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[RPG Theory] Apophenia, RPGs & Creativity
Jan. 23rd, 2009 07:55 pm“Apophenia, noun: the tendency to see connections where none exist.”
— The Question, Justice League Unlimited, “Double Date”
One thing you hear often about roleplaying games is they are exercise for the imagination, they force players (including GMs) to flex their creative muscles to come up with all the imaginary stuff that goes into a typical roleplaying game session, to say nothing of a sustained campaign.
One of the elements of RPGs falling out of vogue as “uncreative” is creation of anything by one or more random die rolls: players demand more precision, more creative control, it is said. Systems of point-accounting or allocation are preferred to “roll 3d6 six times” or the like. What this new desire to take the randomness out of character, setting, and adventure design in RPGs does not seem to take into account is how inspiring that randomness can be. How the imagination fires when confronted with a seemingly unconnected list of things and told “make these pieces fit together.”
Take Marvel Super-Heroes for example. It’s character creation system is almost vestigial, since you’re expected to play Spider-Man, or Wolverine, or to fight over who gets to (or has to) play Spider-Man and Wolverine... At any rate, creating original characters is entirely by random die rolls, givng you a collection of abilities, talents, and powers. My game group still jokes about the “wings, claws, ice generation” combo that came up in one of our early games. Funny thing is, that system of randomly rolling-up characters provided some interesting sparks. Take the player who rolled up a super-strong, kind of clumsy hero with Quills who decided his hero was a humanoid cactus... the Mighty Saquarro! Would this player have ever just thought up such a character cold and decided “hey, that sounds like fun”?
What about the Traveller world-creation system that sometimes provided seemingly contradictory conditions? Some might say the system is broken, but what about the cases where the universe surprises us with seeming contraditions? What about the creative challenge of figuring out why that world with no atmosphere has such a high population? Could some sort of natural disaster have driven everyone into underground cities? Was cloning technology, intended to keep the colony alive during the Long Night, misused to create an underground world of overpopulated, disposable mine workers who have never seen the sky?
See what I mean?
Even that humble 3d6 roll. Imagine creating a D&D character as a blank slate, then choosing a class based on the character’s strengths and weaknesses (just as we tend to choose careers and vocations in real life). Rather than figuring out a class from the start and an “optimal build” for it, explain why your wizard is both strong (Str 14) and clumsy (Dex 8) in addition to his notable intellect (Int 17). Was he an oafish farm-lad far smarter than anyone gave him credit (because of his clumsiness) until the local wizard noticed him? Or was he on his way to becoming a soldier before a terrible injury almost crippled him, leaving him to study and discover a talent for the arcane? Or is he a wizard at all? Perhaps he’s a half-decent warrior, who’s slow in body, but a cunning tactician.
Sometimes RPGs forget that part of the fun of the game is not just putting together all those disparate parts, but filling in and providing the creative “glue” that holds them together and breathes life into them. There’s a lot empahsis on the mechanics of character building, rather than letting the random number generators (the dice) do a lot of the generating, and asking the imagination to fill-in the backstory.
— The Question, Justice League Unlimited, “Double Date”
One thing you hear often about roleplaying games is they are exercise for the imagination, they force players (including GMs) to flex their creative muscles to come up with all the imaginary stuff that goes into a typical roleplaying game session, to say nothing of a sustained campaign.
One of the elements of RPGs falling out of vogue as “uncreative” is creation of anything by one or more random die rolls: players demand more precision, more creative control, it is said. Systems of point-accounting or allocation are preferred to “roll 3d6 six times” or the like. What this new desire to take the randomness out of character, setting, and adventure design in RPGs does not seem to take into account is how inspiring that randomness can be. How the imagination fires when confronted with a seemingly unconnected list of things and told “make these pieces fit together.”
Take Marvel Super-Heroes for example. It’s character creation system is almost vestigial, since you’re expected to play Spider-Man, or Wolverine, or to fight over who gets to (or has to) play Spider-Man and Wolverine... At any rate, creating original characters is entirely by random die rolls, givng you a collection of abilities, talents, and powers. My game group still jokes about the “wings, claws, ice generation” combo that came up in one of our early games. Funny thing is, that system of randomly rolling-up characters provided some interesting sparks. Take the player who rolled up a super-strong, kind of clumsy hero with Quills who decided his hero was a humanoid cactus... the Mighty Saquarro! Would this player have ever just thought up such a character cold and decided “hey, that sounds like fun”?
What about the Traveller world-creation system that sometimes provided seemingly contradictory conditions? Some might say the system is broken, but what about the cases where the universe surprises us with seeming contraditions? What about the creative challenge of figuring out why that world with no atmosphere has such a high population? Could some sort of natural disaster have driven everyone into underground cities? Was cloning technology, intended to keep the colony alive during the Long Night, misused to create an underground world of overpopulated, disposable mine workers who have never seen the sky?
See what I mean?
Even that humble 3d6 roll. Imagine creating a D&D character as a blank slate, then choosing a class based on the character’s strengths and weaknesses (just as we tend to choose careers and vocations in real life). Rather than figuring out a class from the start and an “optimal build” for it, explain why your wizard is both strong (Str 14) and clumsy (Dex 8) in addition to his notable intellect (Int 17). Was he an oafish farm-lad far smarter than anyone gave him credit (because of his clumsiness) until the local wizard noticed him? Or was he on his way to becoming a soldier before a terrible injury almost crippled him, leaving him to study and discover a talent for the arcane? Or is he a wizard at all? Perhaps he’s a half-decent warrior, who’s slow in body, but a cunning tactician.
Sometimes RPGs forget that part of the fun of the game is not just putting together all those disparate parts, but filling in and providing the creative “glue” that holds them together and breathes life into them. There’s a lot empahsis on the mechanics of character building, rather than letting the random number generators (the dice) do a lot of the generating, and asking the imagination to fill-in the backstory.
