Worlds of Design: Games vs. Novels - Part 1

There’s a big difference between novels and role-playing games. If you want to to make the RPG much like a novel, you remove it from the realm of “game”: that is, something that you can fail at/lose, something where the opposition is dangerous.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

Not the Obvious

Ask someone to compare an RPG to a novel, and the first thought is likely “they’re both extended stories.” True, but what kind of story?

Novels are controlled, directed, authored by one or two people. Games are, by nature, free-form—a player can (try to) do anything within the rules—and there are usually several participants. Novels emphasize character, plot, conflict, setting, climax and denouement, and point of view.

The RPG GM can’t control all of these, and controls some quite weakly. So the typical RPG adventure or campaign, even if players are “led around by the nose” by the GM, is not much of a short story or novel. Similarly, when a video game is turned into a film, the film has a new plot and story, because the games are usually weak “novels.” Here is Jordan Mechner, creator of the video game Prince of Persia, talking about the movie version (a good movie, by the way):

In fact, while there might be a film to be made from the story as the game presented it, according to Mechner, "it's a B movie." There's also an important business reason the two are different, says Mechner. "Ubisoft was doing the games, and Disney was going to be doing the movie, and these were separate endeavors."

We’re really comparing adventure novels with role-playing games here. Games as in something with opposition, with real struggle, with a possibility of failure/loss. Specifically, I’m referencing opposed game RPGs to differentiate them from storytelling RPGs, where people collectively tell one another a story. How do opposed game RPGs compare with novels in:

• Character
• Luck
• Plot
• Conflict
• Setting

Character​

Novelists must present characters that the reader cares about. If there’s nothing to care about, how can the story affect the reader emotionally?

In RPGs, each individual player (usually) cares a lot about their character(s) - unless the game is a one-shot. We can hope they care about the other players’ characters, as well, but sometimes that’s not true.

Novels usually protect important characters (George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” series notwithstanding). In RPGs the GM (usually) protects important characters, that is, the player characters. In most games, the GM’s purpose isn’t to wipe them out characters but rather threaten them with a chance (however slim) for survival. Contrast this with other kinds of games, many of which don’t even have characters.

The “Lucky” Part​

Most adventure novels, especially ones written more recently, are testaments to good luck. The protagonist(s) are immensely lucky, or would not succeed. That’s part of what makes it a novel, something out of the ordinary. It’s the same in RPGs, owing to the subtle action of the GM.

Though the actual dice rolls of the players may not be out of the ordinary, things tend to fall their way. Otherwise, they’d die in many instances, and that won’t work for tabletop games. I recently read a young adult book series, The Pillars of Reality (Jack Campbell) and while the heroine and the hero are wonderful people and do great things, there are times when it's just impossible to believe that they're as lucky as they are, especially toward the end. But in a novel it can happen.

In video games, of course, they DO die, frequently, but respawn—the ultimate good luck.

Plot​

Often when people say “story”, they only or primarily mean plot: the course of what happens, the narrative. A narrative, which can be as simple as telling someone how you went to the grocery store, may not be much of a story; but a good plot must be a good story. Nonetheless, a professionally-written story is a lot more than just plot.

RPGs have plots, though some are devised by the GM while others happen through interaction of the players with the situation set up by the GM (or with the commercially-published adventure). Even if the GM imposes a plot, players tend to deviate from it. Nor is the GM likely to be as good at plot as a professional novelist, quite the opposite. This is an important point: if I want to “consume” something with a really good plot, I want to get that from a (usually curated) professional novelist or film writer or playwright. I don’t expect an RPG GM to be a professional level storyteller!

In comparison, video games that are highly linear ("on rails") control the plot lines much as a novel might, but are more "experiences" than stories. While "sandbox" video games are quite unlike novels.

Conflict​

Traditionally, novels, like games but not like puzzles, require some kind of conflict, often between a protagonist and antagonist. Today lots of games (and even novels) have replaced conflict with puzzles. Opposed game style RPGs are much like novels, good at personifying conflict, for example having an “arch-villain” who is clearly the antagonist, and clearly dangerous.

Setting​

This is an obvious element of RPGs, but it’s much more important in some campaigns than in others. Just as in novels. It’s a place where RPGs and novels are often similar.

I'll continue the comparisons in the next article with a focus on point of view, climax and denouement, games with multiple related stories, "story machines," and vagaries of chance.

Your Turn: How much do you, as GM, fudge the dice and the circumstances to try to make the game "a better story?"

 

[Shiroiken]

For sure, although I'd argue that Boromir's death was crafted. He was briefly corrupted by the ring, tried to take it from Frodo, then died attempting to save the hobbit from the orcs, thus redeeming himself.

Agreed, but my point is that having such a death in an RPG due to the dice can create the same level of drama. With invested players, this can be one of the most amazing things.

In my first 5E campaign my players blitzed through a line of fire giants to get to an NPC ranger who died tragically due to a 1 on a stealth check (she only needed a 4 to succeed). They had revivify via the paladin, but no access to any other resurrection magic, so they HAD to get the paladin to her in 1 minute. They made very poor tactical decision to draw their attention away from the paladin, with the sorceress even deliberately drawing an attack of opportunity to spend a fire giant's reaction. The paladin got to her on round 8, which was 9 rounds from her death, saving her (the paladin also shielded her while she fled).

I was impressed by my players devotion to this NPC as they would have done the exact same for another party member. If I hand waved the check due to the likely success or to keep the NPC around for the love interest story she added, this magical moment wouldn't have existed.

 

[Jimmy Dick]

Conflict within the party can drive some of the story line, but conflict between the players can absolutely ruin a campaign. I find that often, the players are the ones who have to want to their characters to be in a story. That means going beyond the mechanics of the game system and into the realm of role-playing. I've ran for players who are far more engaged in roll-playing and they have a massive tendency to ignore the story, the lore, the elements of intrigue, etc. in favor of combat encounters. This is why developing the session or campaign to the player type is pretty important.
On the other hand, I've had players far more engaged in the social aspect of the game where role-play takes on the biggest part of the session and combat is not the focus of the players. They prefer to engage foes with social skills whenever possible. That group takes a bit of work to design for, but you end up with a much richer campaign.