Friday, January 18, 2019

3-Dimensionality in TTRPGs

I wasn't sure how to react to these comments at first.




People often talk about Story when I mention how I do something in a game. They mention Story like its something you as the DM bring into the game fully breathed out. The idea of an NPC that is not fleshed out is "BAD STORY" because they are one dimensional. The idea of an adventure location is "NOT A STORY" because I don't give them, in the adventure location, an explicit beginning, middle, and end.

It bothers me in a deep part of my chest because we are playing a game, not writing a fucking story. And the story that comes from playing the game is not one that I can write for you. All that we can do as game designers is create tools that codify our table experiences in the hopes that there is something universal about them.

That's why there are so many hacks, clones, and spin-offs of DnD. That's why some of them are more popular than others. It's why Dungeon World did (and continues to do) so well; it creates the kind of game experience that many, many other people *wanted* to have and related to.

So when someone comments on my Naruto post about how "these ideas create one-dimensional characters", I just want to scream in all caps, "THAT IS YOUR FAULT!". I as a creator am not responsible for bringing the life to your game. YOU AND YOUR PLAYERS are the two other dimensions that take what are just words on paper and turn them into a story.

You may have bought Curse of Strahd because you think Strahd is complex or something, or that his castle is beautiful, but all of that is one dimensional and means nothing until YOU as a DM use it at the table and bring it to life.

Everyone's Strahd is different. Every. Single. One. Every castle Ravenloft is different. Even if the rooms stay in their exact order with as-written text read aloud from the book to the player, the castle is now yours and what happens there has never happened before and will never happen again.

TTPRGs are unique in that way that other media are not. The story is created by the conversation of books/DM/players. And each is affected by the next. The same book/players with a new DM will have a new experience. The most common form of this is the DM/player and a new book.


As a writer, I cannot deny the power of words. It's communication. Transfer of information. In literature, a one-dimensional character leaves a bad taste in your mouth. The trope-ridden characters in film trigger the gag reflex. These are medium that rely on the written word to create those things for you. They are essentially taking the place of the book and the DM all in one, while you take the place of the player. You take in what they give you and react.

But that is not the case in games.

When I take in the information of a book (Curse of Strahd, just to keep it flowing) and spew it out to a player, I am making it three dimensional. The book MAY give me some feelings that PUSH me in a direction (sadness, or longing) but I am the one making Strahd a three dimensional, living, breathing character.

The way I interpret the words and react to them will be different than other DMs. The way I look at his loss and his role in it will be different. Even if the fucking book tells me "Strahd only talks in a whisper", my fucking whisper will be different than yours. Not just in sound but in meaning.

So when I write an article, or a book, I am not giving you a story. I CAN NOT give you a story. I am giving you tools so that you, as a three dimensional person, can hopefully create an experience closer to the fun I am having at the table while I and my players bring things to life.

That's why I give my NPCs just three things:
What they say - what they outwardly present
What they don't say - their subtext
What they actively hide - their secret

I do this so that maybe it can create a bit of faux-depth that makes you interested in a character. In my eyes, that should be all you need as a DM. Because YOUR experiences and thoughts and feelings and multi-faceted brain filled with all the various parts of you will fill in any gaps that I leave.

There SHOULD be gaps to let you do so.

So no, creating a clan of people based off of a trope, or a "gimmick", or any of the other derogatory terms people use when talking about anime, is NOT one dimensional. I give you the tools, your players and you bring it to life.

P.S. - I understand to a degree that most of these people are commenting on Anime as a medium and, more so, commenting on their disdain for anime as a medium. But then to just be ignorant of the things you can learn from things you don't like? Gross.

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