I like to design RPGs. One of the best things about designing RPGs—opposed to other games—is the spark of creativity that the players lend to the game itself. In most games, the fun is limited to what is covered in the scope of the rules. If the fun isn’t on the card, on the board, or on the rule-sheet; it often doesn’t exist. RPGs are different: they are dependent on the players’ creativity. Good game design is crucial, of course, but the players’ imaginations can help a lot, too.
Mostly, I find that most game designs make an attempt to include this creativity in the rules themselves by some quote such as: “Firstly, you should come up with a cool character concept and then build your character.” Or: “If there’s something you want to add to the rules, go ahead.” While I like such statements, they often aren’t very helpful.
Paradoxically, I find the best way to add creativity and encourage the players is to actually leave the game open-ended enough and creative enough to encourage tweaking of the system. All good RPGs are open to creative changes, whether out of necessity, or the cool ideas of the players themselves.
More complicated systems are fine, too. However, it could be useful to give the players a few examples and templates for new items, powers, classes, and so forth. This gives them a baseline for creating their own rules additions.
In my experience, there’s something of a creative ‘spirit’ among good players within a group. It’s pretty marvelous to see it in action. You get a whole bunch of highly creative people in the same room, drop in a good adventure and a creative GM, and let everyone rip. It’s pretty amazing what they come up with. One player wants to mess around with his character’s strength. Another wants a cool magic item he just invented. A third guy has invented spikes for his boots so he can kick enemies. Often, players only need the encouragement of the GM to let them get started on these creative endeavours. As long as the rulebooks encourage the GM to let their players be creative, interesting things will result.
Poor game design can also encourage creativity out of necessity. If the game system doesn’t include rules for armor, you can expect a large number of players to invent their own armor rules. Good play-testing and taking notes can largely help in this regards.
A second method to encourage the creative spark is to include what I like to call methods of ‘jogging’ the players’ imaginations. Sometimes players show up to a game without much idea of what they’re going to do. They’ve played everything before, they know the strongest character build, and their minds are on other things. At such times, most players will fall into the rut of playing what they know and going through the motions. A few random tables, creative notes, or suggestions of improvisation by the GM can change all that in a hurry. Once a player’s mind is fired into the high mode of imagination it’s like a roller coaster— you can’t stop it. One idea leads to another and, before you know it, you have a phenomenal character on your hands.
Concepts are ideas included in the rules which intone a certain ‘theme’ to a character. A fighter makes you think of a wide range of great warriors from Hercules to Conan. A ninja instantly conjures a certain play style to mind. Two weapon fighting or bow mastery result in two very different character ideas. These concepts can aid the players when trying to think about their characters creatively. Also, concepts can help the GM build an image of a character in their mind. This can help the GM tailor descriptions to that character’s unique perspective. It’s quite likely that a ninja would instill a very different reaction than an old hermit when popping into a darkened room with an enemy. Another nifty trick is: tables with random results. These results need have no bearing on statistics, but they start to throw random ideas at the player. Is the character old? young? red haired? These results can be re-rolled or ignored, but they serve the purpose of getting the player to think about their character creatively in a very short span of time.
A third method of encouraging the creative spark is random rolling. Yes, I know that random rolling is generally frowned upon nowadays, but I still think it has something to lend to the creative process. Even if the rolls can be altered, ignored, or have little bearing on the game; I think they serve the purpose of jogging the player’s creative juices. A player might play warriors forever and a day, but if he happens to roll a character with very high magic and very low stamina it might get him to think outside the box. Once outside his usual rut, he might even think more creatively of what he wants to do with this ‘odd’ character. On the other hand, forcing people to play a character they really don’t want to can be viewed not as an opportunity but as a curse. In such situations, it’s often far worse for the creativity of the player. A combination of factors that force the players to play outside their comfort zone, but still allow them to play the type of characters they want to would be ideal.
There are two basic ways to look at character design. One is: how can I use this game system to build the character I want to play? Two is: how can I use this game system to play the best character this game system can create? A good GM with a creative game system can encourage the use of option one, but I don’t really think number two will ever fully disappear.
Always remember that very small things can make the biggest difference with the creative spark. A character with an odd background, a unique item, or a single personality quirk can steer the player’s creativity in a whole new direction. Try to include those small details.
So far we’ve mostly been talking about the start of the game; character creation and so forth. What about later levels? Can people still be encouraged to be creative then? Yes, certainly. The reason I mention character creation first is because if you have a new game design, you’re probably worrying about the initial creativity being brought to your game. If people have cool characters right from day one then they’ll probably be happy to strive for even cooler characters at later levels. There are two scenarios past the starting point: a bland character the player doesn’t have much interest in, and a cool character the player already loves. In Scenario A the burden largely falls onto the shoulders of the GM. Because of how most game systems are built, when you start off with a character of inferior power or no interest you’re usually stuck with that ‘bad’ character forever. In some cases a player will love the character to begin with, but find that the character isn’t very effective or useful in actual gameplay. Essentially, only the GM can alleviate these kinds of situations. Through killer adventures, unique game design, and additions of powers/items a crafty GM can easily make any character not only playable—but interesting. A player who accomplishes one epic deed with a character will often think fondly of that character no matter how weak or annoying that character was to begin with. It’s almost completely up to the GM to present those opportunities. Likewise, a player who finds a very cool magic item may find that it defines his character and creates a concept he never would have thought of otherwise. In Scenario B the player is already happy with the character so half the job is done. The GM needs only to continue to allow the character to grow and prosper and keep allowing that character to do the epic things he was made to do. This will probably result in a memorable character. Of course, cursing or killing off the character will probably put a damper on things, but killing off characters usually does.
In summary, I don’t think you can actually write ‘rules’ for the creative spark in your game designs. Encouraging people to be creative is fine, but really, they’re probably going to do whatever they were going to do anyway—whether creative or not. It’s well and good to write that all characters should first be thought of as a concept and then the rules built around such a character, but this often doesn’t help a lot. Sometimes, a character is built through rules and then flavored through gameplay. Neither way is really ‘wrong’, but by creating an interesting game design you often create those concepts in the players’ minds by accident. Encouraging the GM of your game to allow his players to be creative is also a key to success.
Mostly, I find that most game designs make an attempt to include this creativity in the rules themselves by some quote such as: “Firstly, you should come up with a cool character concept and then build your character.” Or: “If there’s something you want to add to the rules, go ahead.” While I like such statements, they often aren’t very helpful.
Paradoxically, I find the best way to add creativity and encourage the players is to actually leave the game open-ended enough and creative enough to encourage tweaking of the system. All good RPGs are open to creative changes, whether out of necessity, or the cool ideas of the players themselves.
More complicated systems are fine, too. However, it could be useful to give the players a few examples and templates for new items, powers, classes, and so forth. This gives them a baseline for creating their own rules additions.
In my experience, there’s something of a creative ‘spirit’ among good players within a group. It’s pretty marvelous to see it in action. You get a whole bunch of highly creative people in the same room, drop in a good adventure and a creative GM, and let everyone rip. It’s pretty amazing what they come up with. One player wants to mess around with his character’s strength. Another wants a cool magic item he just invented. A third guy has invented spikes for his boots so he can kick enemies. Often, players only need the encouragement of the GM to let them get started on these creative endeavours. As long as the rulebooks encourage the GM to let their players be creative, interesting things will result.
Poor game design can also encourage creativity out of necessity. If the game system doesn’t include rules for armor, you can expect a large number of players to invent their own armor rules. Good play-testing and taking notes can largely help in this regards.
A second method to encourage the creative spark is to include what I like to call methods of ‘jogging’ the players’ imaginations. Sometimes players show up to a game without much idea of what they’re going to do. They’ve played everything before, they know the strongest character build, and their minds are on other things. At such times, most players will fall into the rut of playing what they know and going through the motions. A few random tables, creative notes, or suggestions of improvisation by the GM can change all that in a hurry. Once a player’s mind is fired into the high mode of imagination it’s like a roller coaster— you can’t stop it. One idea leads to another and, before you know it, you have a phenomenal character on your hands.
Concepts are ideas included in the rules which intone a certain ‘theme’ to a character. A fighter makes you think of a wide range of great warriors from Hercules to Conan. A ninja instantly conjures a certain play style to mind. Two weapon fighting or bow mastery result in two very different character ideas. These concepts can aid the players when trying to think about their characters creatively. Also, concepts can help the GM build an image of a character in their mind. This can help the GM tailor descriptions to that character’s unique perspective. It’s quite likely that a ninja would instill a very different reaction than an old hermit when popping into a darkened room with an enemy. Another nifty trick is: tables with random results. These results need have no bearing on statistics, but they start to throw random ideas at the player. Is the character old? young? red haired? These results can be re-rolled or ignored, but they serve the purpose of getting the player to think about their character creatively in a very short span of time.
A third method of encouraging the creative spark is random rolling. Yes, I know that random rolling is generally frowned upon nowadays, but I still think it has something to lend to the creative process. Even if the rolls can be altered, ignored, or have little bearing on the game; I think they serve the purpose of jogging the player’s creative juices. A player might play warriors forever and a day, but if he happens to roll a character with very high magic and very low stamina it might get him to think outside the box. Once outside his usual rut, he might even think more creatively of what he wants to do with this ‘odd’ character. On the other hand, forcing people to play a character they really don’t want to can be viewed not as an opportunity but as a curse. In such situations, it’s often far worse for the creativity of the player. A combination of factors that force the players to play outside their comfort zone, but still allow them to play the type of characters they want to would be ideal.
There are two basic ways to look at character design. One is: how can I use this game system to build the character I want to play? Two is: how can I use this game system to play the best character this game system can create? A good GM with a creative game system can encourage the use of option one, but I don’t really think number two will ever fully disappear.
Always remember that very small things can make the biggest difference with the creative spark. A character with an odd background, a unique item, or a single personality quirk can steer the player’s creativity in a whole new direction. Try to include those small details.
So far we’ve mostly been talking about the start of the game; character creation and so forth. What about later levels? Can people still be encouraged to be creative then? Yes, certainly. The reason I mention character creation first is because if you have a new game design, you’re probably worrying about the initial creativity being brought to your game. If people have cool characters right from day one then they’ll probably be happy to strive for even cooler characters at later levels. There are two scenarios past the starting point: a bland character the player doesn’t have much interest in, and a cool character the player already loves. In Scenario A the burden largely falls onto the shoulders of the GM. Because of how most game systems are built, when you start off with a character of inferior power or no interest you’re usually stuck with that ‘bad’ character forever. In some cases a player will love the character to begin with, but find that the character isn’t very effective or useful in actual gameplay. Essentially, only the GM can alleviate these kinds of situations. Through killer adventures, unique game design, and additions of powers/items a crafty GM can easily make any character not only playable—but interesting. A player who accomplishes one epic deed with a character will often think fondly of that character no matter how weak or annoying that character was to begin with. It’s almost completely up to the GM to present those opportunities. Likewise, a player who finds a very cool magic item may find that it defines his character and creates a concept he never would have thought of otherwise. In Scenario B the player is already happy with the character so half the job is done. The GM needs only to continue to allow the character to grow and prosper and keep allowing that character to do the epic things he was made to do. This will probably result in a memorable character. Of course, cursing or killing off the character will probably put a damper on things, but killing off characters usually does.
In summary, I don’t think you can actually write ‘rules’ for the creative spark in your game designs. Encouraging people to be creative is fine, but really, they’re probably going to do whatever they were going to do anyway—whether creative or not. It’s well and good to write that all characters should first be thought of as a concept and then the rules built around such a character, but this often doesn’t help a lot. Sometimes, a character is built through rules and then flavored through gameplay. Neither way is really ‘wrong’, but by creating an interesting game design you often create those concepts in the players’ minds by accident. Encouraging the GM of your game to allow his players to be creative is also a key to success.
