Quotes #10 - Game World & Genre

Game World
A “realm of reality” an SBRPG game takes place in. A Game World is usually one planet, but can be as expansive as a galaxy in Sci-Fi settings. Think of a Game World as the “World of Reality,” like an alternate dimension where the physical laws (Genre) are consistent.

Example: Earth during World War II - a near modern-day Game World. Another example of a Game World is a fantasy medieval world named “Myaha” full of knights, dragons, and sorcerers. A Sci-Fi example of a Game World is the “Orion Sector,” a 100x100 LY area of space.

Genre
A Game World has a Genre, which is a combination of World Mood, Setting, and Theme. This Genre can’t change once the Gaming Group sets it for a Game World. Genre is discussed more in the “Game Worlds” chapter, along with it’s sub-parts: Setting, Theme, and Mood.

Example: A good example of a Genre is exactly like how someone would describe a novel to you, “It’s an edgy, Sci-Fi crime drama.” “Sci- Fi” would be the Setting, “edgy” would be the Mood, and “crime drama” would be the Theme. All three of these together is the Genre.

Today's quote is from SBRPG 101, our 'getting started' chapter. We define the first two parts of the puzzle, game world and genre. For a game where you start from nothing and create your own world, laying out these definitions is critical to the creation process. Without laying these out and having the group agree to them, not much can happen.

We lay out the concept of a game world first, which defines where the action takes place. The game world is where all of your game's sandboxes will reside, and defines when in time your game is happening. We even lay out defined borders for games set in space, even though you can travel to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, it's important to define how big the area of space you will focus on will be. A game taking place in a dozen systems in a 10 LY area will be a lot different than one that takes place billions of stars in a 1,000,000 LY area. Defining the time period and scope set you up for the next big part, genre.

As we love to say, genre = setting + theme + mood. Setting your game's genre is one of the most important things you can do. It defines the level of technology, what is going on, and the tone of the game. This is one of the points we hammer in thorough the book, and always come back to. Genre defines everything - the characters you create, the factions that do battle, and even down to what happens when your character gets hurt. We will rip apart the pieces of genre in future posts, but there is a game design thing going on here that's important to think about.

Genre is the agreement your group reaches when play is started. It's like saying, "Everything in the game we will be playing will be set in a superheroic World War II, cover espionage in Europe, and follow a realistic set of rules." Everything that comes afterward, class creation, factions, what powers characters design, how guns work in combat, what situations happen in the game, everything - is controlled by the genre agreed to. This prevents things from slipping in that are out-of-genre, and keeps the game on track.

Roleplaying is very creative, and it is easy for a game to slip and get off track, we have been there many times before. There comes a point where more and more stuff gets added to your game, and at the end of the session, you sit there with an uneasy feeling of, 'this is not why we started playing this.' There also is the risk of stuff slipping into the game that flat-out breaks the mood, like realistic death or mental anguish in something that is supposed to be a simulation of a lighthearted kid's TV show or cartoon. Genre protects the game from things like this happening, it's a yardstick both players and the referee can hold up to actions, plots, and situations and say, "Does this really belong in this game?"

Genre can also free your creativity up and set expectations, if your group agrees, 'we are playing a game that simulates a horror movie,' then all bets are off. Anything that can happen in a horror movie is fair game, even all the stupid horror-movie cliches. It prevents feelings from being hurt, and also lays out to the group clearly, 'this is the agreed upon stuff that can happen in the game.'

Genre and game world seem really simple, and possibly even simplistic, but there is something bigger to them. We have played roleplaying games with a lot of people who don't understand what a roleplaying game is even about - why play them? A big fear people have is, "Oh, I am going to create this wonderful character and the referee is going to do something really nasty to them." To a completely new player, sometimes that fear alone is enough to scare them away from even playing.

Genre says, "What we all agreed upon when we created our world is what can happen in it." It sets the rules, expectations, and defines 'the worst thing that can happen' ahead of time. It is a tool for avoiding hurt feeling and arguments later, and also gives the group a framework for all the creativity that follows. Genre is the heart of SBRPG.

Quotes #9 - Class Design, part 2

"A character class is a character’s job, life-style, or profession. Anyone can have this job, and there is usually different variations of it. A good example of a class are the various types of Police Officers: highway patrol officers, K-9 officers, SWAT team members, or homicide detectives. A character can only have one class, and the character’s level reflects experience and achievement.

This chapter will take you step-by-step through the class design process. We will take you through the steps of coming up with a concept for your class, linking it to the game world, and coming up with the skills and statistics best describing the profession. With that said, let’s look at some of the non-design issues that come up when thinking about character classes.

Stick to Your Theme!

The Theme of your Game World (remember, Genre = Setting + Theme + Mood) controls what classes are in it. Controlling what classes are in a game world directly controls the Theme. No class that “violates” the Theme should play an important role in the game world. Just because a class exists in a game world, doesn’t automatically mean players can create PCs using it, or referees can create situations linked to it. While a “submarine captain” character class exists in a modern-day game world, it serves no purpose if your theme is “Urban Street Gang Battles.”

Example: Let’s say your gaming group is playing a “cops and robbers” themed game. Good character classes would fit within this theme: police detectives, bank robbers, beat patrol officers, safecrackers, and so on. A plot comes up where a criminal gang steals military weapons for use in a heist, and several soldier classes are generated for military NPCs.

This event shouldn’t “open the door” for military-style situations or character classes to be introduced into the game. A player shouldn’t design a military character to hunt down the weapons, and pull a whole host of military-related plots and factions into the game. The game world’s theme is “cops and robbers;” and while playing special forces commandos versus criminals might be fun for a while, it destroys the original Theme."

More fun from the Class Design chapter, this time explaining how classes fit into the game's theme better, and some of our game world definitions come up (more on that later). Classes you made for the game had to stick to the game world's theme - even classes designed later during play. This section also introduced the idea of being careful about letting stuff slip into your game that violated your game world's theme, dropping the hint that players and referees needed to focus and create characters and situations that supported the theme, and not to go off track too much.

This is a unique problem with a lot of generic RPG systems, they cover so much, it is too easy to have the game wander off into areas totally off the wall and out there. We let people have total freedom in designing what they wanted to play, but once decided, it was better for everyone that play (both from players and the referee) stuck to the original idea everyone came up with when the game world was first created.

SBRPG was created out of our 30 years of roleplaying experiences, and a lot of the knowledge we gained is shared subtly in these concepts. We have saw too many campaigns slip off track with stuff that doesn't belong, and eventually the campaign died due to it losing what made it feel special. Continually reinforcing your game's theme, limiting what happens to stuff that is supportive of the story, and even mechanical stuff like limiting classes may seem petty, limiting, or even simple - but not to new players.

Who will tell the next generation of roleplayers, "This is how you create a world, keep your story on track, and run a game?" SBRPG's concepts are tightly linked to these ideas and lessons, and while it seems like a simple 'story telling game' - it is actually a lot more. A lot of games print rules just because something needs to be handled mechanically; we wrote rules to make sure you avoid the mistakes we made, to understand what works and what may not, and how to craft something that is genuinely fun and will last the test of time.

Quotes #8 - Class Design, part 1

"You might be asking yourself - what Character Class do I want to play? This is one of the most important decisions a player makes, and one of the most personal. A character’s class is the role the character will play in the game, so choose a class you will enjoy playing. Anything is possible, and anything you can imagine can be fun to play.

When thinking about your design, remember strong classes are linked to Factions and conflicts in the Game World - and should sup- port the Theme. Character Classes are not just generic states of action, like “fighter,” “commando,” “spy,” or “spacer.”

No Character Class exists in a “vacuum,” as the job has to exist in the Game World for a specific reason. For example, a world full of savage medieval arenas and vicious gladiatorial combat should have Pit Fighters, Gladiators and Beast Trainers."

This came from the class design chapter, and it was a really cool system. In SBRPG, players designed their classes. One of the ground rules was "no one of a kind classes." If you designed it, it was in the world, and many of them existed. In fact, the classes the players designed became the focus of the world.

If your world was full of cyborg gangsters and alien SWAT teams, that's what you designed, and that's what you played. The focus of the game world became "cyborg gangsters versus alien SWAT teams", and you ran with it. Hey, you could always create another game later if this one didn't work out, no loss, the rules encouraged experimentation and free thinking.

Another thing you will notice in the quote is that we forced players to narrow down their designs. It wasn't good enough to design a "superspy" for an espionage game set in the 1960's. You needed to think, and design a "infiltration specialist", "disguise expert", or even a "surveillance master" for your game. Then again, if the players designed those three classes - those roles became the focus of the game world. The referee shifted the focus of the action towards infiltration, disguise, and snooping on others. Other superspy-related activities such as military assaults, microdot transcription, and other unrelated themes were demphasized, so the players could enjoy the creations they worked so hard on. It's not to say these types of activities were banned, the focus of the game remained on the set of classes the players came up with.

More on Class Design soon, as it was the heart of the SBRPG game.

Quotes #7 - Race Design

"In SBRPG, race is a combination between a person’s physical makeup (Human, Elf, or Alien Monkey Man), and their cultural background (Midwesterner, Emerald Forest, or Venusian). Thus, a “Emerald Forest Elf” would be a good example of a race.

Physical Makeup
Some races will share a common “physical makeup,” such as a race of Dwarves. One could say Dwarves are short, stocky, and can see well in the dark. If this is how all Dwarves are in your Game World, they will share these physical traits across every Dwarven race design you make.

Even among normal Humans, physical makeup can vary. Let’s make some assumptions. Let’s say hard working farm families breed strong, healthy children; while suburban cul-de-sac dwellers have access to better education, and greater opportunities for socialization. Using these assumptions as a guide, you could give characters coming from a farm family background bonuses to STR and END; while the suburbanites could receive bonuses to KNOW and CHR.

Cultural Background
The second part of a race is a cultural background. Just because all Dwarves share physical traits, doesn’t mean they are all the same. For example, the Humans of Earth are all similar in physical makeup; but they have many different ethnic, cultural, and religious groups. Simi- larly, Dwarves who grew up in desert mining towns would have a different set of background skills than Dwarves who grew up in hillside towns where they farmed potatoes. Even the children of the potato farmers would know something about growing seasons, planting, and caring for the land - just by picking it up from their parents. Where someone grew up is just as important as what they look like."

This is a section from SBRPG's Race Design chapter. Unlike most games, every player designs their own race before play. It wasn't a complicated process, and it served as a part of the world creation process - the races players designed were the ones in the world. If new races were added later, it was subject to group discussion and approval. If the players designed a world with just wolfmen and elves - that was it.

We also took a different tack on what a race 'was.' A race is the combination of physical makeup and background. You see this in some RPGs as the 'alt races' such as dark elves, rock dwarves, sun elves, or any other combination of environment plus physique. Unlike other games, we didn't allow 'vanilla' races, such as someone designing 'just an elf.' You had to pick a culture and background, and viola, that culture and background was added to the game world.

It was a perfect mesh of create and design as you go type of play that led to some very interesting creations. The entire game followed this theory, you make the design systems easy enough to be used by new players, but deep enough to satisfy experts. Everything in the world is designed during the first session of play with the group working together. Then, what is created is what is now in play in the game. It is a 'zen' of play, and I have saw nothing like it since.

Quotes #6 - Disputes

"You will have disputes over creative input. A player might feel another player’s or referee’s addition to the Game World isn’t appropriate, or a referee might think a player’s input just doesn’t fit in. If a creative dispute comes up, everyone should work together and resolve it - with as little hard feelings as possible.

In traditional roleplaying games, the referee is given ultimate authority over settling disputes. The referee’s overly harsh “six-gun justice” of shooting down anything constructive a player has to offer turns off players, and can lead to hard feelings.

In SBRPG, the referee should stop and think outside strong personal feelings and biases, approaching a dispute like a careful judge in a court of law would. Solutions should respect the original creator’s intent, but respect the shared vision of the Gaming Group’s original idea for the Game World.

The referee has the final say when a dispute can’t be solved. This “final option” of imposing a solution on the players should never be used, but should be available should things get out of control. When the Gaming group picks a referee, the group is trusting that individual to be impartial, and use this power responsibly. Solving disputes together as a group of friends is preferable to having one person impose a forced solution on everybody."

One of the companion sections in Playing the Game, Disputes, lays out what happens when someone disagrees with someone else. One of the unique parts of SBRPG is that a player can dispute a referee's interpretation of the game world - wow, that is unique, and it still is. The rule is:

"Respect the creator's original intent."

If a player creates a team of elite crack commandos their character is a part of, the referee can't turn around and make that entire team the villains of the game, turning against the player's character. The creator's original intent was 'be a part of a cool team of good guys' - and that can't be violated.

If there is a dispute, the entire group works it out, and the referee works it out. That said, if a solution absolutely can't be worked out, it falls to the referee to be a final, fair judge. In most cases in our playtests, it never fell to that, and people generally worked together and were respectful of each others additions.

Most disputes were handled on-the-side, a player would say, 'wait, maybe this would be better' - and the group would discuss quickly, and play would resume. The area referees needed to be careful was in secret plots or other behind-the-scenes stuff that would change a player's addition substantially later on. In practice, players created things they knew the referee was going to shape and meld, it was always cool as a player to create a mysterious group of enemies the commandos were after, and then gave the referee free reign on determining who they really were. People out to rule the world? Aliens? Half-animal mutant soldiers? Criminal masterminds? Who knew, but whatever they were, people were always surprised at  how things came out.

Quotes #5 - Everyone Owns the Game World

"The players own 50% of the Game World, and the referee owns the other 50%. This number isn’t intended to be a voting block; it’s an expression of the responsibility the players and referee share to keep the game on-track, sticking to the selected Genre, and keeping the game free from arguments.

Ownership doesn’t mean, “I put this in the game, it’s mine.” Ownership is a responsibility to respect, protect, and accept another player’s or referee’s creative input as being part of the shared experience of SBRPG. Once a player or referee adds something to a Game World, everybody owns it.

The referee is responsible for running the show, so the referee has the greatest responsibility. If a player adds a location, idea, or NPC to the game; it’s up to the referee to interpret it, link it to everything else the Game World, and make it come alive.

The players’ responsibility is shared, because the players have to respect each others input, and agree the referee has the right to creatively interpret their input. If a player adds an NPC to a Game World; the referee is free to take that NPC, and mix it with locations, NPCs, Factions, and the players' ideas."

Again, another quote pulled from the Playing the Game chapter, and a fun one. The group creates the world round-robin, even during play. If a player's turn comes up, and their space armsman is just sitting there in limbo, it is the player's responsibility to set the scene, come up with the ship the character is on, details about the stellar navy, where in the command rank the character resides, and anything else the referee needs to start that character. That 'content' is written down, notes are made, and it is added to the game world. From there, the referee takes it from there, maybe space aliens attack, maybe the armsman's ship receives a distress call from a liner under attack by pirates, or maybe the ship happens upon a hastily abandoned outpost.

Next player goes, and more is added. The referee can get into the act too, interpreting whatever the players come up with. Eventually, the creation parts settle down, and more and more becomes established. The group then plays in the sandbox, and whenever new material is needed, the creation process fires up again, and more notes are made.

The quote above describes 'who owns what?' - and the answer is 'everybody.' Everyone's contributions are equal, changeable by anyone, and owned by all. Players can change details about the referee's NPCs, the referee can interpret player's NPCs, factions, and locations as the referee sees fit, and everything starts in a highly morphable state. As play continues, things become 'set', and the group agrees to play things how the lie, it is a natural process, and one that is built into the game.

It seemed like it would never work - but in all our playtest groups, it worked surprisingly well. Players were delighted to be a part of the creative process, and a huge burden was lifted from the referee's shoulders to create everything. Most all our playtest players acted responsibly too, understanding they weren't there to create things to help themselves 'win', but to create things in the sandbox to enjoy with everyone else.

Quotes #4 - Referees, Let Yourself Go...

"If you sit down before play, and write an “adventure” for your players - you are playing this game the wrong way. In SBRPG, referees do not write adventures, create series of linked adventures, create location- based or script-based scenarios, or do any dungeon drawing. What does the referee do? The referee runs the Factions, sets up the action, and handles the reactions to events in the Game World. Everything is handled live, “as it happens.”

This means no “story preparation” time is spent between games - only bookkeeping such as Faction Reactions. During the game, the referee must improvise when a situation comes up. This doesn’t mean the referee “makes everything up” as the game is played. Systems such as Ripples and Faction Reactions exist to direct the action by suggesting Factions do in response. It’s up to the referee to decide what they do, implement plans, and keep the players informed of what’s going on.

This doesn’t limit the creativity of the referee; the referee is responsible for playing every Faction’s NPCs, and imagining, launching, and running Plots. There’s plenty of room for a referee to use their creativity within SBRPG’s storytelling systems. We have found SBRPG’s storytelling systems frees up a referee to be more creative, by “automating” many of a referee’s tedious tasks.

The action in the game comes from the interaction between the Factions and the players. Factions come into conflict, and Plots are launched by Factions in response. A PC may be part of one of these Factions, or get swept up in the action. PCs have the freedom to get involved with these conflicts, cause their own Ripples, which generate Faction Reactions, which launch Plots, and the cycle continues....

You are the referee, and you control the action as it happens. You decide what a Faction does during a Faction Reaction. If a player crosses a Faction, you get to decide how the Faction’s NPCs react. Not only that, you get to set up every scene players find themselves in; and create the challenges, situations, and opponents that will face them in those scenes."

This comes right after the player's role description, and lays out the role of the referee in the game. This is kind of like D&D 4's referee, where he runs things and keeps the session going, but a little more interactive and fun. Think of the game world as a huge sandbox game, like GTA4, Saints Row, or an MMO...well, maybe not like an MMO, but a sort of "big world with action and things happening on their own." Once a faction is created, the referee takes control and spins it off on its own.

The fun comes when the players start being players, and cause trouble, get involved, and start making ripples in the world. The referee consults some charts, gauges reactions from various factions and characters, and says, "What comes next?"

Of course, the referee can always come up with set piece locations, draw maps, and do all sorts of creative prep work. Ref's prerogative. Most of the ref's work is keeping track of the chaos players cause, tracking things happening in the world, coming up with faction NPCs, running to opposition, and being the master behind the scenes. The players really are enough work to handle, so we wrote out all the boring referee-work from the game, like drawing maps, writing scripts, and scripting set-piece adventures.

Yeah, it's referee-fan-service, but they loved it. After 30 years of me having to write adventures for game sessions, it was justified referee fan service. It's also how I love to play, and it was fun to share with our fans.

Quotes #3 - Players: Get Involved!

"A player’s best trait is motivation. You have to be a self-starter in this game. No one is going to write an “adventure” for you, so get off your chair and make something happen! If you want to be a hero, get out there and find an evil to stop. If your goal is survival, actively pursue making yourself safer. If you don’t know what you want your character to do, at least do your Character Class’ job - something will eventually come up. Becoming actively involved in the Game World only increases your enjoyment of the game.

In SBRPG, players design Character Classes to be part of the Game World. Well designed Character Classes always have something to do, and are closely linked to the conflicts and Factions in the Sandbox. There are no generic roaming “adventurers” in SBRPG’s Game Worlds, as everyone is involved with the action. The Genre (Setting, Theme, and Mood) helps further define and focus what is going on, and keeps players from feeling they are “left out” of the action.

In traditional roleplaying games, the players are entertained by the referee’s premade story - just like the audience for a movie. Pre-written adventures are the “script,” and a cast of NPCs waits to deliver their lines as part of the referee’s carefully created plot. Adventures play like a typical fantasy movie: battles happen on cue, the evil dragon is slain, the princess is rescued, and the credits roll.

In SBRPG, the players write the story, and help create the Game World - as it is played “live.” The players become the characters in the movie, and nobody knows where the action will go next, not even the referee. The storytelling systems in the game create an unpredictable element, immediately used by the referee to answer the question: “what happens next?

The action in SBRPG is unpredictable: battles rage between Factions on their own, a player allies with the crafty dragon, the princess escapes and has to survive on her own, and the movie never ends. There is no script."

This is from Chapter 3 again, and explains the role of players in the game. It is quite different from your traditional RPG, because most of the game world is made up on the spot, by the players around the table, during play, live. How does that work?

Let's say your turn comes up to play, and you are a private eye researching a case. You know nothing about the world, other that maybe you are in New York City in the 1950's. What now? Well, you tell the referee, "I have a contact I know, down at the local bar." You create the contact, the bar, and the details. Bonus points if you write the notes for the referee. Bang, it's added to the game world.

What's the balance? Well, once something is added to the game world, it's fair game by the referee, other players, or anyone else in the group to modify. It becomes a piece on the sandbox controlled by everyone. There is no "these are my things" in the game, it is all owned, created, and shared communally by the group. After a while, when the world is set, most NPCs, factions, and locations revert to the referee's control once things are established and running.

It can be a challenge to referee, but extremely rewarding. As a referee, it is extremely fun to see what players come up with; and as a player, it is addictive fun helping create the world you are playing in. All the groups we played with 'got it' and worked together, rolled with the punches, and built cool things together.

"No game like it," Remarked one player.

I agree.

Quotes #2 - No Fictional Sources

"One rule you must follow is to purge yourself from any fictional source material. Stay away from movies, novels, and comic books. Why? Those sources are other people’s ideas of potential Game Worlds, Factions, special powers, and settings. These “franchises” are so culturally powerful they will subconsciously take over your game by their mere presence. The goal of SBRPG is to create something new.

It is probably fun to play “your version” of another author’s idea, and playing “what if” with the idea is entertaining. You could do many things, like changing the Setting, “It’s like the OK Corral - In Space!”; Theme, “It’s Alice in Wonderland - But with Soldiers!”; or Mood, “It’s a Comedic Version of Hamlet!”

Yes, all these ideas are imaginative; but you’re skipping a lot of the basic creation of a Game World that’s fun to do, and ultimately more rewarding. These authors created their own “Game Worlds,” and then set about telling their own story in them - just like you will.

Make sure your idea is not a copy of them either, and give yourself some “breathing room” between creating your world, and looking at something that inspires you. The worst way to make an original Game World is to start by watching a movie, or reading a book. Develop your idea in your mind, twist it around a bit, and present it to other players in the group. Try to surprise them with how original your idea is, and then work together trying to combine your inspiration with theirs."

I took this section from chapter 3, Playing the Game. It's pretty bold, but in essence, it defines what we tried to do. Popular culture is so powerful, the stock monsters and spells of other RPGs are so prevalent, the movie of the moment is so in everyone's heads; it takes a conscious effort to divorce yourself from those influences, and do something new. 

It's not bad to play in someone else's copyrighted property, and we didn't want to leave that impression. If you are happy playing D&D, a game based on Tomb Raider, Star Wars, or any other property - more power to you! You are role-playing, and that's a good thing. But those worlds and idea have games written for them, or other games easily adaptable to them. We chose to purposefully NOT support that, and forced players to be creative. The rule was - you must create something original.

Reports from the field were cool, and it was always a blast to hear of people's wild creations. People made werewolf-hunting games mixing magic, swords and bullets; near-future spy thriller worlds; fantasy worlds with only two races at war; street racing games; original sci-fi worlds with exploration and conquest; and much more. It was a fun and creative time, and some of our players were inspired to write fiction about their creations. I hope their books worked out, and they were able to publish and share with others the things they made.

We had a quote later in the book about "SBRPG to roleplaying is like drawing in the negative space." Forcing people to get out of their element, away from pop culture, and to be creative and original was a fun design decision on our part, and it made many people happy. What would you create if someone told you, be totally original? People let go, it was crazy and creative, and everyone had a blast. Getting people to open up and share is one part of SBRPG that will always stay with me.

Quotes #1 - Remember this Moment

"If this is your first roleplaying game - save the feelings you now have. If this isn’t, try to bring back those feelings of wonderment and discovery. What did you expect when you first opened that box, or cracked the cover of the book? When you realized you could do anything, or be anyone you wanted to be, how did you feel? After your first game session, when you realized you had a lot yet to discover, did it excite your curiosity? That whole feeling of “starting fresh” is key to helping you enjoy SBRPG."

This appeared at the end of Chapter 1, and was a call to players to try and recapture that feeling of wonder and excitement of cracking the cover of their first roleplaying game all over again. Rediscovery, re-imagination, that fresh feeling of discovery and amazement - that is what is important to feel again. Jaded roleplayers, like ourselves, are too often dragged down in the mud of system wars, disappointment, and saw-it-all-isms. We forget why we started playing in the first place - we did.

This magic feeling is what we tried to capture. It sets you up for the path we took our players down, where the group decided together what world they wanted to create, what classes existed in it, what powers, what genre, what monsters, factions - everything was created fresh. It didn't take long either, all that work was often done in the first night of play. SBRPG was not the most complete or simulationist RPG, but it emphasized getting you started quick, getting everything decided, created, and play going tonight. 

Our goal was to get you back to that feeling of wonder we all had when we first joined our hobby as fast as we could.