What is your Game About?

[Ariosto]

I have long wondered if there's actually a game (or set of mechanics to tweak a game) that really addresses what it's about.

For a start, there was RuneQuest (1978):
In these pages one learns how to start to become a Hero, to take one's place in the Hero wars. ... Acquiring a Rune by joining ... a cult is the goal of the game, for only in gathering a Rune may a character take the next step up into the ranks of Hero, and perhaps Superhero.

I don't have Pendragon handy, but it is clearly about the rise and fall of Arthur and his kingdom, the Enchantment and Disenchantment of Britain, the conflict and commerce between Pagan and Christian worlds. The full campaign spans generations, following the fortunes of families. Each time, it follows in broad strokes the course of the myth -- yet each time is also different, for the myth has many aspects. Greg Stafford also offered an essay about how, where RQ was "the Magician's" game, this was the Knight's, and touching on some other themes.

 

[Korgoth]

"It's about hope," finally comes the answer.

"Ahhh. Do you have a Hope stat?"

Epic Fail.

There's no reason why what a game is about (if it's even about only one thing or small set of things) should be boiled down to stats.

Wick's exchange here reminds me a lot of the Forge, which also seems to be attempting to reduce game play into a codified set of mechanical operations.

My OD&D/EPT game is 'about' exploration and problem solving. Often, stats have very little to do with what happens. The game happens through the decisions made by the players... those decisions are not boiled down to dice rolls or game mechanics.

To me the whole virtue of role playing games is that the "meat" of play is unconstrained by numerical or mechanical representations. Numbers and mechanics exist to provide context, but they are themselves not the game but only ancillary to it.

 

[Umbran]

But they still have one over-riding theme.

Not necessarily. Specifically, if you have two people who read a work, they may have different opinions on what "the theme of the piece" is. This is normal in the world of literary analysis.

There are themes the author puts in the work intentionally, there are themes the author puts in unintentionally, there are themes the audience reads into the work. Better works have multiple themes, that appeal to different sorts of people.

LotR, despite all the digressions into horse flanks and ents and poetry, is about destroying evil.

My literature teachers would not call "destroying evil" a theme. It is a very general direction of plot, which is by no means the same thing. "Theme" is a broad idea, lesson, or message conveyed by a work.

"Normal people have more strength to resist evil than you'd expect, but in the end evil sows the seeds of its own destruction" is a major theme of LotR - represented by the basic actions of Sam, Frodo, and Gollum.

 

[Jack7]

It's also important to note that while you do have to figure out what the game is about, you still need to explain what it is the characters do in the game. You can't leave that part out.

Methinks that is a very good, if often subtly overlooked observation.

 

[Imaro]

Epic Fail.

There's no reason why what a game is about (if it's even about only one thing or small set of things) should be boiled down to stats.

Wick's exchange here reminds me a lot of the Forge, which also seems to be attempting to reduce game play into a codified set of mechanical operations.

My OD&D/EPT game is 'about' exploration and problem solving. Often, stats have very little to do with what happens. The game happens through the decisions made by the players... those decisions are not boiled down to dice rolls or game mechanics.

To me the whole virtue of role playing games is that the "meat" of play is unconstrained by numerical or mechanical representations. Numbers and mechanics exist to provide context, but they are themselves not the game but only ancillary to it.

Well, I think one mistake that's being made by you... and possibly Umbran is the assumption that a "Hope" stat would necessarily be a numerical value. I recently started reading the Mouse Guard rpg and every character has a Belief stat, a Goal stat and Instinct stat, none of which are numerical.

A "Hope" stat could simply be a listing of the things a player has invested his hopes in, and the game focuses on what he is willing to do to keep those hopes from being crushed by others.... or perhaps it is something the player is hoping for and is malleable enough to change as the story and the character progress. In any case there is no reason "Hope" has to be a numerical stat. However I see nothing inherently wrong with having mechanics (such as a "Hope" stat) to reinforce the premise of the game and keep the players aware that it is important to the game.

More to your post, I do think that a certain amount of restraint through mechanics can be a good thing if a game is centered upon a particular theme, ideal or whatever. It's no different than using restrictions to create a particular genre in one's game...If I tell my players I want to run a game of swashbuckling pirates who sail the seas and raid other ships... I'm not going to allow a cyborg-ninja with laser guns in the game. I think restrictions, when used correctly, can create a more vibrant and intense game. YMMV of course.

 

[Umbran]

Well, I think one mistake that's being made by you... and possibly Umbran is the assumption that a "Hope" stat would necessarily be a numerical value. I recently started reading the Mouse Guard rpg and every character has a Belief stat, a Goal stat and Instinct stat, none of which are numerical.

Respectfully, "stat" is short for "statistic". Statistics are quantitative, not qualitative. Thus - numeric. You can have character traits that are non-numeric, but I expect "stat" implies a number to the vast majority of gamers.

And I still say that the theme doesn't have to be linked to a mechanic - numeric or otherwise. The game mechanics have to support the theme in general flavor, but direct theme-related mechanics frequently get in the way of role-playing.

Paranoia, as an example, does not have a "how paranoid are you" stat, yet the game is highly successful in implementing its themes.

 

[Imaro]

Respectfully, "stat" is short for "statistic". Statistics are quantitative, not qualitative. Thus - numeric. You can have character traits that are non-numeric, but I expect "stat" implies a number to the vast majority of gamers.

And I still say that the theme doesn't have to be linked to a mechanic - numeric or otherwise. The game mechanics have to support the theme in general flavor, but direct theme-related mechanics frequently get in the way of role-playing.

Paranoia, as an example, does not have a "how paranoid are you" stat, yet the game is highly successful in implementing its themes.

Uhm, okay... well honestly I've seen stats (as in a character's stats) used to mean everything that makes up a character... including those without a numerical value attached.. but I think that's mostly irrelevant to my point anyway.

I'm curious, what games that have theme-related machanics frequently get in the way of roleplaying? I've not encountered any myself, but I am curious about the one's you've encountered that "get in the way of roleplaying"... if you're choosing to go with the default theme of the game, of course.

Side Note: I think the "we don't need..." argument is pointless in this context as one can boil that down to almost anything (including dice, an actual character, etc.) in a roleplaying game. Instead I think it's more relevant to talk about the best way of accomplishing the goal of a particular rpg, and what accomplishes said goal.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Specifically, if you have two people who read a work, they may have different opinions on what "the theme of the piece" is. This is normal in the world of literary analysis.

Of course. That's par for the course in any artistic endeavor. It doesn't mean there is not a strong central theme. It means that the thing is multifaceted enough to present many angles for it.

Which is key in artistic analysis, but doesn't have a lot to do with the D&D game, by and large. A strong theme can improve the often-ambiguous narrative element of D&D (if you want a strong narrative element; many games do not). It can work in an over-arching campaign, in a single adventure, or whatever.

My literature teachers would not call "destroying evil" a theme. It is a very general direction of plot, which is by no means the same thing. "Theme" is a broad idea, lesson, or message conveyed by a work.

"Normal people have more strength to resist evil than you'd expect, but in the end evil sows the seeds of its own destruction" is a major theme of LotR - represented by the basic actions of Sam, Frodo, and Gollum.

I think it's safe to assume that "theme" is being used in a very broad context in this conversation, rather than the specific, narrow, academic context.

That said, I'm hardly a LotR scholar, and I'm entirely sure my off-the-cuff "theme" for it could be improved.

The crux is, "Normal people save the world," and "evil kills itself" are entirely possible to weave into a D&D game, complete with mechanical, statistical, possibly even numerical, representation to reinforce that theme through more than just the DM's say-so and the players' complacency.

And doing so enhances the strength of the narrative you tell at the table.

If you're not looking for a narrative (if you're more of a sandbox or a dungeon-delve kind of group), it's kind of pointless, sure. Though I tend to think composing a narrative is one of those things that is uniquely suited to TTRPG's, and that videogames deal with the other two play styles better.

 

[Ariosto]

I think that computerized (or otherwise textually limited) scenarios can do about as well at presenting a "story"; human moderation excels at providing a rich environment for exploration and unpredictably emergent narrative.

 

[jgbrowning]

My game's about avoiding narratives and themes.

joe b.