In the past year or so, I’ve been experimenting more with tabletop roleplaying games. The games I’ve been most attracted too are best described as “narrative roleplaying.” In that style of RPG, the players often describe an action during conflict resolution, rather than game it out. Sure, there’s usually still dice rolling to determine outcomes, but the actual conflicts and actions are described, rather than played out on a game board. Good examples of these types of games would be White Wolf’s Scion series and Evil Hat’s Spirit of the Century.
On the other hand, a game like Dungeons and Dragons 4.0 is very tactical. You really can’t play D&D 4.0 effectively without miniatures and a game board. I’ve played through some D&D 4.0 sessions, and found them to be somewhat tedious.
My friend Ron, on the other hand, really loves D&D 4.0. When he’s sat in on some of the games I’ve run, he tends to get bored after a few hours. “It’s your fault,” he told me recently. “Battletech ruined RPGs for me.”
Ninety Seconds in Eight Hours
Years ago, I ran a full-on Battletech miniatures campaign. This was back in the era when the now-defunct FASA Games was still a going concern. I had boxes of Geohex foam terrain. Geohex was beautifully flocked, 3D terrain made of Styrofoam, with modular components, so you could build a large scale game board that looked great. (Geohex seems to have also faded away, too.)
The Battletech campaign ran for about five years. We’d get together about once a month, and roleplay some of the events leading up to what would then become an 8-10 hour marathon of miniatures gaming. We’d be lucky to get fifteen turns done – about 90 seconds of game time – in those eight hour sessions.
I had a great time running those games, and not just because I’d run an entire side (one to three lances of mechs) on my own, against the players, each of whom had no more than two mechs each. But I could never go back to the time where eight hours would mean a dozen turns played.
Whenever I’ve sat in on a D&D 4.0 session, it reminded me of those Battletech days of yore. To be fair, a D&D 4.0 turns don’t take 30-45 minutes each, but they often take a good 15-20 minutes, depending on how analytical the players want to be. A single encounter can still take several hours. Whenever I’ve GMed a narrative style RPG, an entire encounter would take maybe a half-hour.
That’s the time issue. Playing for a full day, and only getting through a single encounter (and a handful of actual turns) necessarily makes the campaign move a little more slowly – at least, if you have an encounter per session.
The other issue is imagination. As soon as miniatures get plunked down on a game board, I start to focus on something that’s like a board game, rather than giving my imagination free rein. That’s why I’ve been gravitating towards games in which encounters and conflicts are described in loving detail by the players, rather than played out on a map board. I can’t say I’m good at it yet, but I have more fun with it. Maybe it’s the writer in me.
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Duncan says:
October 21, 2009 at 3:26 pm (UTC -7 )
You should check out The HoneyComb Engine (http://www.honeycombengine.com/) being released by Corvus Elrod (for free!). He’s been working on narrative/storytelling RPG design for a while now. Might be right up your alley.
Chris says:
October 21, 2009 at 6:27 pm (UTC -7 )
If you want a good mix of role playing and tactical, check out HarnWorld from Columbia Games. Incredibly detailed world that could actually be used in any campaign or with the HarnMaster ruleset. Honestly, it’s my favorite tabletop RPG out there, just hard to find players that have even heard of it.
cls says:
October 22, 2009 at 3:00 pm (UTC -7 )
Yeah, I’m definitely more in the Narrative camp. Your post pretty well sums up my experiences with both types of gameplay. I like them both, but they’re pretty different. I’ve found that D&D 4.0 doesn’t scratch the RPG itch very effectively. It’s a tactical, fantasy combat game. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not what I think of when I think of a PnP RPG.
Max Heim says:
October 29, 2009 at 3:48 pm (UTC -7 )
The hardest thing seems to be getting the players to *roleplay*. That is, to speak with the voice of their character, rather than as your buddy across the table. This goes for the GM, too — it needs to be clear when the GM is supplying information about what the characters see or hear, and when he is speaking as an NPC. I don’t know how you would go about enforcing this without getting all “Simon says” about it, but it seems to be a major impediment to getting into and staying into the story. That, and the long-winded but irrelevant talespinning that inevitably accompanies these get-togethers.
Maybe everyone needs to bring a costume hat, and the GM ignores them unless they put on the “character hat”. Of course the GM would need a whole box of hats…
Max Heim says:
October 29, 2009 at 3:56 pm (UTC -7 )
I actually think the D&D 4 combat system is simpler, faster and less time-consuming than 3.5. Characters are limited to performing actions that fit into the grid, and doing their special feats, all of which is pretty well documented. This involves a lot less hemming, hawing, improvisation and special ruling on the part of the GM (and less opportunity for special pleading on the part of the players), and the math is certainly simplified. Anyway, I don’t see how the combat resolution system affects the roleplaying, particularly, other than by using up session time. But D&D encounters have always eaten up session time, going back to Greyhawk. If you don’t want long encounters, don’t ambush a party of 6 with 14 orcs. Attack with one Umber Hulk instead.
YS says:
November 12, 2009 at 1:46 am (UTC -7 )
Thanks for this post, Loyd. You’ve absolutely nailed the reason why I don’t like D&D, and in a way better than how I would have been able to express that dislike.
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