How Role-Playing Games Can Help You Write a Better Story - 1. Discussion

Pretty much everyone on the planet has played a Role-Playing Game at least once in their life. Think back to when you were a kid and the toys you played with, or when you play make-believe with friends. Guess what, you Role-Played. Role-Playing at its core is using one’s imagination and telling a story with it. In modern Role-Playing Games (RPGs), you just have guidelines to follow, unlike when you were playing with Hot Wheels, G.I. Joe, Barbie, or the Transformers.

RPGs come in all genres, with the most famous one being set in Fantasy. They also come in two major styles now as well. You have the Pen-and-Paper (PnP) tabletop version and an electronic version in the form of Video Games. In PnP, you use rule books, pens/pencils, paper, and multisided dice. While in the electronic version of RPGs, a coder has done all that inside the game’s coding, so you don’t have to look stuff up and roll dice to judge outcomes.

In PnP RPGs, you have a group of people who play the game. Most often they are sitting around the kitchen table, with pizza or snacks. Or now, in our global connected age, PnP can be played via Skype or other forms of video chat, and use a virtual tabletop. One person in this group of people is the Gamemaster. This person is like an Author, in that he writes the main arc of the story, and develops the world in which the others, the players, play in. However, the players also have a role in the storytelling process. They each develop a character to interact with this world and story the Gamemaster designed.

The Gamemaster may write the play’s overview and sets the stage, but it’s the players’ actions and reactions that tell the story.

For instance: The Gamemaster writes out an adventure, where the party has to rescue a little girl from drowning in the river. However, unknown to the party, that there are two orcs who also are trying to get the girl, but for other more nefarious reasons. What do the players do? Each one has a character, with different skills, gear, and abilities that could affect the outcome. The nimble rogue could toss a silk rope to the girl, while the fighter wades out into the water, and the monk runs ahead downstream as a backup option. Or the orcs could attack the party, and you get the idea. Actions and reactions make the story interesting, and it’s all played out in the imaginations of the group.

As an Author, you play all the parts in your story and have to switch between different roles in order to write the scenes out. Using an RPG as a tool to keep track of any action in a story, gives Authors freedom in the form a framework in which to write. I’m going to focus on PnP RPGs for this discussion and used the Dungeons and Dragons 5^th Edition Rules as a focus.

First Steps

Now, you’re probably asking, “How does this relate to World and Character building for my stories?” Well, it’s simple. Those same rules used for an RPG can help you define your world and your characters.

The first step is to find a system you are comfortable using. The most well known, and longest running rules-set is Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), published by Wizards of the Coast. This system is primarily High Fantasy but can be adapted to any era of play. You would need three core rulebooks:

The Player’s Handbook (PHB)

Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG)

Monster Manual (MM)

These books are the foundation to the DnD experience. The PHB details how characters are created, and how they interact with the world at large. The DMG is for the Gamemaster, and it’s a treasure trove of advice, guidelines, and charts to roll on to help in fleshing out the world. The Monster Manuel tells of the many different creatures that inhabit the world both good and evil who interact with the Player Characters.

Character Creation

When writing a story, or playing in an RPG, you need a character. Someone who you, or your readers, see-through for the story at large. Each writer has their own way of approaching a character. Some might think of a name, and some basic personality traits and go from there. Others might make a detailed character portfolio that has detailed notes about a character they want to write about. But, how does an Author tell how strong a character is? Most of the time we make it up and go by gut reactions. However, there is another way.

Using an RPG, an Author now has a framework in which to create a character that is truly unique. In DnD a player first creates a character. Each character has Six Attributes, or Ability Scores, that define a Character’s Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. These are on a scale, with the higher the number, the better, and 10 being the average for each ability score. When used for a Writing Project, this would help in defining what a Character can and cannot do. As an Author, just choose a number you see for your character.

Once you have these scores, you choose your race. In most stories, the characters are going to be human. The PHB excels in the racial area of a Fantasy genre story, as it has fantastical beings as the prime races. After you choose a Race, you then choose what class your character is. This will give you what abilities and skills you are good with.

An example on putting it together: Alex wanted to make an Elven Druid for his fantasy story, so he sits down and takes out what he needs: the PHB, a Character Sheet, notebook paper, and a pencil. He chooses six numbers for his Character’s attribute scores and notes them on his sheet. From there, he looks up the Elven race in the PHB and notes those traits and advantages he gets for being an Elf. Finally, Alex selects Druid and records what a Druid can do at 1^st level.

After all that work, Alex now has a 1^st level Character, who has a defined set of attributes, skills, and abilities. No more guesswork is needed with this character when it comes to, “Can he push open a stuck door,” or “does he have the training to do first aid on a broken arm?” When questions like that come up, you can just reference the character sheet, and other notes you made.

I’ve done this for main characters in my stories I’ve written before. Assigning experience levels as appropriate to tailor their skills and abilities, for the story, I was writing. It helps to focus and makes each character an individual.

“But, Mr. BHopper. What about other characters, like guards, or adversaries that my character might interact with? Should I roll up stats for them?”

Good question. The answer, if you want too you can, but let me remind you about the Monster Manuel. It already has lists and stat blocks for Non-Player Characters, aka Humanoids with Classes like a Player Character, for Gamemasters, or Authors, to use. Just the bare essentials and standardized stats that can be looked at with a glance.

What I’ve done in stories before, in combat scenes, I’ve actually run a short fight scene with my characters, adversaries, and my dice, to add the element of randomness, to write out those scenes. Use your imagination as the base, and then run the characters through combat using the DnD rules and dice to resolve the scene. Then write down how it played out. You’ll find it makes it feel a lot more organic in how it resolves in the written piece. Plus with the rules, you are not diving into a Mary Sue or Gary Stu territory.

World Building

Now, you need a world to put your characters in. In most cases, an Author is going to use the world around us, if it is any genre outside of Science Fiction or Fantasy. However, creating new worlds is as much fun as creating stories and characters. It’s a unique experience to list out an idea, and transform it from a basic thought to a world full of life that characters live in.

The Dungeon Master’s Guidebook for DnD 5e is a toolbox of ideas. It starts with getting a Gamemaster’s, or Author’s, imagination flowing, but not on a small scale, but on the big picture. Dungeons and Dragons from its inception in 1974, had some basic guidelines, it assumed as the foundation for its game worlds, aka Campaign Settings. Since the early days, thousands of books have been published that covered their core settings, from Mystara and Greyhawk in the beginning, to Forgotten Realms, which is its flagship world since the Second Edition of the game. Many worlds have been produced, and countless others have been created by Gamemasters over the decades.

If you are writing Fan Fiction you can use any of the published worlds as your story setting, or if you just need ideas, looking at any of them can help spark creativity.

Chapter 1 of the 5e DMG lists the core assumptions of the fantasy world as:

1. Gods Oversee the World.

2. Much of the World Is Untamed.

3. The World is Ancient.

4. Conflict Shapes the World’s History.

5. The World is Magical.

These core assumptions can then be tweaked. Even with DnD, they tweaked them in order to make each world stand apart from the others.

You might:

1. Have the world be created by a powerful Wizard, who is more of a Godking.

2. No Magic.

3. Unusual formations.

The goal is to think about the overview, and what you want to see in this world of yours. Taking the Core Assumptions in order, one follows a path in creating a world.

Gods Oversee the World: What does your pantheon look like? Is it just one God that controls everything, or none at all, and instead you have nature spirits? How many gods? You don’t need full answers now, and you can even cheat some, by looking at Real World religions and incorporating them into your fantasy world. The Nordic, Greek, and Rome gods are often used in this fashion. Though, some Authors and Gamemasters will stay away from the Big 3 real-world religions, among others that are currently practiced.

Much of the World Is Untamed: List a few major settlements, and kingdoms, just names, and brief outlooks. Again, you can look to Real World medieval regions for a foundation.

The World is Ancient: How far back does its history extend? You don’t have to do a major role for years, but a brief listing if any major empires were around.

Conflict Shapes the World: What kingdoms are at war, and what happened in the past? List what you feel is correct, and like everything Real World events can serve as a foundation.

The World is Magical: How much is it in your world? Are there only 12 wizards and they guide all humanoids? Is there Mageocracies, whole nations run by wizards? These questions may be hard to answer at first, but you can take cues from the Published works, and make something unique for yourself.

Once you have these ideas, formed in your head, take them and jot those ideas down in either a Notes Journal or some other sort of document. After that organize them, in a way that is easy for you to find the information you need.

From there, use the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual to fill in where the characters work and live come to life, what lands they adventure in, and who their rivals are. You might create just the briefest of worlds, to write about, and do no more than one small area, but like a modern story, research is the key, and creating your own world, lets you build it to your ideas.

Wrapping Things Up

Now that you have your Characters and a World for them to explore, it’s now time for you to write about it. You can keep your world for yourself, in a notes journal, and write about it in the stories you tell. Or, invite some friends over, break out the books, and dice, and make a completely new experience for all. In a collaborative, fun, and imaginative way.

Some of my favorite stories to tell, are set in a foundation of playing in Role-Playing Games. My real world love of Hockey came from an RPG campaign, where one of the characters, was a Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I visited several real-world cities, because of that game as well. For research, and for pleasure. My friends and I still talk about games we played in the past, and the experiences we shared.

It is my hope you found this article both insightful and enjoyable.

Thank you for reading.