Fantastic Stories and Where to Find Them

We’re sitting down to play, everyone has their favorite (or brand new) dice, fresh character sheets carefully filled out (or covered in wild notes), and maybe even some awesome miniatures.  You’ve got this awesome adventure all plotted out.  You know every story beat.  This is going to be perfect.  By the end of the session everything has happened exactly the way you planned.  The characters are all right where you wanted them.  You look around the table as you call game for the night, and nobody is smiling.  You were so busy telling your story you didn’t leave any room for your players to tell their characters’ stories.

As satisfying as it can be to tell a complete story with no plot holes left, no loose strings for others to tug on and unravel everything, that’s not usually a good RPG story.  That’s a book, a novel, a screenplay.  If your players’ characters don’t have the agency to tell their own stories within your framework, they will feel less real.  Their victories will feel more hollow, their defeats will feel flat.  Those exciting moments that get retold for years to come won’t happen if the players aren’t invested.  If they don’t feel like their characters have the freedom to succeed or fail on their own terms.

Every character has their own story to tell.  Whether it is as simple as "Reggie SMASH!", or as complex as "Reggie’s family has worshiped ancient gods in secret and he’s living in exile after they were all killed or jailed by his Uncle who usurped his throne (at the behest of a demon)".  Or both of those.  And "SMASH!" can be a complex story too, don’t underestimate the story that can be told by the character that’s just there to hit things.

So we want to give our players agency in the stories their characters get to tell.  How do we do that?  The simplest, but sometimes the most difficult, is to just ask during character creation.  “What kind of story do you see/want for this character?”  Super simple, just have a conversation with the player.  Difficult because as many RPG veterans will tell you, characters often seem to take on a life of their own, what you thought was a strong goal/motivation can become meaningless to the character as they grow and find their own voice.

I usually try and have regular check ins. Where I get group feedback about the story thus far, the game balance of combat, sneaky, talky, political intrigue, and whatever other elements are predominant in your story. But asking the group as a whole won't give you a complete picture. You should also do individual check ins. Find out if that subplot about the demons pushing things behind the scenes fills the nefarious plots bit they were looking for this character to be involved in. The group story, the individual stories, the moments. All of these can be things that are working,  or not working, for a particular player and their character.

Sometimes a character has changed too much, or the group story has, and a character needs to leave. Maybe their force-using plant, that will be hunted down by their own family if they fall to the dark side, ends up not being a good fit with the grey/dark side campaign that forms. If possible give them an appropriate send off as you introduce that player's new character. Or, have that character participate in the local holiday, go full burning man, and come out the other side a changed person. Whatever works best with you, them, and the table as a whole.

Occasionally a character's story is directly at odds with the other characters. Done well, with the right players, the right setting, and excellent execution, it can be an amazing moment when the were-rat barbarian fails their saving throw and their alignment shifts to evil. In the middle of a dungeon crawl. With the paladin up front using Detect Evil sonar as the party slowly works their way through a rough section. And suddenly Detect Evil pings at the back of the party. The paladin turns around and yells at everyone to get out of the way.  And you get this epic spaghetti western style standoff right before the end. 

But that's an exception. Not the rule.  That's probably a ramble all itself. Players as antagonists is a very specific story that needs to be handled with care.  Typically I'd recommend to gently push your players away from that sort of thing unless everyone is on board out of character for an antagonistic story. 

We're telling stories, together. That's the goal, to have fun telling stories exploring fantastic settings, or places that feel like they could be across the street from our favorite game store. Communicate with your players, help them communicate with each other, and create frameworks that allow you all to tell great stories.

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