll talk about compelling characters more briefly.