The Ancient
Drum
Road trippin' with
my two favorite allies
Fully loaded we
got snacks and supplies
It's time to leave
this town
It's time to steal
away
-- Road Trippin, The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Hear the beating of an ancient drum. It’s made of animal hide from a long dead cave bear that his grandfather slew. It’s made of oak from a great tree in the forest, beyond the river, that was struck by lightning, that his great uncle traveled to when he went searching for his spirit animal. The hand of an aunt carved it, who poured the spirits of the beasts into it when she carved their likenesses into its wooden body. It has been worn smooth by time, passed from hand to hand, storyteller to storyteller, and now it rests in his hands, which beat out the rhythm of the heart. Hear the beating of the ancient drum. See the drum in your minds eye. We sit about a fire amid the rolling plain, wrapped in the warm fur cloaks made of mammoth hide. We sit here to listen to him. We sit here to listen to the one who is about to tell us a story. A story of the dreams, a story of what might have been. He is about to tell us a story of hope and of glory, of darkness and of light, his story and ours. And in a deep steady voice he begins, and silently we listen . . .
RPG: Role Playing Game. We have all played them, whether you realize it or not. In our minds eye when we dream, as children when we play let’s pretend. We enter into a role that is more than who we are, beyond who we are in this world, in this time, in this place. We imagine ourselves in our own personal legends, our own personal stories. Everyone does it, everyone can do it, and that at its heart is what RPGs are.
They are the stories of our dream lives. The Role-Playing Game is simply a tool for expression like a painter’s brush or a writer’s word processor. Like any tool it is not inherently good or bad in and of itself. It’s all in how you use it. However it’s also an art form, and like with any other art form it cannot be judged objectively. Some people are gonna like the way you write, others are going to hate it.
What is the most important thing about any RPG? Is it the story? Is it the setting? Is it the mechanics? Is it the characters? No, the most important thing in any RPG is to have fun! If you’re not having fun, something isn’t right and the game is going nowhere. Some people get by with roll-playing, shooting the dice and killing stuff for a few hours.(,) [“60 m1ndl3ss v1ol3nc3!!! wh00!!” 8^)] Which has it’s merits. I know there are a lot of times when that’s how I want to spend my time. Doing it all the time though gets boring and a computer does the job better than a guy with dice anyway (unless you want really creative battles.) Moving on, most people want a bit more than mindless violence; they want story. [“s0 60 r34d 4 b00k d00d!” |8^/] Books are nice, but there’s something to be said for making your own stories, and this is where an RPGs true potential lies. It brings the personal legends of our dreams to light. If you don’t want that though fine, you do what you want to do to have fun and I’ll do what I want. [“r0ck1n!” 8^D]
A good game, in my opinion, does not depend on the mechanics or the exact setting. It does depend upon the storyteller, the story and the players. The Storyteller is the one who crafts the tale that the players take part in. They have the role of deciding what happens. They must play the roles of writer, actor, director and even God. For, the world that the characters in this story enter is entirely under the Storyteller’s control . . . no small amount of responsibility. I could write an entire rant (and will!) about the Storyteller’s role. For; now suffice it to say they must keep in mind 3 things to ensure that the primary objective is met (for everyone to have fun in case you forgot.) First, they only have half the power. This is not a one man job. If you want to have complete control over your story, write a book. Listen to the players and be prepared for things to travel off track. Go with it, especially if it means having more fun and change things if it’s not fun. After all, the players are deciding to invest their time in this game when they could be doing other things. Treat them as equal partners not lesser beings. The second thing goes with the first. Be prepared to be flexible, bend the rules when needed, change your plans, nothing is perfect so . . . adjust. Nothing is written in stone so take advantage of it. The third rule contradicts the first two: be firm. To be firm, first know what must be done. Letting the players run everywhere, giving them too much power and generally not having a clue are sure roads to ruin. Which leads us to the next aspect of the game: the Story.
The Story, the tool of the Storyteller, to truly use it you must first know what it is. If you have no clue, do not expect your players to have a clue. Know where it begins, know where it ends and have a rough idea how to get from point A to point B before you start. Otherwise you send your players to wander off aimlessly into the dark. Maybe you can bluff it for a while, but you better get a story pretty quickly, because after awhile it will be noticeable. Noticeable . . . if not to your players, to you. This is the best way to end up staring blankly at your players, desperately trying to figure out what to do next after you’ve painted yourself into a corner. If you know your goal you can act with confidence, you can know when to be flexible and when to be firm and you can do your best to make sure everyone is having fun.
The Players; without them you might as well be writing a book . . . they have certain responsibilities as well. First is to create a character that they want to play and that will play well with the other characters and work well within the setting. I’m personally a stickler for well developed characters. As a Storyteller my role is to craft the setting, the plot and all the people your going to interact with. You; only have to construct a single very well developed entity. At the least you can make that person plausible, fit into the group and have some depth. That said, make a character, not a bunch of numbers or powers. Construct a well developed history, the character should know where he’s been, how else are you going to know where you’re going? This even goes with amnesiac characters. So he may not remember where he’s been himself, but you still should know and so should your Storyteller . . . why should the Storyteller do all the work to create this history?
With all these pieces in place you are ready to play. It’s more work than just sitting down by the fire, wrapping yourself in some mammoth skin and listening. But, then it’s more than doing that. You’re not just listening, you’re making this story come to life and you’re a part of it with your fellow listeners. Your knight friend has your back. The bard is ready to immortalize your legend in song (though if he starts singing in real life you’re gonna bop him one.)
Let’s go get lost . . .
-- Road Trippin
-- Prax