Why, look at we have here. It has been a long time since you have seen that banner on a blog post! Sure, I primarily design Wargames, but I have been expanded my portfolio to include RPG Design as well. Every good business needs to diversify! Plus, I find that writing RPGs can be a nice creative break from just doing Wargames. Lastly, they don't need miniatures to be painted to get them done, which helps get them finished faster!
I tend to come from RPGs from a cinematic perspective. For those familiar with the parlance of RPGs, I have a Trad/Neo-Trad approach to them as opposed to simulation or Old-School Revival. I tell you this so that you know my preferences straight of the bat. Not everyone prefers this approach, but I do. I want my RPGs to be a collaborative story-telling adventure where ALL the players get to help put the story together, including their character arcs, the plots the GM wants to tell, and the story lines that evolve as the game develops. In my RPG world, there is no winners, only players with stories to tell.
If that is not your RPG bag, that is okay with me. Play what you like! Honestly, there is more RPG content out on the web than wargaming, so there should be plenty of stuff for your preferences. However, you might want to stick around and see if any of what I write might be useful to you.... even if it is just to laugh at!
Solid Bones
Most RPG games are composed of scenes. If you think of a movie, a scene is simply the various set-pieces that help to tell the story. In cinema, the camera tends to focus on the scenes that are important to the themes, plot, or characters. Scenes that are not important to these elements are glossed over or happen "off-camera".
Think about Star Wars, I use this example because we have probably all seen it. On camera, we see Luke, Obi-Wan and the Droids go to a cantina looking for a pilot to get them to Alderaan. We see them go into the bar and find Han. That is the important scene. What we do not see is Luke going to Toshi Station to pick-up some power converters, because that scene is not important. Those scenes were deleted. George Lucas decided to focus on the scenes that drove the story he was trying to tell.
A good RPG encourages players to focus on the right scenes too. Therefore, as the Designer it is important for the game itself to help the Players know what scenes are important for the game. Some games are better at this than others.
For Example, Legend of the Five Rings: 5th Edition explicitly breaks down the game and lays-out rules and details for the following types of scenes: Intrigue, Martial, Investigative, Exploration, Big Battle. The rulebook tells the Players that these scenes are the heart of the L5R experience, and details how to play such scenes.
The Anatomy of a Scene
Establishing Shot
This is a simple scene or narration that sets where the characters are physically in the world. It is a great way to transition between larger set-piece scenes and gives a momentary break in the action, signaling that the game is moving on from where it was in the previous scene.
Think about all the times in a movie where you see an exterior shot of a building, or a wide shot of an interior, or even a matte painting. These basically tell your players where they are going to be playing out their scene. However, these scenes are a mere transition to the details.
The Inciting Incident
The Inciting Incident is a decision point that invites the players to take-action with their characters. The Game Master often sets up a scenario that transitions into asking the player's how they are going to proceed. The answer to that question is up to the players, but the GM has to set-up a scene in order to ask the question "What does your character do?"
Arguably, this is the most important part of any Scene as it now opens a game session up to what the players will do.
The Scene Itself
This is where the Player's dictate what their Characters are doing, and the GM has the world react to these actions. This may involve role-play, a challenge check, or other mechanics. However, it could be as simple as a narrative response to Character actions. This interplay of Action -> Reaction can continue as long or as quickly as the Players (including the GM) wish it to last, and the Players are having fun.
Honestly, this is the bulk of any given scene in an RPG.
Epilogue
The scene will end with a quick wrap-up to provide closure. The players or the GM no longer wish to react to the scene. There is nothing left to do and no where else for the scene to go. The GM can choose to end the scene or the players can let the GM know that they are ready to move on. The Epilogue is simply closing the scene and then starting the next scene with an Establishing Shot.
You can see how the Epilogue seamlessly can loop back to the Establishing Shot to create a virtuous circle until the player's reach the end of their allotted session time.
The Types of Scenes
L5R gives a great start for a list of scene types that a GM and designer need to understand when thinking about their RPG experience. I want to expand a bit on this with a few other thoughts and even detail the ones listed a bit further.
Social Scene
In such a scene, the main driver of the action is interactions between characters and each other, or with the NPCs of the world. In a social scene, the focus is on exchanging ideas via dialogue. If their are challenge checks, typically they are of a Social nature. This includes lying, detecting lies, convincing allies, intimidating opponents. Scenes focusing on intrigue are often Social scenes. Political games use a lot of Social Scenes.
Notable games that make strong use of Social Scenes are Legend of the Five Rings and Pendragon.
Stealth Scenes
These are scenes that are focused on moving quickly and quietly without being detected. Opposed rolls often take the form of stealth checks, with the occasional bit of fast talking. Stealth Scenes are often important in heist focused games.
Notable game that uses Stealth Scenes are Shadowrun and Blades in the Dark.
Investigation Scenes
These can overlap with Social scenes, but the focus here is on detecting and uncovering clues from the surroundings, including NPCs. Typically, I do not like to hide information behinds challenge checks, but here is where key skills like investigation and perception can come into play.
A few notable games that focus on Investigation scenes are Call of Cthulhu, Hard City and Gumshoe.
Travel Scenes
Here the focus is on exploring the unknown and discovering new things via movement. This can use a variety of checks, but the focus is on getting from Point A to Point B successfully. You discover new or forgotten things along the way.
A notable exploration game is Forbidden Lands and any Hex-Crawl focused OSR game.
Combat Scenes (Duels, Skirmish, or Big Battles)
It really does not matter of it is a one-on-one fight, party versus enemies, or the characters commanding regiments of soldiers on the field of battle. The focus here is by solving problems with violence. There are a lot of games that make this a big focus for gameplay and there are a variety of different mechanics for these types of scenes.
Notable games are Dungeons and Dragons and G.I. Joe: The Role-Playing Game.
Crafting Scenes
These are scenes where characters are building or creating new things to introduce into the game world. Thes can take many forms from magical equipment, technology, or even works of art.
Many games incorporate some sort of crafting, but it is often focused on -or-2 character-builds or is a side-quest of the game. Rarely is it the main driving factor of an RPG.
Shopping and Planning Scenes
In these scenes, Characters are gathered together to come up with their plans for the next few scenes by gathering intel, making plans, and acquiring the gear they need to accomplish their goals and objectives. These scenes are usually player driven and depending on the group maybe critical to game play, or the least exciting part of the game.
Like Crafting Scenes, most RPGs do not focus on this aspect of the game play. However, players engage and often initiate these types of scenes themselves.
Putting It All Together
As an RPG Designer, it is important to give your players some idea of how scenes should work in your game, and how they flow together. The Game Master should also have an idea of what Types of Scenes may occur in a game, with suggestions in the rules on how to resolve the most common scene types.
As the Designer, you should also have an idea of the most common types of scenes the game likes to lean in with, and build mechanics for the key scenes. Scenes types that are not the focus still need some rules, but the level of detail can be different.
For example, Glittering Void: The Role-Playing Game of Space Mecha Theatre is focused on two main scene types. Those are Battle Scenes and Social Scenes. Therefore, there are rather complex rules for fighting and for negotiations that extend and expand options using the Universal Mechanics. However, scenes for upgrading mechs, investigations, sneaking around, and shopping are slimmed down to more basic rules using the Universal Mechanic to resolve.
In Conclusion
As an RPG Designer, and a GM; it is important to understand how Scenes work to drive an RPG game. It is also important for the Designer to know the type of scenes your game wants to lean in on and give guidelines for all scene types. I offered only a handful of broad scene types to give you a starting point. As the designer, you will want to think about specific scene types your game will be recreating.
Until next time.....
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