ascendance into a narrative godhood with tabletop roleplaying methods
by
Jaagup Irve
Background
Tabletop RPG player for 23 years
Gamemaster for 21
Lecturing at TUT
dragon.ee
Disco Elysium
(and an unnannounced hybrid cRPG)
@jaagupirve
jaagup.irve@gmail.com
Game Master
You prepare everything
Story of the loading-screen-man
emeritus game master
You avoid preparation
(Your preparation is the prior experience)
concept ARtist analogy
A good concept artist knows all the shortcuts
The best concept artist has no shame in using them
How about the best writer?
nobody cares about your methodology while they are having fun
Today
- Random TTRPG rambling
- Metaplots
- A Worldbuilding game
- A Plot building game
- A Prep-Lite game
- Proposals
How does tabletop work?
Usually:
Game Master describes something to base the game on
Players describe their actions
back and forth forever
The World fiction and rules
< >
The Player fiction and rules
Tabletop styles
Narrativist
Simulationist
Gamist
narrativist
STORY IS THE KING!
simulationist
Sandbox mode activate!
Gamist
Let's use our legal degrees to fight the orcs
core story
Rulesets are not made equal
Ruleset encourages a way of playing their "core story"
D&D
Kick down the door, kill monster, take loot
paranoia
You get an impossible task and try to fake making it whilst sabotaging the process and blaming other players
fiasco
You play an ambitious person with bad impulse control
analogy
Core Story
vs
Game Loop
the big list of RPG PLOTS
(tvtropes before we had tropes)
S. John Ross
Example:
#32 Troublemakers: The bad guys are doing bad things, and the party must stop them.
#32 Troublemakers: The bad guys are doing bad things, and the party must stop them.
Twists: The bad guys are wanted alive and unharmed.
They have made preparations in case they got captured. The "bad guy" is
a monster, a dangerous animal, or an intelligent creature everyone
thinks is a monster. The bad guy has Good Publicity. The trouble is diplomatic or political, so the party has tomake peace, not war.
Archipelago III
Building the World
building the world
Decide on elements and their ownership
Draw a map (5 locations)
Some "Meta" rules apply
narration rules
This is not an impro session, you have "undo"
"Try a different way"
"Describe that in detail"
"That might not be so easy"
"I'd like an interlude"
"Harder"
"Help"
partial success
Or how to scare friends
a game I think about
Jason Morningstar
Travelling circus
Elements: family, crowds, money
gamedev
- enthusiasm
- money
- the reality
Fiasco
Building a Plot
phases of a fiasco
Decide or create playset
Create relations
Act I (set-up, each player gets 2 scenes)
Pause
Act II (fiasco, each player gets 2 scenes)
Aftermath
key skill
How to play a character that:
- Is spontaneous
- Is ambitioous
- Who can lose a lot
- Who will lose a lot
- Is a cooperative effort
Dungeon World
(or Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark)
The meta-aware ruleset
note on the "why"
DW is not the "best" to play.
DW is "best" to understand as an analogy.
Apocalypse World is very raw, but is actually about sex
Blades in the Dark is very good game, but not universal
asymmetric ruleset
- Player moves
- Game Master moves
player moves
Hack and Slash
Volley
Defy Danger
Sprout Lore
Discern Realities
Parley
Aid or Interfere
gamemaster moves
Wait!
Gamemaster has an agenda:
- Portray a fantastic world
- Fill the characters' lives with adventure
- Play to find out what happens
gamemaster moves
Wait!
Gamemaster has principles:
Draw maps, leave blanks
Embrace the fantastic
Make move that follows
Never speak the name of your move
Give every monster life
Name every person
Ask questions, use answers
Be a fan of the characters
Think dangerous
....
gamemaster moves
Use a monster, danger or location move
Reveal an unwelcome truth
Show signs of an approaching threat
Deal damage
Use up their resources
Turn their move back on them
Separate them
Give an opportunity that fits a class' abilities
Show a downside of their class, race or equipment
Offer an opportunity with or without cost
Put someone in a spot
Tell them requirements or consequences and ask
omg! it hacks the gm brain
You discover that regular Dungeons and Dragons is just Dungeon World with extra steps
procedure
Play first session with a minimal prep
Just an action scene to start with
Spend hours in reflection
- Think who your characters and players became
- Draw the map
- Prepare the Fronts
Fronts?
Yes! The Fronts!
front-threat-intent
Front: Nazi party
Dangers:
Description, Cast, Moves
Grim portents:
- people wearing some symbols on the street
- persecution of minorities
- persecution of anyone opposing
- media control
- anschluss
Impending Doom: Tyranny
Stakes: will the Paladin join?
in practice
Bit dreamy
Partial failures leading to hard moves creates strange situations
XP delivered with failures promotes rolling
Choose your players well!
Bringing it all together
These are extra tools, they cannot replace any other work
start game-mastering now
Game mastering lets you experiment with plots
With immediate feedback of "what works"
How to guide players without them noticing?
Bad experience is good experience!
Up the iteration count
make a PbTA ruleset for your game
What are the player "moves"
What are the GM moves?
What are the fronts
maps are important
Map is memorization device
"This guy lives here" - remember the guy
Map is improvisation device
"What could happen next?" - remember the guy with intent
group improvisation is great
The exchange of experience will amaze you, never work alone!
Archipelago
Fiasco
Dungeon World
plot weave
It's a skill!
questions, comments, rants!
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GM XP from TTRPG to CRPG
By irve
GM XP from TTRPG to CRPG
- 179
