Pursue the Element

Element-based RP

Ó Jonathan Dobson, 2000-2003

Terminology

I am assuming that you, as the reader, are already familiar with role-playing.  This was written for DM’s, but I have included some definitions just in case.  Players can also read this if they have a sincere interest in pursuing better role-play.

Introduction

Alright.  Most practicing Storytellers think they’ve got the end all to being a Storyteller.  They know what they’re doing, they’ve got things under control, and this is a good thing.  A Storyteller, above all, must be confident.  It is the first prerequisite.  Often, though, this gets in our way.  We don’t want to let another Storyteller give us advice without offering some advice back.  This is because we are proud of ourselves, and want to let others know that we are quite independent, quite knowledgeable, quite fine on our own thanks, and if you are going to give me advice on what I do, well dammit, I’m going to give you some advice back.  That way you’ll know I’m just as good as you are.

Well, knowledge is infinite, isn’t it?  Whenever Joe Smith says or thinks, “I am as good as you are”, it generally means that he perceives you to think he is not as good as you.  Oh, and he wants you to know that you’re wrong.  This is okay.  This is just a natural tendency.  It is called insecurity.  (You will find few people not like this, and they are rare jewels.) 

So.  I ask you to humble yourself, and let this know-it-all-I’m-as-good-as-you-are teller of tales reveal a mystery about being a Storyteller.  It is simple, it is basic, it is rudimentary.  But it is tremendously important.  It will make you a better Storyteller.  It will make your Players come back, week after week, year after year.  I do not claim to have invented anything in this writ – you may very well know a lot about what’s in here.  But I urge you with all assurance to read on anyway.

The Elements

It is my subjective opinion* that

This sounds like a simple statement, but it carries quite a lot of weight, and I consider the idea of supreme importance.  To distinguish such a conviction, I will call these emotions and moods “Elements”.  RP requires and demands these vital Elements – they are the basis for the RP, the very purpose of it; they are both the engine that drives the RP, and the reward which satisfies it, for Players and Storytellers alike.

Good RP does not require a good gaming system.  Good RP does not require balanced rules.  Good RP does not require great peripherals.  Good RP does not require perfect dice rolls, fairness, legality, or a tremendous sense of analytical deduction, logic, and reason.  Good RP requires, and only requires the Elements.  Now, before there is a tremendous outrage in your RP mind, let me qualify this paragraph.  All of the above mentioned “non-requirements” are complementary devices for good RP.  Although good RP does not require them, it certainly likes them.  In fact, it loves them.  They are inclusive and supportive.

Examples of these Elements are excitement, intrigue, confusion, fear, wonder, hate, mystery, pride, courage, or worry.  Elements are emotions and moods crafted by the Storyteller through plot, character, and self-expression.  Rules, dice, peripherals, and systems should all work to support the crafting of these Elements, the presentation of them, the “bringing out” of them.

The Essential Parts

Okay, some basic facts.  An RP session has three symbiotic parts:  The Teller, the Tale, and the Told.  The Teller is the Storyteller.  The Tale is the plot – the sequential, connected events.  The Told are the Players.  All three must be present for RP to exist.  When one is missing, there is no RP.  We can call these the Essential Parts. 

The Storyteller presents a block of story – it is square, maybe with a few interesting features, and full of possibility.  The Told then take the tools of their characters and reshape that block into something interesting, something beautiful (or ugly, depending on how you look at it), something other that what it started out as.  The Teller, inspired by the shaping, presents yet more Tale, and so the cycle continues.  The motive for the Tale, however, is the Elements.  The reason that the Tale is told is to supply the Storyteller and Players with the Elements.  They want them.  That’s what they come together for.  It is the reward for taking the time to meet.

It is of supreme importance, then, that these Elements get out.  They need to be present, they need to be plainly evident and in full view.  In order for this to occur, two things must take place:

1)      The Storyteller must first present them, offer them up

2)      The Players must be willing to take them

If the Players are to take them, they must first recognize them!  There must be a firm recognition of what the Elements are, and that they are to be pursued.  Obviously, the Storyteller must also recognize them in order to bring them out.

The Old Problem & the Old Solution

In the RP community, it is generally accepted that there are two types of RP.  The first is known as combat-based RP, a type I call Killoot.  It is where, given random and often unconnected circumstance, a group of characters kill monsters and grab loot.  There is little plot variance, but lots of single-minded action.  The good idea behind this is singular focus:  everyone knows what to do, has a clear understanding of the goal, and requires the same thing.  Killoot RP, on a social level, tends to be vulgar, concerted, unified, and smooth.  There is little clash, besides quarrels over loot.  But Killoot fizzles quickly.  This is because it is a repetitious exercise.  Just ask anyone who goes on a banana and milk diet for three days.  They’ve largely given up the diet because they are sick of bananas and milk.  They usually won’t touch either for at least a couple of months.  So Killoot has unity, but also explicit tedium.

The second type is known as plot-based RP, a form I call Dramatalk.  It is where a group of characters act out in feverish detail every aspect of their lives in the fantastical universe the Storyteller has given them.  The goal here is realism.  There is a lot of plot variance, but little direct action.  Things do not happen quickly.  There are discussions about inner motive, the state of the world, and what the characters had for breakfast the day before.  The good idea behind this is verisimilitude:  the maintenance of absolute reality.  Things make sense, and if things don’t make sense, the Players will talk it out until, in their character’s minds, it does.  The Storyteller is obsessed with minute detail, the machinations of NPC’s, and a rigid story timeline that must remain in logical stasis.  Dramatalk, on a social level, tends to be heated, at odds, and “all over the place”.  There is much meta-play:  the act of Players talking in contemporary terms of the events of the role-playing.  There is a lot of clash, usually never over loot.  But Dramatalk also fizzles out, because there is little activity.  Players get bored after a while, and the RP, if it continues, turns into an at-home debate forum.  This is because it lacks direction, and therefore has little action.  Just ask anyone who’s been sick for a week at home.  They’re bored out of their skulls – they’re not doing anything.  There is little action.  Trust me, TV gets boring when you’ve watched it for more than eight hours.

Both of these types of RP are, of course, extremes, and the general solution that has been given is to RP at a happy medium.  To RP with some Killoot and some Dramatalk, to combine both into a Killdramatalkoot. 

The New Solution:  Pursue the Element (element-based RP)

But man, am I telling you, that solution is abstract at best.  There is no practical worth in it.  If a Storyteller focused on the Elements, on the presentation of these vital “life’s” of RP, there would be no need for a discussion on the amalgamation of Killoot and Dramatalk.  If RP became about nurturing the Elements – about growing, pursuing and obtaining the Elements – great sessions would result.

Okay, so this sounds all great.  But how does one nurture the Elements?  Don’t worry; I wouldn’t dare write about such a thing without backing it up with practical instruction.  Without giving you a tool, a guideline.  A pointer.  As for Players:  if a Storyteller gives them the Elements – dangles them out there in plain view – even if the Players don’t recognize them for what they are they will gobble them up.  They’ll take ‘em!  Like rabid hyenas.  The recognition at that point is unconscious, and this is the best kind of recognition.

Let’s take one element out of the bunch.  Suspense.  Let’s just use one, and see what we can do to bring it about.

These are brought about by

1)      Plot

2)      Character

3)      Self-expression

Your plot works towards suspense.  It draws towards some kind of suspenseful situation, and is built in such a way that your scenes lead to a Suspense Scene.  Your characters (NPC’s) serve the fruition of suspense.  They interact with the Players for the sole purpose of nurturing suspense.  If you need specific help on plot and character, there are many good books out there – mostly written for writers of fiction, but they’re good for RP too – and I will only touch on plot and character briefly below. 

Your self-expression belies suspense.  You are a suspense-in-works, and, eventually, suspense-personified.  This last is probably the most important.  It has been noted that the first prerequisite for any Storyteller is confidence.  You will need that confidence for good self-expression.  Remember, though the Tale takes place on the Stage of Imagination, in real-life you as the Storyteller are the best visual aid to the Tale.  You are the Tale, in a sense.  While you may have detailed pictures or other forms of visual aid, you yourself are the strongest indication of the Tale in the room.  You are It, man, and if you are not Suspense, your Players will most likely not be “suspensed”, no matter how hard you try.

There is one kind of Storyteller that I have particular aversion to, and this is just personal preference mind you:  the objective-omniscient judicator.  This Storyteller is serious, with little emotion, concerned with rigorous play and in-depth rule implications.  But there are some who really like this kind of Storyteller.  This kind will rarely, however, give his Players the Elements.  His Players will only get the Elements if they are in direct, conscious pursuit of them, and are willing to find the Elements under every rock and cushion.  (These are fun Players to tell tales to, by the way.  They make your job easy and, ultimately, enjoyable.)  The objective-omniscient judicator suffers from Element-drought.

Define Your Element

Firstly, define your Element. 

Suspense comes by way of threat.  When something is threatened that you value, the outcome is always uncertain.  (If you know the outcome, the object you value is not threatened:  it is either destroyed or saved.)  Uncertainty is not of itself suspense.  After all, I am not too particularly “suspensed” by the uncertainty of whether or not it will rain tomorrow.  But, if rain on the morrow means I have lost a $10,000 dollar bet, well, then I have entered into the realm of suspense.  So situation alone does not create suspense either.  There must be a direct threat to something I value.

Now we are taking just one Element here – suspense – and going through it with some practical advice.  I have just defined suspense for you, in order to exemplify its ways of presentation.  I leave it up to you to define the other Elements.  (Mostly common sense, so don’t worry.  We all know what fear is, or mystery.)

Plot

So for your plot to lead to suspense, it must incorporate a threat to something the character’s value.  Their lives.  Their reputations.  The world.

Threatening the lives of your Player’s characters is tricky.  After all, if you kill the characters the RP is over.  Not good for anyone, especially if you are all enjoying yourselves.  This is solved with self-expression, which we will go through in just a bit.

Character

If suspense comes by way of threat, your NPC’s will move towards the fruition of that threat.  How NPC’s act will not only allude to a future or present threat, but will give the PC’s the object(s) of the threat, or will directly identify the threat.  The NPC’s could be the threat, the object that is threatened, or the indicators of the threat (the thing that tells the PC’s there is a threat to begin with.)

Self-expression

You can have all the suspenseful plot and character you want, and still the Players will not get the suspense.  It happens.  And it is frustrating.  (There is nothing worse than trying to make the Players say, afraid, and you are getting stifled yawns and drooped eyelids.)

There is a wonderful solution to this problem.  Self-expression.  You must be dynamic, you must be an actor.  You must feel, or be, your chosen Element.  In our example, you yourself must feel suspense.  Once you feel it, you can transfer it into the Tale and the Players.  Many Storytellers may take grave offense to this suggestion.  This is because many Storytellers are not self-expressive by nature.  Self-expression is nothing other than conveying who you are to those around you, by whatever means possible.  In a Storyteller’s case, this means conveying what Element you are presenting.  You are, or must make yourself, that Element.

Self-expression works because it is the tool by which you get your Players to believe.  Now, I know this will sound a little flighty, but your Players must have faith.  They must believe in you and the Tale.  They must suspend belief in the normal world in order to obtain belief in your imaginary one.  Some players do this automatically.  Others are there just to cause trouble, and to disbelieve you with unknown intention.  Most however, need this self-expression from you.  And, if you give it, they will readily believe anything that your Tale presents.  So when you present suspense, they will get suspense, because they believe in the suspense and are willing to be “suspensed” – by virtue that is has been presented.  This is wonderful.  Wonderful because both you and the Players are getting what is innately wanted – the Elements.  It satisfies all parties.  It makes RP enjoyable.

If you want your characters to be full of wonder, self-express wonder.  They will get it.  It’s that simple.

Consider a regular conversation.  If someone in a bland, monotone voice tells you:  “Yeah, a couple blocks down the road a house burned down”, you’d say something like “Really?”, and that would be the end of it.  But if that same person told you with an excited, fearful voice:  “A couple blocks down the road a house burned to the floor!”, jumping up and down, you’d response much more emotively.  See?  Self-expression.

As for the threat against the PC’s lives – self-expression can make it effective.  The Players will want to believe there is a real threat, and the meta-game thought process of “oh, he won’t kill us – if he does, the whole thing is over” will disappear.

Crafting your Game:  Starting in the Right Place

There are many approaches to building up a game.  Some approaches plan for every contingency, while others leave some things for spontaneous creation.  Regardless, the first thing that is done is plot.  (Sometimes the inspiration for plot is character or theme, but the actual first act of writing the game is with plot.)  What happens?  This is a logical place to start, right?  I’m telling you, this is the wrong place to start.

The right place to start is with an Element.  Pick one.  Then let the Element dictate the routes of your plot, the motives of your characters, and the messages of your theme.  Pick several Elements.  Line them up, integrate them, and then craft your game from them.  So Elements are like inspiration, then, but they are also the first act of crafting a game. 

Try making a game that goes wonder-suspense-courage.  Your first act should be to write down your Element(s) for the session.  You need this compass.  Trust me.  I tape them to my Storyteller screen every session.

Sometimes (or a lot) an Element will pop up that you did not plan for.  This happens because the Players have made it happen.  They have brought an Element to the game.  When this occurs, pump up that Element like there’s no tomorrow.  Let it flourish, allow it to grow, give it more life.  When the Players bring an Element into the game, they are indirectly giving themselves what they want!  The Elements that come without your explicit planning are the best kinds of Elements.  The important thing is that you recognize an Element when it rises up, that you sense it immediately, sometimes even before it births.  This is a practiced skill, and only comes with experience.  At the end of this writ is a list of Elements to look out for.  The list is by no means exhaustive, but should give you a strong foundation from which to play.

What Rules are For

Rules are to simulate the objectivity of a real world.  Though the world a Storyteller creates is imaginary, it simulates in many regards the objectivity of the real world.  The characters are not the center of the universe – things happen outside of their subjective opinion and control.  Similarly, the Storyteller and his NPC’s are not the center of the universe, and things happen to them outside of their subjective opinion.  To emulate this, rules are used – rules that usually involve dice.

In real life, a race-car driver does not roll dice to see how well she drives her car.  But in an RP world, a race-car driver may roll dice to see how well she drives her car.  Just because the real-life race-car driver thinks (subjective opinion) she can drive a car well doesn’t mean she always does so (objective causes).  So the same for an RP race-car driver, who may have an excellent car-driving Skill, but can crash on the rare occasion, especially under extreme duress.  We simulate that rare occasion by rolling dice, or by applying some system of rules.

Let it be known that this is all rules are for.  They are not there to make RP fair.  (I cannot abide it when someone uses “fairness” in an argument.  Fairness has no place in RP, just as it has no place in the real world.  It all comes back to that “I’m as good as you are” attitude.  You know, “I should get as much as you”, or “that’s not fair – why does he get to go and I don’t”.  Basically the proclaimer of these sentences is saying “What, you think you’re better than me?”) 

Henceforth, the best kinds of rules are uncomplicated, are used only moderately, and are easy to remember.

If your RP session ever becomes about the rules, you are no longer in an RP session – you are in a systems session.  If the beauty of a game becomes about its rules, you are a systems analyst, not an RPer.  Become a computer programmer.  (Visual Basic all the way, baby!  Database development till death do us part.)  Many people just love gaming systems and rules.  That’s great – I am one of them.  But that is not RP.  Rules are to support RP, not to take the place of, or subsume RP.

A couple of years ago I set out to make the ultimate RP rules system.  By page 6 I had the most complicated system I had ever seen.  There was no way it could be played on pen and paper.  Subconsciously, I was creating a system that only a computer could handle, because I was thinking in programming terms.  My idea was simple, and true:  the more complicated a system is, the more it can accurately portray the subtleties of real life.  Real life is complicated!  Just skip on over to your local library and read a physics or biology textbook.  I was thinking of characters as objects – objects that contained sub-objects with properties and values.  There were over 100 “attributes” for the character.  They were related, interdependent, and workable.  But only by a very fast computer, or by someone who was willing to take an hour to create a character.  I was obsessed.  I thought I had hit the jackpot.  But while the system was beautiful, symmetrical, well-crafted, it became the primary focus of the game.  If a player did not understand the intricacies of the rules, they didn’t “get it”; they didn’t “appreciate” the nuances of my RP.  This upset me.  And it was only natural that few would readily grasp, let alone want to grasp a system as complicated as that.  The only other person who did make the attempt was a fellow computer programmer.  And he only got to page 3!

But while life is complicated, with all of its physical rules, the general pursuits in life are rather simple:  the Elements.  It’s true!  The Elements are just experiences (emotions, moods), that we crave as a people.  Speaking of which…

The Old Adage:  Give Them What They Want

Players are confused.  Some say they love Killoot.  Some say they love Dramatalk.  But what they all unconsciously understand, even if that understanding does not become verbal, is that they want the Elements.  It is not the actual events, not the plot twists, not the style of play, but rather an Element(s) that ultimately satisfies them.  Let’s face it, as a race we are dissatisfied.  If we weren’t, we wouldn’t want RP, wouldn’t want television or sports or scientific pursuit.  We are happiest when we emote, and when we are in receipt of emotion. 

You know (and this is in defense of Killoot, since it faces such harsh discrimination by the Dramatalkists), there is a large misconception out there that the average action-movie man is not in touch with his feelings.  That his feelings are not expressed, or that they do not exist at all.  This is not true.  An action movie is chock full of feeling, it is brimming with emotion and mood.  Yes, there are explosions and fire and bullets and martial arts.  But all of these things serve some Elements:  power, danger, suspense, risk.  Those are just a few.  Find out what Elements your Players want. 

So when the argument arises:  my Players demand Killoot, or my Players demand Dramatalk, or my Players demand royal intrigue, or my Players demand so much vulgarity and so much realism, make sure you know the argument is moot.  Just nod your head and smile.  Give them these little things that they demand, but pepper them with as much corollary Element as you can!  It’s okay – give them the plot devices they outwardly require, but more importantly (even if they don’t consciously recognize it), give them what they inwardly require:  the ELEMENTS!  And not just any Element, but the Elements they specifically crave.

A good friend of mine is convinced that RP is a modern form of male-bonding.  This is true.  I agree with him wholeheartedly.  The RP world is predominantly male.  (There are female RPers, and in my opinion, a session with at least one female makes the game play a hundred times better.  It narrows the focus of ego – ego is transformed from an all-bashing bludgeon into a finely placed, well-oiled blade of precision.)  But the bonding aspect of RP is absolutely accurate – there should be a transference of the Elements, and when that happens, friendships are solidified.  Emotion does that.  The mutual containment of a strong mood, imaginary or otherwise, strengthens human relationship.  And then, of course, Players are getting to know one another through the safe veil of their characters – this is an illusion, surely, but an illusion that facilitates bonding, an artifice that brings about an indirect exploration of friendship.

Okay, so this has become a little bit of a psychological commentary.  But the point remains, and I will continue to press it:

It is perfectly safe for the Players to be unaware of this.  It is not perfectly safe for the Storyteller to be unaware of this.  The Storyteller must fully comprehend this requisite key – it must be in the back of his mind at all times, it must be driving every sentence that falls from his mouth, every NPC he imitates, every scene he sets forth. 

Conclusion

Pursue the Element.  When that becomes your primary goal, the rest will fall in place.  This writ was not intended to devalue rules, systems, or methods of play.  It was not intended to bash any class of RP, or to dissuade you from RPing the way you already RP.  This writ evolved out of an understanding I felt forming within – that I was missing something about role-play.  The whole treatise here was created on the fly, by clicking doggedly on the keyboard, drinking lakes of tea, pacing and pacing, and then pacing some more.  All with the single-minded determination that I needed to find out why I role-play.  What did I get out of it?  What did other people get out of it?  And then, even when I figured that out, what to do with the answer?  How do I apply that answer?

The introduction claimed that this “mystery” of being a Storyteller would have your Players hooked – coming back week after week and year after year.  That is an untrue proclamation, but I included it in the introduction anyway to get you to read this.  The world is strange, and I make no guarantee of the effect element-based RP will have on the permanence of your group(s).

But the inclusion of the word “mystery” in the introduction gave you, the reader, an implicit promise:  that there indeed might be a secret to uncover by examining the fullness of this text.  If you have read this far, such literary tact has fulfilled its promise and worked its magic on you.  And that is exactly the point of element-based RP.

So this writ is a direct example of the pursuit of the Elements!  Mystery was presented by the Storyteller, and you, the Player-Reader, chased it.  End of story.  You have just been awarded 100,000 experience points.  A Sword of Invincible Might appears at your feet.  Level 20, here you come.