An annual reflection and theory on crafting excellent roleplaying games.
This article was originally published on SubStack, but it has been republished here as this site will serve as the long term record for my thoughts, for good or ill.
I have read very few books this year. A little less than ten. Some silly fantasy, some non-fiction, and several that I’ve read before. However, the number skyrockets if you include tabletop roleplaying games.
Off the top of my head, I’ve read Vermis I, Vermis II, several iterations of the Mythic Bastionland playtest, Electric Bastionland (2nd time), The Realm, Journeyman, Cairn 2E playtest, Song of Black Frost, Mydwandr, Sleepaway, Reach of the Roach God, Vaults of Vaarn, The Isle, The Moss Mother’s Maze, The Electrum Archive, aaaaand this list is getting too long already without including any of the roleplaying texts I only partially read. Many of these are far more “system” than story, but does that matter?
When I read these texts I often pictured the adventures I could have with them or reflected on how my players would react to the monsters or trials they contain. Most of these are in PDF format and stored in the cloud. I have one massive folder titled “Tabletop RPGs” that doubles as a mind palace for me. For those unfamiliar, a mind palace, or “method of loci”, is a mnemonic device where one visualizes a location in their mind and places a memory within it. A common example might be the house you grew up in and placing a framed picture of someone you met on the wall with their name written on it. Then when you want to remember who they are, you walk through the house in your mind and you’re able to retrieve the memory.
Here is how my method works: I first open the PDF directly from my downloads. I try to read through all of it in one sitting whenever possible. After I’ve read the text, I reflect on it and the ideas it conjured. Then I take the PDF and store it in the cloud, placing it in an existing folder with sibling texts or creating a new one. Whenever I need to retrieve information about that game I visualize opening my file explorer, navigating to the “Tabletop RPGs” folder, finding the correct sub folder, and opening the PDF. This allows me to remember many of the details of the text and my experience reading it.
As a practical example, I was recently invited to a game with a few folks where the GM wanted us to pitch ideas for the premise. I opened that folder in my head and started scrolling. Briefly dipped into 24XX folder to check out Below and Quest, but nothing popped out. Adrift Upon the Still Waters of that Passionless Sea’s calming oceans and melancholy was exciting. It made me think of sad pirates or self-hating whalers, but since several members had done pirates recently I suggested whaling. Skipped past the brutal, goth, western Casket Land since I was playing with mostly non-Americans and I thought they wouldn’t enjoy the premise. Remembered a particularly fond scene from Vermis I where a Goblin Knight protects a magically slumbering princess and suggested something to that effect. And so my prompting continued. I clicked and clicked and delved and delved all without cracking open a book.
So to get to the point, finally, I think more GMs should focus on creating a library of material they can access. A library in their head. We talk a lot about stealing from other media, be it film, video games, or history books, but rarely about how to effectively steal. To steal from a book you read this year, you need to remember a book you read this year. I’m not suggesting brain games or essential oils or one trick doctors don’t want you to know about; I’m suggesting you try and make a concentrated effort to improve your memory. There are methods, like the one I outline above, but I think the most powerful method is intention. If you pause for a few moments after reading something and reflect on it to yourself, I believe you will see quick improvements.
So why does this matter? Well, improvisation is hard. Most of us haven’t taken improv classes and it’s a crucial skill that is oftentimes underdiscussed in the RPG sphere. In fact, I only see it discussed when it’s players describing why they don’t think they can ever GM. Improvising plot events, scene descriptions, NPCs, mechanics, and everything else you need for a fun game is not intuitive for a lot of people. You think you’re a bad writer? Well, we all know we’re much worse writers when we only have a few seconds to write each sentence.
So I don’t improvise. I remember. I describe what I’m seeing to my players, I mash up characters, I throw one-off mechanics from one text into my player’s laps.
I stir the soup of RPG material in my head, apply some authorial seasoning, and hope my players enjoy the mess that comes out the other side.
The Dolent Chronicle is an RPG blog produced by Dante Nardo. If you liked this post, please consider sharing it on whatever doomed planes you reside.