Traditional RPGs, Literary RPGs, and Creating Campaign Worlds

In Traditional Fantasy RPGs, the campaign world is usually either a purchased game, like Forgotten Realms or Ravenloft or Glorantha or MERP. Or the world is a homegrown setting -- usually an amalgam of Tolkien plus generic D&D plus King Arthur. Most of these worlds are ancient, and there is no creation or origination per se -- the gods and other races have always existed, with no explanation needed or given.

Other RPG genres have sprung up, from post-apocalyptic (Gamma World) to horror (Call of Cthulhu) to Science Fiction (Traveller) to rabbits (anyone remember Burrows & Bunnies?) to espionage and superheroes and more (GURPS).

All these Traditional games were designed with one goal in mind -- they provide a fun place to game. That's it.

But there is an alternative -- the Literary RPG. In Literary RPGs, the larger-scale emphasis can be compared to a good novel. In a good novel, things don't just happen for a reason: they happen because the novelist has a theme (or themes) in mind. In a novel, nothing is random; nothing is just for fun. A good novelist wants to take the reader from one place to another -- that is, from one philosophical place to another. The path and the destination is determined by the novel's theme.

In a Literary RPG, randomness and fun remain part of the game, but rather than driving the game, they are merely tools used to complement the theme of the game.

In a Traditional RPG, the world is structured to make it easy for a player character to have fun. In a Literary RPG, the world is structured to make it easy for player characters to make philosophical journeys, to explore themes, as well as to have fun.

But what the heck does it mean for a player to make philosophical journeys or to explore themes? Here are some examples, both revolving around the theme of character evolution:

-- Jane's character, Gundersson, has had a chip on his shoulder ever since his mother ran off to join the Wandering Priests of Freya. He resented having to take care of his dad and his smaller siblings. Jane's adventuring takes Gundersson in search of his mother, and along the way he learns about the society and culture of the game, about the Priests of Freya, and about his mother -- and when he finally meets his mother, he understands the choices she made.

Gundersson may have grown in power and skill on his quest, and hopefully Jane and her game master had fun, but the game works on a literary level because the character evolved -- and the player and game master created a good story. Here, the theme is Understanding.

-- Mark's character, Cayman, is a powerful Necromancer and Illusionist who obtains a position as tutor to the King's heir. This Illusionist intends to use his powers to convert the heir to the worship of an Evil Demon. But as Mark plays the character, Cayman is amazed to discover that the sweetness and purity of the child, as well as the generosity and openness of the people he meets, actually taps a long-withered wellspring of love in his dead heart, and he grows fond of the heir. The Illusionist uses his knowledge to protect and educate the child about the evils of the world, and to grant the child magical gifts. Finally, when the Demon Lord sends minions to kill the youngster, Cayman gives his life to save the child.

Even though Cayman fails by traditional measures (he winds up dead) the adventure is a wonderful literary success because the character redeemed himself from evil -- he evolved -- and the player and game master created a good story. Here, the theme is Redemption.

Now, understand that these evolutions, these explorations of theme, do not happen by themselves. It takes intense effort by both the game master and the player to make it work. On the game master's end, it means creating a campaign world that lends itself to adventures of this type.

What kind of campaign world do you need for a Literary RPG? Rich, vibrant, detailed, logical, realistic, well-conceived, and deliberate worlds inspire and encourage theme development. You can start a Traditional game with an inn and a dungeon, but a Literary RPG needs lands with detailed geographies, governments, cultures, religions, guilds, forests, deserts, and, yes, sometimes magic and monsters. Most importantly, all of these must be deliberate. That is, they must be consciously selected by the game master to set the tone, to encourage character development, to allow intricate plot-lines, and most of all, to facilitate theme development.

It is possible to make a Literary RPG with elves and dwarves and vorpal swords, but by assuming the trappings of Traditional RPGs, the game master makes it harder for players to try on a perhaps-unfamiliar mindset. Better to create new races, new magics, and even new game mechanics.

Kingdoms and Honor offers the option of Literary RPG play. A major goal in K&H is to create good stories. To do so, we have created the entire world from scratch deliberately. We hope to emphasize several major themes: the struggle of good vs. evil; purity, corruption, and redemption; fall from grace; and honor. We are creating K&H's components -- the magic system, the races of the world, the history and myths of the people, the lands themselves in all their detail -- in order to facilitate telling stories that pursue these themes. We also create components for ascetic pleasure, for exploring still other themes, and, of course, for the fun of the game.

We choose not to include Elves and Dwarves, or other Traditional trappings, because we do not want to send a mixed message. We don't want our players to think in Traditional ways, so we are creating particular races and cultures, that allow us to explore diverse themes. We are creating our own RPG mechanisms that are designed especially for story-telling and e-mail play. And we are creating the history of the world from scratch from the origination of the gods to the creation of peoples and lands.

By designing components that are richly detailed and made to suit the purposes of literary play, it is possible to transcend Traditional RPG and create a new kind of game that is satisfying, creative, and wonderful -- that's the heart of Literate RPGs.

But in emphasizing the differences between Literary and Traditional RPGs, don't make the mistake of equating Literary RPGs and Collaborative Writing. There are important differences.

In writing, the authors have in mind ONLY the final product: a story, created in elaboration of their chosen themes. The process is not consequential, so long as it works, and how the story is created is invisible to the reader -- because the goal of writing is to offer a complete story. The reader doesn't need to know what goes on behind the scenes in the collaboration.

But in a Literary RPG, HOW the story is created is more important than the final story -- because the goal of a RPG is to please the Players, since, in a game, "play" IS the creation of the story.

And, as in all games, there is a chance of winning and a chance of losing. In RPGs, the game master presents challenges for the players to overcome. If they fail to overcome them, the players may lose the game. This is true in both Traditional and Literary RPGs. Literary RPGs take advantage of Themes to inspire and resolve challenges. Traditional RPGs determine challenges by doing what would be fun or interesting or creative -- but there is no reason necessary for a particular dragon to attack a particular village, for example. In a Literary RPG, there is a reason.

A good challenge in a RPG requires that the players have incomplete knowledge of the game, or that the outcome be in doubt because of chance (die rolls). The players do not have the entire course of the game planned out, and they do not know how it will end. That's true for both types of RPGs.

So, Literary RPGs differ from Collaborative Writing because process trumps story in RPGs. Players should not know everything, they can make mistakes, and they can fail. In Literary RPGs, the players and game master hope to possess a good story when the game is done, but their focus is on the process of creation, not the product itself.

A writer may hate writing, but she is happy to have a book when she is done. A gamer in a Literate RPG may not even care about the final story, but he should enjoy creating one.

I just read this in a book of stories and essays by James Tiptree Jr.:

What is written with pleasure is read with pain, and you must write with pain to be read with pleasure.

The idea is that a good book takes blood and hard work; if you are having fun writing, you're not working hard enough. This may be true in Writing (Collaborative or Solitary), in which your goal is to be read with pleasure -- that is, in which your focus is to produce a good story. But the idea of Literary RPGs is to enjoy the process. We don't care so much if the story is not the greatest -- we seek to write with pleasure.

If you would like to try playing a more Literary RPG, then please talk to any Creator about the options. The author of this document, Cayzle, is always interested in exploring literary gaming.