Big Shaymin Energy
A lot of thought in RPG design and GMing seems to me to go into combat. I think it makes a lot of sense because combat is a quick and exciting way to resolve conflict1. As we see in video games combat is easy to gamify. It’s dynamic, it’s easy to see how tools help and to imagine abilities characters might have, what actions a character might take and so on. It allows players a chance to interact with mechanics directly which can be a safe space where decisions are clear cut. For me though, combat has two big downsides, people get hurt and doing enough of it to “solve” a “problem” starts to look like genocide, which isn’t the type of story I’m interested in telling.
I’m on a break from running TTRPGs at the moment because the summer is busy and that’s giving me time to think about session design and outline problems in this area that I’d like to tackle in the games I run in the future. I’m interested in pacifist gaming and more cosy stories in a general sense, but that’s not my focus at the moment, that part is solved by the nature of the games themselves. The main thing I’m looking to explore is how to foster a sympathetic table which acknowledges that all life demands respect and than systems not people are the cause of long term problems. That is to say that we play TTRPGs, the one medium that genuinely does let you do anything you want, I think it’s important that the game world reacts honestly and encourages players to consider if casual violence is what they want to pursue. I’d like to make sure that creature’s and people’s motivations, goals and the way they interact with the societies they belong to guide them and not exclusively their interaction with protagonists.
I feel like the biggest challenge will be making sure that I have procedures to make prepping an engaging game world manageable. I don’t feel confident making up encounters at the table if they have to be as interesting to talk to as fight, I’ll get there I’m sure. I’ll need to come up with ways to make sure players are comfortable with decision making in situations where they’re not fighting so that they feel empowered to pursue those options, ask questions and get into a creative mode. I want to do enough work to make sure the situations I’m describing are interesting enough to be engaged with on a narrative level and have enough depth to sustain play sessions without factoring in the extra game time taken up with combat rounds. I’m sure that there is a lot on the internet about this topic and this project will be as much literature review as anything else, I don’t claim any originality2.
It’s a cliche that goons have families but they do. I’d like to work out how to foster the idea of telling stories where the protagonists are mindful of the needs of those who live in the world with them without it interfering with the game at the table. Even in situations where the player characters have a strong enough belief in their agenda they feel violence is justified I want to bring that out and ensure it’s considered. It will be harder with some games than others but I hope to look at ways to confront the issue in a broad way through prep and expectation setting. I do have to consider that it will potentially close the door on certain games and stories but I’m not sure I’m worried about that. Those games aren’t likely to encourage stories I need in my life at the moment.