“Are you interested in roleplaying games?” Ask I, optimistically.
“I tried D&D once but there are too many rules.” They/Them/Theirs, says.
If only I got a bronze coin for every time I have heard this.
I want to run a campaign. Getting players is difficult, as I am sure you are all aware. I intend to use my own system, which is much simpler than d&d or most other systems out there. But is no less fun. My pleasure is in the storytelling rather than complicated, confusing rules which slow it all down and deter newcomers from the hobby.
“How does one even develop their own table-top system? That’s impressive.” A genuine quote.
There are 3 parts to it:
1. The Rules System
2. The World
3. The Adventures; how to turn that world into storytelling.
I’ve been world-building and role-playing for decades. What I learned from experience is:
Keep It Simple.
Ideally, it should have the same value of fun for people who never role-played before to jump straight in, and for people who have been gaming for years to become immersed in it.
This means very light on the rules and not overly complicated in developing the uniqueness of the world.
Players require generic worlds, and to feel that whatever their actions are in the game have a consequence on the world and how it develops.
This means writing the adventures is simple. They are open-ended. The world will continue to develop with or without the characters, which makes it feel realistic. Everything has consequence, everyone has a motivation. This is how we measure how the consequences will develop.
The consequence is always ‘the most probable thing to happen from that situation’.
The only changes occur when a player decides to have their character do something to change the events.
For the GamesMaster:
Lots of keeping notes, keeping track of plot threads and story arcs.
Use basic tropes; it makes it easier.
Descriptors!
Example: a Barbarian.
That’s easy, you can imagine mostly what that is. People usually think of ‘Conan’ because of how modern culture uses the word. Nobody thinks of the Barber tribe where we get the word from. But the descriptor is useful. A Mayan Barbarian is different than a Maori Barbarian or a Goblin Barbarian or a Mongol Barbarian.
In two words we can imagine what to expect from the character. The descriptor does most of the work.
Two people, each has a car. Okay, they are the same. But one has a rusty car, and the other has a sports car. Those are very precise and different things. Descriptors are so useful.
Non-Player People
It’s about decision-making like that. If I have to invent characters, I use two formats. One for an individual, two for a couple. (Any more than that is a combination of 1 or 2 its not rocket science, if you can count to three you can count to 10, in theory. See: Keep It Simple.)
Always the NPC is a type of character. Therefore they have to become the most memorable version of that character these players will ever encounter in their lives. They sum up everything about that type of character. They become the archetype. Epitomise it.
If there are two characters at a time - this is where it gets fun - they bounce off each other.
One is tall and skinny, the other is short and fat. One is grumpy and nasty, the other is happy and joking. One is brainy, the other is stupid (Holmes and Watson). One is Alpha, one is Sigma. They have a dynamic between them.
Their personalities are devices to deliver the information to the Player-Characters. This is how I remember NPCs; always using this same system. But they can be dressed in Guards’ armour or Wizards’ robes or Priests’ habits or Thieves’ cowls or Assassins’ cloaks. The visual description also tells you who they are. Again, use of tropes, archetypes, clichés.
For any other details; what you already know from real life is your expertise. That is where the uniqueness comes from when using clichés and tropes.
The third part for building non-player characters is seriousness versus comedy.
Take Leopolm the Leper. He’s a tragic and comedic character at the same time. Nobody wants leprosy. When he wags his finger at you for disrespecting him as an elder - because people should, in Leopolm’s mind, respect their elders - his finger drops off, from the leprosy. He is actually quite a miserable character, complains and mumbles about how nobody has any respect, no respect. In his cracked, edge-of-madness voice.
A leper can be very serious. Leprosy is horrible, dangerous; it wiped out so many populations all over the world. Humans deal with horror by using comedy. So Leopolm the Leper is both those things.
Also, he knows stuff. He’s done a lot of soul-searching. Being a leper, he has had to. He is mad and wise, and he is the only one who knows the thing the characters need to know, so they have to deal with him. He’s nomadic.
By using seriousness and comedy at different times in the storytelling, it becomes a more emotional journey. The stupid guards who are to be laughed at. The guards who are taking no crap and are about to kill you. They look the same, but the atmosphere is very different.
Storytelling is playing with those dynamics.
That’s the system I use for improvising. It is not so much improvising as building around a structure.
When creating improvised storytelling worlds, there are 3 components:
Characters, Locations (make them the most memorable version of that location ever), and Motivations.
Motivations drive the story.
Everybody has motivations. At least one. Motivation is the characters defining trait, the purpose for their existing. A character is a vehicle for that motivation. If they have no motivation they are expendable.
Location, Location, Location.
The stories are always location-based. What excuse can I come up with to bring any specific Location into the story? Locations are the world. That’s how world-building works. If a thing exists, it’s because either Nature or Ancestors put it there. Why would ancestors have put it there? Locations have back-story too, which are great adventure hooks.
The most important rule is to always make it realistic. The most probable outcome is what happens next. Even with magic and the gods and genies intervening, the outcomes of their actions are always the most realistic consequence.
That's it.
