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Our role playing game has been around for 35+years. We immerse ourselves in collective story telling.
I have noticed over the years, that a Pathfinder/ D&D game that one plays, and the stories we create doesn’t necessarily translate well into other mediums, like film, and surprisingly into short stories and novels. Something seems to get lost.
Has anyone else noticed the difficulty with which our Fantasy RPG stories have in being translated to another medium?
Perhaps I am just barking mad (that is a distinct possibility) but I wonder if anyone else has noticed this, and also have any writers been able to bridge the gap between a fantasy rpg campaign story generated by a game and a written fantasy story with characters plot exposition conflict resolution etc?
It just seems as if one would flow naturally into the other, but well anyways what are some problems you have run into and what are some solutions you have found? what are your thoughts ?
Thanks
I've played with several regular groups since the early eighties, and the biggest hurdle I could think of in attempting to transcribe the rpg experience to text/video would be the blurring of the fourth wall. Whilst I've had many session sthat have been very intense (story-wise) these have been interspersed with sessions that flew because of the complete collapse of the fourth wall and a bucket load of meta-awareness.
Whilst sessions across the range of these experiences were all enjoyable, the (often) quick and unexpected changes between the two extremes work well in the gaming environment, and are very much an intimate product of the playing group and their instantaneous playing experience.
In attempting to generalise this for a broader audience, the irregular change in style, and lack of shared history with those involved in the ongoing evolution of the stories, would make a purely prosaic exposition somewhat exclusive and somewhat difficult to follow.
Just my thoughts - your km/l may vary.
Reggie
I'd really like to see something like this done for more traditional games, Pathfinder included, where you could have a campaign that incorporates the meta-game into the setting, rather than try and ignore it screaming in your face. Some kind of system where it is acknowledged that there is a player-PC relationship, and find ways of making that relevant to the entire endeavor, in effect making the setting self-referentially "meta."
A sort of an "Order of the Stick" campaign? Intriguing.
Have you ever read, from Dungeon magazine issue 25, the adventure "Hrothgar's Resting Place?" It describes a document that clearly alludes to gaming mechanics. (Admittedly, this was only background material, not an integral part of the adventure itself.)
As for the original question, I'm stating the obvious here, but the Dragonlance Chronicles started out as a game before the novels were written. The same goes for the Wild Cards series (although that's the super-hero genre, not fantasy.)
Translating a campaign into a novel verbatim is not a good idea, but I'm sure plenty of individual scenes in your campaigns would make good scenes in a novel. Maybe you could write a novel around those scenes?
Good food for thought :)
If you were to try to convert your game-stories into literature-stories (stage, screen, novel, short story, whatever) the first thing to do is go after theme and feeling, not chasing verbatim rules and spells and armor and... an example:
He was dead asleep one night when the alarm rang out. There were orcs in the mine! Carl jumped up and grabbed his axe and shield-knowing that his Brothers and Sisters needed all the shields they could get. Carl’s mind swam with visions of glory. He knew his only path out of the life of an apprentice was to be a hero and win much honor. As he ran through the cramped, twisting tunnels, there was an explosion in the distance. Though Carl did not slow, there was a rock dislodged by the explosion that had a different view of his future.
Carl was running as fast as his powerful legs could take him, and without ever seeing it, he stepped on a rounded stone. His foot slipped out sideways and he pitched headlong into a timber support, knocking himself out cold.
That's a short narrative. Imagine how lame it would be if it were...
Roll perception: 8, you keep sleeping. Next round, roll again: 17. You wake up to the sound of battle. "How long to put on my armor?" Four minutes. "Oh, I don't have time for that. I grab my shield and axe." You run towards the sound of fighting. Make a perception roll to make sure you follow the right sound, not echoes. "I got a 13" Ok, four rounds later you are running through a 5' wide, 6' high tunnel. Roll a REF save. "Ah dang! A 2!" You trip on a rock and fall into a wall, head first. Roll a FORT Save. "a 1! Come on, Dice!" You go unconcious.
The point is the stories are often exciting, and sometimes we color them vividly, sometimes we hide behind dice and systems. Storytelling *requires* color and texture and it is more than acceptable to sacrifice 'systems' references. I for one dislike novels that I can "hear the dice rolling" They just annoy me because it detracts from the story.
A while back I wrote a journal on a different forum about a PFRPG campaign. It was written for clarity, and for a gamer audience. Had I been writing it for a 'public' audience, there would have been a lot less 'dice rolling' in the words ;)
GNOME
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Some people have weighed in and they think the chronicle sheet is a good idea, others a bad idea.
It has been pointed out that the Pathfinder Society is essentially a marketing strategy, and is accounted as a marketing expense an expensive marketing expense.
We get a fairly well written module, written by professional game industry writers. As with anything, some modules are better written then others; but on the whole they are well written. We get to download these modules for $3.39. I would be very surprised if Paizo breaks even with the modules they produce for PFS.
The books are not terribly expensive either on the website they are roughly $10.00 a piece, probably a little more in a bookstore.
Is the Chronicle sheet a marketing strategy? Yes, and why not? The people at Paizo need to keep the lights on both at the office, and in their homes. If this incentive gets someone to buy a book I think that is a good thing.
From what I have read, from this chronicle sheet that you can apply to each of your characters records, you get two one time boons, and a magical an expensive magical item your character can buy. It has been said elsewhere, this doesn’t seem to break the game.
I would buy the book anyways and devour it like a greedy little child who has gotten his hands on the proverbial cookie jar when nobody is looking.
Soon I am making the trek from Vermont back down to Durham North Carolina so the doctor can make sure I am “sound as a pound”; and hopefully Steve Miller and the good folks at Game Theory in Raleigh will be able to wedge me in for a PFS game on next Monday night and Thursday night. While I would have read the book anyways, I now have a nice little incentive, namely the chronicle sheet, to try and read the book over the next week. Then one of the GMs there might be able to sign a chronicle sheet for me
By the way how do I get my grubby little hands on one? Where do I find the link to down load one?
On another divisive subject, that of replaying scenarios, (no I’m not going to try and animate that dead horse to kick it some more) I think the folks at Paizo have come up with a well thought out and neat solution that “kills two birds with one stone”. By sanctioning modules for PFS play, and allowing a couple of 1st level modules (master of the fallen fortress and the gods mouth heresy) to be replayed (both PCS and GMs get to apply credit to different characters), I think they have both expanded the materiel available for players and GM’s to use, and they have allowed replay in a limited contained way. With the “reset” button on these chronicle sheets, you can easily try out a new character concept without the character chewing up valuable limited credit. Also, it provides an easy way to toss in veteran players with novice players. Good job all around.
Did I forget anything? I usually do. Perhaps if they do another module like Crypt of the ever flame, with its Flip map, that would be a perfect addition to the Godsmouth Heracy, and the Master of the fallen Fortress. What am I saying,? The crypt of the everflame would be an excellent addition.
So how do I get my grubby little hands on one? Where do I find the link to down load one?
Thanks.