Most of you reading this post have probably been Role-Playing Gamers for a long, long time. As a veteran gamer, it can be hard to put yourself back in time to that first time you picked up the dice and gave them a roll. To think back to those first RPG experiences that led you down the path to playing these games for years to come. I know I can barely recall those days, well at least with any accuracy. They are all filled with the sepia toned tint of nostalgia. I can't really remember what I was thinking or what if felt like the first time I met a Medusa in their lair, the first time I faced off against a Super-villain, or the first time I infiltrated a Corp lab.
Thankfully, I don't have to remember. Thanks to the True Grit Gaming Guild I encounter new players all the time. These are folks new to the hobby or adventure gaming, whether it is miniature wargames or role-playing games. I know the first thing that they think about when they play these games, and it is NOT the same thing that veteran players are thinking. They always have one question, and it is up to a good set of RPG rules to be ready to answer it.
The Essential Question?
Many veteran gamers will tell you that the most important question and the most interesting question is:
Why is my character doing this?
This is essentially, the actor asking the director; what is my motivation? This is an excellent question and one that experienced role-players will generate answers for. Skilled GameMasters will tie into these motivations with their hooks and story lines. However, the truth of the matters is that this question should not be answered by the rules of an RPG. The answer to this question is intrinsic to the table, the players, and the GameMasters. They are the ones who drive the answer to this question.
It is a great question. However, it is not the essential question for designers to consider. For a designer, that is a different question.
The Essential Question! (For Designers)
Okay, smarty pants if the Why is not the essential question that RPG Designers need to think about what is it? I am glad you asked.
Again, you have to go back to those first halcyon days of being a player. The days when the broad world of RPGs was fresh and new, and you are taking your first steps into the world of cooperative story-telling and role-playing.
The first question I hear come out of player's mouths is usually this one:
Can I do X?
Initial role-players know why they themselves, as players are going to do something. They are not interested in the why. Often, they are not ready to Role-Play beyond the broadest archetypes such as fighter tough, rogue is sneaky, cleric heals, and wizard casts spells. They are busy trying to absorb the fantastical adventure they have found themselves in.
Instead, the focus of new players is often What? The standard RPG response is, you do whatever you want as you control your character. This is an unhelpful answer. The paradox of choice overwhelms them, and instead they focus the question to the Essential Question of All RPGS. Even experienced players trying a new game will face this same question.
This is a question that designers CAN answer! The answer is not intrinsic to the players of the game, but to the rules of the game. They are what sets what CAN be done in the gaming space.
Answering the Essential Question of ALL RPGs
Therefore, as a designer of RPGs you need to be able to answer "Can I do X?" in your rules. Of course, those of us who have played a lot of RPGs know that the list of what X is can be very, very, very long. It would be impossible to try and think of every single thing a player could come up with to try and do. No matter how many things you write down and cover, players will come up with a new one. It is impossible to out X players.
If it is impossible to list and anticipate all the potential Xs a player can come up with, how can rules answer the Essential Question of All RPGs?
There are three things to consider when contemplating this question:
These three concept work together to outline how an RPG Designer can help any player answer "Can I Do X?"
Here is how these three concepts interact together during the nuts-and-bolts of playing a Role-Playing Game to answer the Essential Question. Every scene is a Situation that your rules need to be able to "process" from point A (inciting incident) to point B (end of scene). The Player asking the essential question is the supplier who begins the process of playing out the Situation. Their input is any information on their character sheet that could apply to the situation such as attributes, skills, equipment, etc. or even information about their character from going beyond the numbers. The heart of the GMs job will be to process those inputs into the outputs, which is the world's reaction. If your game has a universal mechanic, than this process will often be a ruling or dice check that aligns with those Universal Mechanics. The output will be how the scene reacts. This is all for the benefit of the initial Player who asked the Essential Question.
Therefore, as an RPG Designer your rules need to be able to reflect and set guard rails for this game play loop.
The Essential Question in Play
Here is a quick example of how this would work using Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition as an example. The Dungeon Master explains that some Orcs have been sighted ahead on a distant ridgeline, carrying the stolen halflings with them. The characters being run by new players are in pursuit. The DM says that the Orcs are about 600 feet away, or two football fields and uphill above where the players are.
The new player looks at the sheet for their Elven fighter and sees he has a Long Bow and says, "Can I Shoot them?" They want to know if they "Can Do X?"
The DM knows that the scene will react to what the players do no matter what. They also know that this scene is intended to be a Chase scene where the main objective is to get closer to their target by overcoming some obstacles using either skills like Athletics or Attribute Checks to close the distance. They also know that the Long Bow in D&D 5th edition has a maximum range of 600 feet with disadvantage, because that is what the Character Sheets tells them. Therefore, the answer to the Essential Question in this case is Yes, you can shoot them BUT you will have disadvantage (Mechanic), notify the Orcs you are in pursuit (Reaction), a Critical Failure could hit one of the Halflings instead of an Orc (Mechanic), and you may need to make additional skill checks to close the distance (Scene).
The DM, with the help of the Designer and an understanding of the Core Gameplay Loop; has been able to answer the Essential Question.
Tips to Make Sure Your GMs Can Answer the Essential Question
Here are some tips when designing your rules to make sure you are helping GMs answer "Can I Do X?"
1. Be Clear about your Gameplay Loop
Be very upfront with the GM about how to structure a scene and the intended gameplay loop of your game. The Players need to explicitly know how the mechanics translate to action resolution. Do not be subtle about this process, be crystal clear. That does not mean that you need to make a chart of resolution for all key actions, but you do need to be clear about what success, partial success, critical success and their opposites mean in your game.
2. Be clear about the type of scenes your game is supposed to play out
Is your game focused on combat and chases? Is it primarily sneaking about and subterfuge? Is it about crafting for the big art show and running a local gallery? Be clear what types of situations and scenes you expect your players to experience as they play your RPG. Will the challenges be Social, Political, Spiritual, Physical, Combat, Crafting, etc. Of course, it maybe some of all, but be clear about the mechanics involved in all these scene types and which ones are the focus of the gameplay loop.
3. Avoid Mini-games, keep to unified mechanics!
If your rules always roll a dice pool of attribute + Skill looking for a number of 4+ success threshold to determine success; always use that same process to determine a success. Do not make tracking a coin flip, stealth a game of paper, rock, scissors, and combat a d20 looking for a TN = to the Armor rating of the target. Always use the same method of resolving a test so no matter what happens the Players can fall back on that for any tests not specifically called out in your rules. Make the resolution mechanic universal!
4. Give guidance in your game
Where possible, explicitly give guidance on how to resolve the most common scene types. If the game is focused on tracking and avoid detection from big, bad, scary things than make sure as a designer you are very clear about how this is resolved.
5. Make Inputs That Matter
Players are looking to their Character Sheets to understand what they can and can not do. Make sure they can get a feel for what is possible from the sheet itself. Make the details on the sheet relevant to the gameplay loop you are creating. In our D&D example, the range of a Long Bow was needed to answer the Essential Question.
Final Thoughts
People playing your game will be looking to the rules you design to understand the Essential Question. Players need to know "Can I Do X?" Do not make them guess, where possible tell them explicitly in your rules.
Of course, you can not tell them the answer to every "Can I Do X?" question, because someone will always come out of left field. However, your rules can give the information and structure to help the Players decide for themselves if they "Can Do X?" These tools do not accidentally end up in a rulebook, they have to be built into it by you, the designer.
If your rulebook does not guide players on how to answer the Essential Question of RPGs, than you need to go back and revamp it from the ground up.
Until next time!
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