World-Building tips: what does "What is the Game?" mean?

[magnusmalkus]

So, I'm reading one of John Four's recent 'Role-Playing Tips' emails which details World-Building In Five Steps (showed up in my email on May 14th 2018).

Each step is a question to be answered and the first step is "What is the Game?" and it's the only one I'm confused about.

Here's what is written about it:

What is the Game?
Most world-building methods start with physics, maps, or checklists of topics.

However, I believe the world is a key game piece that should deeply affect gameplay.

If you can swap one world for another and gameplay doesn't change much, why bother? If you only need to change the names of the gods and types of coins, why bother putting in the time?

In board games, the board itself drastically affects the experience. This is what 'the Book of Lenses' taught me: focus on the amazing and unique experience you want to create with your friends.

We want more than the Scooby Doo Monopoly versus Spongebob Squarepants Monopoly experience.

We want Catan versus Jenga versus Gloomhaven.

I want gameplay in Duskfall to be different from adventures set in the Forgotten Realms, Newhon, or the Hyborian Age.

So LadySeshiiria, give thought to how your world's gameplay experience could be marvellous and wondrous and unique.​

This confuses me. What are the different kinds of 'game' you can have?

Doing some online research, I've deduced three types of games: sandbox (players go where they want, when they want), narrative driven (players propel a story line thru game play) and character development driven (character progression via dungeon crawling/hack n' slashing).

Is this what he means? Are there more 'types of games' I'm not finding?

Considering who your players are, a successful game would have a mix of game types that would satisfy all people involved. is there more diversity in 'game types' than this?

I'm not a terribly experienced player. I have not played in many different types of games. Looking aback, they were all sandbox settings with short and temporary stories (modules) which served to develop our characters; the very three types I discovered in my research. What else is there? I'd like to know and incorporate this information into my home-brew setting designs.

Thanks for your time and attention folks!

 

[GrahamWills]

The three concepts you mention are part of differentiating experiences, but they are aspects, not classifications. In answer to your question "What are the different kinds of 'game' you can have?" I'd suggest that the answer is "too many to list".

The email you quote suggests a parallel to boardgames: "Catan versus Jenga versus Gloomhaven"

In boardgames there is a useful concept many people use to compare boardgames. It's very hard to list "the best game of type XXX" as types are ill-defined and they have overlap. Gloomhaven might be the best "dungeon-crawl style game best with two-three players who don't mind a fair amount of book-keeping" but that's not a terribly helpful statement. Instead there is the concept of only keeping games for which you personally find no other game has the same experience/feel that is better.

So I keep Gloomhaven because it has much the same feel/experience as (say) Descent, but I like it more.

So, for roleplaying games, I think the quote above that helps most is "If you can swap one world for another and gameplay doesn't change much, why bother?"

So, if I am playing in a d20-based game set in the Forgotten Realms where I wander around and play isolated modules (DDAL) I am unlikely to want to play a d20-based game set in a similar world where I wander around and play isolated modules (Pathfinder). They have much the same experience. However I would want to play Call of Cthulhu or Night's Black Agents.

So mechanics generate a different experience. However I've also run a dozen long campaigns in many systems -- often repeating mechanics. So then it falls to world-building or setting to make a unique experience.

As an example, I ran two Numenéra campaigns. One has the players flying a spaceship off through portals and exploring strange new worlds and unique civilizations. Another has the players as part of a military expedition force dragging a large artifact by foot very slowly back from the wilds to the home lands. Same system, same world, but the setting for the play is very different.

Overall, my take-away from this email is: Try something different. If you find you are thinking of building a world and it seems similar to someone else's, maybe change something. It's not like there's a list of 200 different experiences and you can pick from them -- it's a call to look at what is out there, and be different

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Look at it on a more local level. Regardless of whether you're in that dungeon because you stumbled across it, or because the plot demands it, or because the plot demands it; if you're going into a dungeon full of goblins, in order to retrieve a magic necklace, then that's what the game is.

There are a lot of game worlds which facilitate going into a dungeon full of goblins in order to find a magic necklace, so if that's your goal for what you want gameplay to be like, then you can just use one of those worlds. In order to justify creating a whole new world, you should want to do things that you can't do in some other world. Maybe goblins work differently in this world; maybe they have a hive-mind or something. Maybe they have higher technology. Maybe the entire world is lower gravity. If you're going into a dungeon, then there should be something about the events of play which turn out differently based on the nature of the world, in order to justify that world's existence.

 

[magnusmalkus]

Ok, Good input. Thank you GrahamWillis.

So, what I'm hearing is that (based on the examples given: space/planar exploration and military expedition, defining a setting for play etc...), it's a matter of choosing a unique Mode + Scenario that answers 'What is the Game".

Other options could be Post-Apocalyptic Survival, Relic Questing, Monster Extermination, Spreading a Message Throughout the Land, Community Coping in Isolation, Government Sanctioned Bounty Hunting, Cult Recruitment... yes, the list is endless.

But isn't that just another way of expressing a games 'setting'? I wonder why the author didn't just specify "What is the Game SETTING" or "WHERE is the Game (Set)" following up the thought provoking query with the proviso "Make it unique and not a copy".

It is as GrahmWills pointed out, the comparison to the three non-RPG games John Four mentioned, where I think the most value lies in understanding the vague question of "Where is the Game". The three board games listed seem to be divided by the WAY the games were played... Catan (strategy & RNG) Jenga (skill & strategy) and, Gloomhaven (dice & card RNG dungeon crawling). The MODE of play is what defines their differences, much the way Sandbox, Narrative and Character Development define MODES of P&P RPG's. This is why I was looking for other, different modes of play for RPG's. Maybe there aren't others and I'm still misunderstanding.

Indeed, the author did go on to talk about settings: "I want gameplay in Duskfall to be different from adventures set in the Forgotten Realms, Newhon, or the Hyborian Age." Isn't it just flavor that sets these settings apart? In what way, by example of the topic being discussed (What is the Game?) are they different? What makes each of them unique aside from swapping out city names, gods and coinage?

So maybe John Four is asking "What is the Game (Mode)", to which I still left asking "How many are there and what are they?" Settings & Scenarios, yes these are innumerable and only limited by our imaginations.

I suppose I may have to reach out to the author for further clarification. I brought it here first because I'm sure John Four, the e-mails author, receives a slew of responses to his weekly emails. I thought perhaps a think-tank such as found here might be more apt to generate a response than my one voice among many others.

 

[magnusmalkus]

I just read this post after completing my last reply

I think my comprehension regarding settings vs settings affecting standard game-play events is starting to dawn.

What I took away from that last is that re-skinning cities and gods and coins is OK if the re-skins have varying impacts on the standard adventure tropes.

 

[Lanefan]

I think my comprehension regarding settings vs settings affecting standard game-play events is starting to dawn.

What I took away from that last is that re-skinning cities and gods and coins is OK if the re-skins have varying impacts on the standard adventure tropes.

Even just a literal culture change can make the next game seem very different from the last one.

Your last campaign was in a classical Greek/Roman setting where the sun shone every day? Put the next one in the sub-Arctic and base it on the Norse; with blizzards a serious hazard for half the year or more.

Even if underneath it all you're doing much the same things, the setting change will provide a distinct flavour change and thus cause the game to play out somewhat differently.

 

[pemerton]

The game experience can be affected by many different facets of both mechanics/system and fiction.

We can look at the degree of system complexity. The way the system allocates responsibility across participants for establishing elements of the fiction, what is at stake in conflicts, what consequences flow from success or from failure in complexity.

Will the game make the players work hard (like chess or bridge) or is it more light-hearted (like backgammon or five hundred)?

And all that is before we get to genre, tropes, etc.

 

[dragoner]

It sounds like the blogger is talking about setting "chrome" vs the actual adventure where the players interact with the setting. It is true in one sense; however, it's also about how good of a tale a GM can spin. Even if it just a re-skin of a bog standard setting, if the GM can spin it well, then it is worth it. Genre could be worth discussing, fantasy and sci-fi have very different requirements, because of one is Travelling to multiple different worlds, at some point things do just get re-cycled for the sake of expediency.

 

[Schmoe]

When I think about the question, I think of answers like: dungeoncrawl, wilderness crawl, mystery investigation, romp, caper, political intrigue, etc. While setting will certainly play a big role in the game experience, there are fundamental differences between a mystery investigation and an epic journey, for example.

 

[Schmoe]

So, reading the text of the email a little bit more, I think the author is arguing against just using a setting change for the same type of game. He is saying that the type of game and the setting should be complementary to achieve the overall experience you want. If you are going to choose Eberron as a setting, don't just run the same dungeoncrawl that you might run in Greyhawk, just with different window dressing. Instead choose a type of game that will make the experience unique and really stand out. Maybe now is the time to try your hand at an urban mystery, using the towers of Sharn for a fantastic backdrop, or a political intrigue playing the dragon marked houses against each other.

I'm doing something a little bit like this in my home brew game. The first half of the game is fairly classic dungeoncrawl to introduce new players, but I'm going to transition to a planar romp for the second half, as I think the multiverse and a romp would make for a great combination.

For my purposes, I consider a romp to be a chase between two or more parties after some goal, leaving mayhem in their wake.