Content vs. Combat

In the summer of 1985 I sat down with a group of my friends in the dark recesses of my church’s basement, and played my first role-playing game. I’d heard about Dungeons & Dragons before, of course. I’d seen the cartoon on Saturday mornings. Besides that, talk of it floated around as this strange game with complicated rules and cool dice. There was a mysterious quality to it; a dangerous mystique. When we sat down to play with one of the older boys as DM part of me feared I was about to witness someone get struck by lightning. While inside a building no less. That of course didn’t happen, somewhat to my disappointment, but that didn’t hamper the suspense.

Since then I’ve fought monsters roaming deep mountain caves, boarded space stations dodging imperial troops, attacked cyber-ninjas, and sat inside huge battle mechs. I even spent a short stint masquerading around as a vampire.

After more than twenty years of gaming I have come to understand that story is the most crucial of all aspects. As it happens, this most important bit is the one thing they don’t write into the pages of the books you buy. They’ll give you advice on how to create it, some charts to roll to get ideas, or a short write up on the world, but, in the end, that is all left up to you.

There are some that would argue you don’t need much story for a game. Indeed, if you were to reference movie blockbusters, you don’t need more than the barest explanation to hold action scenes together. Nor do you need to stick with the original concepts or characters of the 80’s cartoon you’re pirating to make it. All that is required is a thin thread of story, lots of explosions, an attractive girl running in slow motion, and enough special effects to make you suspend your disbelief, or displeasure, whatever the case may be.

Role-playing games don’t need to be any different. If you pick up any number of premade modules you’d see that the story is contained within four paragraphs of exposition at the front. You can call this section, “reasons to kill the bad guy on the last page.” They’re good, don’t get me wrong, and the modules serve their purpose. I’ve used quite a few in the last several years. I’ve changed, and molded every one of them to fit my needs, but I’ve used them nonetheless. Still, these provide only a piece of an overall story-arc.

To better illustrate my point, I’ll reference a game I played while still in high school. I was visiting my grandfather in Texas one summer, and ended up at one of his friend’s house for a game. I can’t remember how it came about, but I do distinctly remember being surprised that these old people played games, let alone Dungeons and Dragons. As I sit here, some fifteen years later, I realize the error of my ways. I’ll chalk that up to my youth.

That night we played a different type of game than I had before. I dare say it was more refined that I’d constructed to that point. It was certainly different than the ones that my friends had created. Instead of a room to room slaughter-fest, the game was centered on exploration, and thought. We were going through a temple in search of an ancient artifact, and there was barely a monster in sight. The pace of the game was incredibly slow compared to what I was used to.

That isn’t to say I was any less engrossed in what was happening, quite the contrary in fact. The DM had my full attention the entire night.

After the game had completed I commented about this to the DM. He told me this – “We used to play dungeon crawls with constant fighting years ago. I dare say, in our youth. But, we ended up moving beyond that. Fighting will eventually become boring, and routine. The story for the campaign is what keeps it interesting and fun. That’s the bit you have to get right. If you do, everything else falls into place.”

Now, my memory has probably garnished that comment somewhat in the last fifteen years, but the core is still true. Base your campaign on a solid story with twists and turns and memorable characters. The fighting will still be present; it’s a dangerous world out there, but put that in afterward. If you do so, you’ll have a long running game on your hands. You might even have the chance for some punk kid to come over and be surprised old people play too.