Uncommon Catalysts: Coherent Universes – Using RPGs for Consistency in Your Writing
Metaphor Publications is pleased to present Uncommon Catalysts a series of guest articles sourced in the catalytic intersection between fantasy fiction and role playing games (RPG, or RPG's). Irregularly, we'll be reaching out to irregular writers and gamers and getting their irregular perspectives on how fantasy/speculative fiction and RPG's compare, contrast, overlap - and lead to new ways to enjoy both.
Our second installment comes from Flippy, as he is known to his many fans. He is an author and a game designer, and that gives him an incredible working knowledge of how fiction and role playing games can work together in order to make both ever so much better. We're very thankful that he's chosen to share some fo his expertise with us, and with you.
Stories allow us to bond with our fellow humans and live incredible adventures without real risk in exciting lands where the rules of physics aren’t a barrier. Books, movies, video games, and role playing games (RPGs, for short) are modern versions of the art of storytelling that our cavemen ancestors used to engage in after a good day of hunting. Fantasy and science fiction are popular because they allow us to go beyond our technological constraints and obtain powers we can only dream about. RPGs, which are a form of improvised storytelling, have become the latest source of inspiration for authors of fantasy and science fiction. They show potential authors how to provide coherence and structure to universes where their characters might travel in time, move across galaxies in days, channel magical energies to bend reality to their will, and take on deities and defeat them in combat. In other words, RPGs teach you how to combine wonder and adventure with struggle and conflict.
Moreover, writers don’t need to create a framework for their stories from scratch. They have access to inspiration in dozens of different settings that already work, from medieval fantasy to space opera, and everything in between, including steampunk, Arabian nights, and vampire mythology.
Here are a few ways in which RPGs can help you develop a better story:
Creating Your Own People
You can draw from the concept of races in RPGs to create your own races for your story. What are the different peoples in your unique world like? Is your main character a human? Are his or her companions? What physical traits do the different races in your universe have? Do they have any special abilities or a tendency to specific personality traits? How will your readers feel whenever a member of one of your races makes an appearance? When handled well, unique and diverse races can add depth to your story while making it easier for you to elicit emotions in your readers.
Doesn’t Your Character Have Any Class?
“Classes,” another typical trait of RPGs, allow you to further round out your characters by making some shorthand decisions about what they actually do. You can learn from different RPGs character creations systems how to come up with protagonists and antagonists that are coherent, skillful, and that fit perfectly in the universe where your story takes place. The combination of race and class gives a character a set of skills that can be used in plot devices. For example, if your too-human hero falls into a trap, an alien ally might use the “heat vision” you noted on his character sheet to detect the secret door that will allow them to escape!
Most RPGs include a system for character development over time, which is usually expressed in levels and increased statistics, and this is much the same “leveling up” you see in video games, too. Characters that stay the same may work for short stories or one-shot scenes, but great characters don’t stay the same. To give readers a way to relate to your hero, he or she has to make mistakes and learn from them, and become a different character over time. Using the leveling-up function to assign points for gained experience provides a great way for your characters to gain new abilities at a reasonable pace, which you can complement with moral and personality developments. How might your magician’s morals and personality change when he uses his new fireball throwing ability for the first time, unwittingly killing innocent bystanders within the blast radius? Will he become insecure about his own magic abilities? What will the reactions of his allies and companions be? Will he become an outlaw or an outcast, chased by the same people he was trying to help? On the other hand, this can be an opportunity for your character to become more mature, leave his careless ways behind, and learn the meaning of responsibility and consequences.
Class levels also help characters in a team be reasonably valuable in their own right, a concept that can make your readers become more invested in your heroes. RPG modules are designed for characters of specific levels so that no character is too weak or too powerful. Applying this balance in your story will allow you to create a well-rounded team and focus on personality and plot. On the other hand, challenges and enemies will pose the same level of threat to every one of your heroes. Having characters of equal power also helps you “tune” the difficulty of your plots and villains, avoiding both Deux Ex Machinas and Invincible Hero tropes, both of which can kill a good story.
Writing Fight Scenes!
What writer doesn’t agonize over how to describe combat effectively?
Combat rules in RPGs allow you to structure actions in ways that are tangible for your readers, and even suggests some great words to describe it. Whether you make it a short description, (Spaceman Spiff takes out his laser gun and shoots the gelatin monster!) or a longer, more detailed one, (Star Swirl felt the tingling in his hands increase slowly but steadily until the magical power built up to a point where he couldn’t contain it anymore, exploding in a burst of magical fire that exploded from his hands to incinerate his enemies!) become choices that are much easier to make when you’ve got notes from a full-on combat scene to use!
Besides---it’s just plain fun, too!
Lists of Lists
RPG developers LOVE lists, and typically include lists for every type of equipment pertinent to the setting: modes of transportation, weapons, strangers your character might meet on the road, and tons of miscellaneous items. All this information can be a huge time saver, and most of these lists have already been tested for consistency of use within their respective settings.
Lists also break down more technical equipment into statistics writers can use. For example, a gun in an RPG book will typically have a description that includes size, form, and weight, a recharge time, a type of effect, an amount of damage, and a price. All of these can be used as tools for storytelling. A rich villain owns only the most expensive guns, for instance. The crazy brute who means business? Carries the most damaging weapon your setting allows, of course! How about a poor but crafty hero who can only afford the slingshot? What’s her backstory? In this way, you show three different attributes (rich, strong, and crafty) just by the type of weapon a character uses. Also, because much of this information is already in the mind of the reader, there is much less description needed. It’s therefore easier to show, rather than tell - your editor will love you for it.
Here’s a thought experiment to try that illustrates the point. Let’s say that the first time you read about a villain, he’s carrying a weapon. What type of personality might you expect of the villain if he were carrying a) a rapier, b) a double axe, or c) repeating crossbow? Additional items add synergy and customization to the personality of a character. To continue our experiment, what would you think of a rapier-carrying villain wearing pansied slops, a doublet, and a ruff collar and sitting inside a carriage? How would he differ from another rapier-carrying villain wearing a cape, a cuirass with a coat of arms, and seated astride an Arabian purebred?
In short, RPGs help fantasy and science fiction writers by providing a vast array of story-telling tools. However, they do not create a story, much like more colors on a palette don’t create a painting. You still have to provide the heart, the epic, and the plot twists that make a story great.
Flippy is an author, translator, language teacher, and brony. For years, he led RPG players in adventures he created himself, often starting with scenarios from various video games. His RPG book for parents who want to introduce their children to role playing and players who are looking for a pick-and-play system, Tiny Horsies: The RPG published by Relentlessly Creative Books is available on Amazon.com.
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