July 2010
A Game of Writing: Writing Tools from Playing RPGs
Turn that double-edged role-playing sword into a +2 writing weapon!
By Trisha J. Wooldridge
Trisha J. Wooldridge is a freelance writer, editor and educator from Auburn, MA and a member of the Broad Universe Motherboard. Her experience ranges from Dungeons & Dragons Online to animal rescue public relations. She writes about food, wine, horses, haunted locations, education, and she interviews bands like Voltaire, Within Temptation and Nightwish. Her novella, Mirror of Hearts, is available at Fantasy Gazetteer (www.fantasygazetteer.com), and short story, Party Crashers, co-authored with Christy Tohara, in the EPPIE Award winning Bad-Ass Faeries: Just Plain Bad, with a second co-authored short story in the upcoming Bad-Ass Faeries: In All Their Glory. Her web site is here: http://www.anovelfriend.com/
Caveat: My experience with gaming is mainly table-top Dungeons & Dragons, White Wolf (Vampire: The Masquerade, Changeling: The Dreaming, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, World of Darkness, etc.), Play-By-E-Mail (many of which were basically collaborative fan-fic), some MMORPG (massive multi-player online role playing games), and pick-me-up boffing (a.k.a Let’s find an Excuse to Beat Each Other Up with Padded Weaponry). That said, I know there are groups of LARPers (Live Action Role Players) with a more theatre-like game that follows a self-contained script. This latter group does not fall into the type of role-playing I’m discussing, so some points and observations may not apply.
There are very few role-playing games I’ve attended where I have not heard, “This would make the best book!”
There are also very few fantasy publications — or publication seminars — that have not said, “Please do not send us your role-playing game stories.”
The thing is, those publications and seminars are right. Most regular role-playing games — whether you’re talking Dungeons & Dragons, an urban fantasy/horror from White Wolf or even the more unique independent games — do not translate into a good story or book.
Role-playing games are their own medium. World-building is done for you and designed to create an ongoing story that allows for a group of gamers to meet regularly and interact according to varying degrees of pre-set rules. The medium is a game, not a novel or short story.
I have a theory: Those 400,000+ word fantasies (or queries for said fantasies) that poor agents and publishers receive come from people who have gamed. Why? The gamer realizes she has built a story on an already copyrighted world and extensively over-differentiates. Or: The gamer has no concept of a manageable story length; after all, she’s managed her game for three whole years! Or: The gamer is describing every scene blow-by-blow and/or makes sure every single character has had a turn to move and react in equal portion. (If you’ve never played an RPG, you may not realize that two minutes of battle is REALLY thousands of words and two to four hours of player debate, decision, and reaction... unless you’ve read a novice story written by a gamer. I’d offer mine, but why embarrass myself?)
So, if you shouldn’t take your RPG to the word processor (and you probably shouldn’t unless you’re already on the Wizards-of-the-Coast-formerly-TSR or White Wolf payroll and have the clout to pitch an entire series or imprint based on your game), can your gaming experience still help you write?
Absolutely!
If you’re a good gamer — and even better, a good game master! — you have some pretty cool writerly tools to heft.
Character Focus: “Why is this character sheet six pages long?”
Good novels, especially contemporary ones, are strongly character driven.
A good role-playing game is all about characters and character development, and players put a lot of work into defining who their character is before the game even starts. Most games have character sheets documenting everything from eye-color to skills and abilities to items carried. Dungeons & Dragons character sheets ask about alignment: Is the character good, evil, or somewhere in between? In White Wolf games, characters are asked to define their true personality as well as their demeanor (the personality they show). Most game masters (GMs, the ones moderating and organizing the game) also ask for a background that explains what motivates the character and why she has these particular skills.
How well are your characters defined? Many gamers who write make character sheets for their novel characters. If you want some ideas on how thorough you can be before you even start writing, search for some online character sheets (or stop by your local gaming store and pick up a gaming book). Some free character sheet downloads exist at http://www.dndadventure.com, and at http://www.white-wolf.com for different White Wolf games. Or check out this Rifts character sheet here.
Thinking on your Feet: “You do WHAT to the dragon?!”
Seat-of-your-pants writers know this, but even writers who think they’ve planned everything will come across a surprise when a plot point or a character reaction or a life lesson obliterates the best crafted outline.
If you’ve ever played an RPG, thinking on your feet isn’t new. Fellow players do some really stupid — and sometimes really brilliant — s—t! And you’ve got to react — whether you’re a fellow player or the GM. If you’re a player, you also don’t know what the GM has going on behind the scenes (even if you’re married to said GM), so you should expect anything. The GM’s very job, of course, is to be prepared to deal with aforementioned stupid or brilliant s—t.
One of the best ways to recreate this experience — and to get new ideas for how to approach your roadblocks — is writing with another person. Each of you make a character (or take a character from your Work In Progress) and set a goal to achieve as a team. Communicate via email or chat boxes, and each of you add a new paragraph. You’ll challenge each other to think of accomplishing your goal in a whole new way!
Creative Combat: “How much damage for a Wii®-mote up the —”
Fights are fabulous fun, but readers get tired of typical military, sword, gun, knife fights. Don’t you?
Particularly in White Wolf (whose books have sections titled “Creative Combat”), but in just about any game, players are put in situations where they must think beyond their existing strengths and abilities. Creative Combat is where the players get to impress (usually by means of giving a headache to) their GM by using razzle-dazzle or finding a way out of a situation other than what the GM planned (and usually screwing up the GM’s story arc).
To play with this idea, put your character in a situation she ought to fail; take away her normal weapons and up the stress level (she or someone she loves will not only die but have their soul sucked into Hell for eternity). What does your character come up with?
Detail Awareness: “Swim across the moat? In plate armor?”
Sometimes characters (and their writers) forget things. Or, they don’t know things. Like how hard it is to maneuver large weapons in small spaces. Or navigate sewers or ride a horse if you’ve never done so before.
If you’ve had a good GM, she should have called you on such things — or let you drown, fall, or die so you learned your lesson. Most source or rule books for RPGs include the specific details about weapons and skills, and how these skills can be applied (and what you cannot do if you do not have these skills). If a gamer has had the chance to work with a good GM that follows these rules and guidelines, that gamer knows to pay attention to details. On the other hand, source books cannot cover all details of all situations, so the especially detail-oriented player gains advantage by knowing exactly how physics apply to creative weaponry to make her action more effective (like calculating the velocity and damage caused by a game controller thrown with superhuman strength and speed).
If you haven’t been exposed to situations that demand high-level detail awareness, it’s hard to know what you don’t know. (People who don’t work with horses may really think you can ride at a gallop all night in plate armor.) The first step is to admit there are things you don’t know that you don’t know. The second is to find detail-oriented beta readers and critique partners and learn from what they catch. Learn to question what you assume is true — and do research. Make yourself pay attention to details.
Dedication “Same game time, same game day?”
Many RPGs span weeks, months, or years. Writing a novel also can take that long. Just writing, mind you — not even including the submission process or the publication process.
In a game, a single battle may last many sessions, and the simplest plot can go on for days. A complex plot, where the GM has woven the character back stories through her game, will often take months or years to complete — with different players being in the forefront at different times. Gamers are dedicated to their game, even if it takes an unwanted turn. Even if their character dies, they will make another to continue playing.
How dedicated are you to your writing? There is a theory that most failed writers are ones who don’t keep trying. If your current Work In Progress doesn’t work, do you have another? If this scene isn’t working, can you plough through and keep going? (Unlike gamers, writers get to go back and fix stuff!) Make a list of ways to stay dedicated to writing — and reasons you want to! — for those hard days. Gamers define themselves by playing; a writer defines herself through writing.
The next three tools come from not only playing RPGs, but moderating and running them. Game Masters (GMs) must make sure everyone feels the game is fair (mostly) and fun (always). This means creating a thorough enough palette for your players to explore, challenging your players, and being prepared for when they don’t do what you want (most of the time). These are also excellent writing tools.
GM Bonus One: Worldbuilding (and its ongoing process) “What’s the molecular breakdown of unobtainium?”
It is a true and inarguable fact that if you have not fully created something in your world, your players will explore that part. Be it religion, traditions, geography, monsters, or the laws of magic and physics, you need to know “what happens if...”
There are many resources to help GMs build worlds. Find an RPG source book similar to the world you’re writing (be it contemporary urban, medieval fantasy, outer space, or otherwise — they all exist!) and study it. Give yourself a source book for your world — and be prepared to add to it when you write yourself into a “what happens if...” corner.
GM Bonus Two: Willingness - nay desire - to torture people you love “But that will kill me!”
As the T-Shirt says, yes, your [G]M wants you to suffer. In fact, that’s most of the job description. If players aren’t put into difficult situations and their characters aren’t challenged, then the game isn’t fun.
Newer writers often forget that the writer must always up the ante. The characters must be challenged with obstacles that they aren’t likely to survive or win against, otherwise the character doesn’t grow and readers are less invested. In any situation, consider: What is the worst thing I could do to this person? Then, write it.
GM Bonus Three: Scope of how vast and how miniscule your power really is (aka “Perspective”) “You... did... wha-huh?”
Even if you’ve paid attention to every detail, thought you answered every “what if...” someone will do something you wouldn’t have thought of in a million years — and ruin everything.
If you write by the seat of your pants (as many do), you stand a good chance of your characters misbehaving and entirely unbraiding your intended story. If you are a planner, you can still read or learn something that might undermine your perfect plot. You may get feedback on your masterpiece and find out it really doesn’t work for readers. Yes, you are the Creator of the World in your writing — but, in real life, you are still mortal and your best plans can fall apart. There’s nothing to do but keep writing — and keep playing.
In both RPGs and writing — the only way you lose is if you quit.
Now, go play with your writing!
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