Tutorial - How to make a good Role Playing Game

RPGATEWAY TUTORIAL – HOW TO MAKE A GOOD RP. By Lord Saladin.


So, as the title suggests, I am going to give a little discussion on creating RPs (Now I sound like an orator). But, I think it is a good subject to discuss, and hopefully, new people can use this as a reference when making their own RPs for the first time. Who knows, maybe even the more experienced people can.

So, what are we going to cover? A few basics I think, first. What does a role Play Game need to include? Well, let's talk in general...

*A story
*Characters
*Elements of conflict

In the absolute basic sense, that is a role playing game. Now, of course, those three elements are intermingled in a rather intricate web. The story depends on the characters, and includes the conflict. The characters move around the plot, which includes conflict. Without characters, there can be no conflict, and therefore no story. Looking at that theory, it is clear that all three are needed to make a role playing game.

Look at Final Fantasy, for example. Which one shall I use as an example? Because, in my opinion, looking at RPGs outside of text based online RPGs, Final Fantasy is by far the most influential RPG ever made. And are the best, once again, in my opinion. Let's take FFVIII, my first ever Final Fantasy.

We need to look at all three points, so here goes...

*STORY -- The pretense was quite interesting, and gripped you in... A school of military elite, a dictatorship, promises of a love story. Them as you got into the story further, you see twists and the like on so many different levels, all the way to the end, when all was revealed.

*CHARACTERS -- A myriad of characters can be found in any Final Fantasy, but none quite so much as FFVIII... The main character, Squall, a rather moody teenager with obvious trust issues. A character a lot of people can relate to... I think we were all moody teenagers at one point. Then we move to the enigmatic sorceress who holds a dark secret, and is powerful beyond belief. And, I could go on, but would only bore you. The key thing is that all the characters are charismatic, and draw you in on a certain level.

*ELEMENTS OF CONFLICT -- FFVIII shows conflict in the way of war, the most widely recognised form of conflict. But, we see much more subtle conflicts in there as well. Look at Squall and Seifer - they fight much later on, but their rivalry is there from the start, the confident bad boy wanting to prove himself against the only other student, who is also younger, that uses a gunblade. We see, in the first few scenes, a style of conflict in the way of Quistis trying to get past the defenses of Squall, and find out more about him.

From that brief explanation, I am sure that even people who have never played the game can see how all elements work in a more 'real' situation, beyond mere theoretical ramblings.

So, how can we link this all into our everyday text based RPing? I guess we do it naturally in a sense... We play our characters, who through their interactions make a story, their individual backgrounds add to the overall plot of the RP. Conflict will happen naturally, and we occasionally make it happen. So, as you were reading the points I made on FFVIII, I expect you were thinking much the same as I was when writing it... "I already do all of these things." Yes, you do. We all do.

So, what can we do, when we are making a new RP, and considering these main basics?

Well, we first need to establish how, in one post (as it normally is when making a new RP), we can include all three elements. Can we include all three of them?

Let's take a look at each one and see if we can include them in the first, introductory, post of our new RPs:

*STORY -- Yes. Definitely. We can give some element of background, a reporting of the current situation, and the potential of what is going to happen in the future.

*CHARACTERS -- We can introduce our own character(s), but can do nothing about the characters other people will create. So, not really.

*ELEMENTS OF CONFLICT -- Tied into the story, you can show where conflict can occur, on multiple levels. So, this is almost included whether we like it or not.


So, with those elements, we have the potential for making a role playing game that can essentially rival any Final Fantasy game.

But, does having those elements on their own make your RPG good? Not necessarily. What we need to do is make it so that we interest other RPers. So, how do we do that?

The answer is far from simple, but I will try to make it so.

The key thing is the story, all revolves around the story, the story revolves around all. If we think about it logically, that makes perfect sense: Without the story, there are no character, but without characters, how can there be a story? The story will involve conflict, but without conflict of some kind (not just fighting, keep that in mind when I say conflict) how can the story progress? And without a story, what reason is there for conflict? And, I could go on and expand that train of thought further, but we would go round in circles, all with the story as the pivotal point.

We need to make the story compelling. We can do that in various ways, once again, utilising the other essential elements:

*CHARACTERS -- When another RPer reads your introductory post, if they think "Oooh! I have a character that would fit in there perfectly." or "I could easily make or adapt a character for that", the chances are they will join in.

*ELEMENTS OF CONFLICT -- Whether it be a war, an uprising, a school environment, conflict needs to be obvious, as you will find conflict will be the main cause of interaction, directly (eg: Two characters arguing) or indirectly (eg: Another two characters complaining about the arguing). It will always give way for a more natural, human dialog. And whether this be explicit (eg: The world was in turmoil) or implied (eg: The frial alliance between the two groups), any hint that the characters people will be placing into your RP will get the chance for that natural dialog will spark an interest.

Again, however, in that last point, we see that the key elements are always intermingled in some way.

The story, once again, being pivotal, plays just as big a part as the other two elements in sparking interest:

We could play out a rather simplistic story in our openings. eg:

"The world was in turmoil, and war ran rampant, many people dying, and the relatives of those seeking revenge"

Now, this COULD be enough to spark a battle hungry RPer's interests, and perhaps others who feel they could expand on that basic situation and make the story their own. However, in general, it won't attract a great deal of interest. Why is that?

Well, we don't really have all the elements. Yes, we have elements of conflict, but that is all. The story is missing... Why is there a war? Between whom? And, with the story missing, we miss out the characters element... There is no reason for me to place a character in that situation. How do I know how NPCs (Non Player Characters - a bit like extras in a movie) will be acting. There is nothing to entice me except for the battles. And, if I wanted a fight, I would go to Battle Arena.

So, what can we do to improve this?

"For the past five years, the world has been in turmoil, the two super powers have been battling for total control. It is as though nothing matters but their own prowess and position; and the military kill without thought, any not wearing their own colours is killed. As such, many rebel groups have risen, either fighting off against one or the other side, or deciding to end the cause of both groups, being tired of friends, family, neighbours being killed for no reason other than a man's ego."

Okay, so a tad more detail, just under three lines of further detail. And what do we have? We have all three elements once again. Story -- we know why the war is happening, we know of why the smaller groups are rising up, we have a time frame to which we can work our characters. And now, we move on to the other lacking element; characters. We now have motivations for our characters to be in that world; we know how they will feel; we know of the characters of those who made the story what it is. That would be the two leaders, and the soldiers.

With those, we can now, as a role player reading that intro, as scant as it is, say "I know a character that would fit perfectly in that" or "I can easily make or adapt a character for that RP." I know that I could, quite easily.

So, we know that the story needs to be able to spark the two other 'key' elements in RPGs, but what else can we do to make our RPs more appealing to others?

When considering the story, outside of the three elements now, we need to take into account a few things:

The fact of a potential progressive plotline will allow people to think about ways in which their own character can influence the story, and potential ways in which they can allow their character to grow whilst within your RP.

So, what exactly is a potential progressive plotline? Perhaps it will be easier to explain first of all the opposite. A definite progressive plotline. So, let’s say you have the past and current story set up. And we will continue with the war scenario… The reasoning for the present has been given, along with a brief analysis of the current situation. And then, you would write something along the lines of:

“And now, as the two groups reach the pinnacle of their contest for power, the western power will find itself under great pressure as the more neutral groups side more towards the eastern forces. However, the west has a secret weapon… One that could easily remove the human race from being on this planet.”

What is wrong with that?

You have already said what is going to happen in the future… So, in some sense, the other players are left to simply play out what you have decided to do. In some way, that will be limiting the creativity of the other players. Should I look around the site, and stumble upon an RP that would be telling me what I would have to do; I certainly would not join, no matter how good I think it is.

Why is that? Because RP is, on one way, group creative writing. And, as such, all players should have the opportunity to work on the plotline, and all other aspects of the Role Play. This is important for the enjoyment of the players.

So, in overview of the basics, essential parts of creating a Role Playing Game; we need to ensure the story is captivating, containing opportunities for myriad characters to join, and also we need to demonstrate where there will be opportunities for elements of conflict.

Now, with the basics summed up, let’s take a look at a few more advanced aspects. Again, there are three of them:

*Environment
*Stipulations
*Limitations

Let’s look at each in turn once again. These three aspects do not essentially run in such an intermingled manner as the basics, despite linking with the basics rather concurrently.

ENVIRONMENT – So, we have our story, and let’s continue with the theme of the war RP example. What elements do we have? The two super powers, the more mutual groups, and, although unsaid, we have the civilianship.

So, what do we do for the environment using those three elements? We give the environment, of course! Of course, we need to know what that means. Let’s find out.

The environment, in a Role Playing Game is more than just the trees, the layout of the hills, the placement of buildings. It is more about the world itself. What level of technology does the world have, what are the people like, things like that. So, as an example:

“The eastern power, being more traditional and focused on honour are a calm people, despite their wish for domination of the world. The higher ups are harsh, driving their armies with a solid hand. The armies themselves are a cool, calm and ruthless bunch; caring not for the civilians nor the western power. Fighting their battles with traditional weapons, their technology is a little outdated, using very few automatic weapons, yet there focus and near obsession mean that they are equally effective in battle as the west. Taking upon themselves a strict honour code, they immovable and stoic in their actions.”

That is just an example, of course. But, in all essentiality, the environment aspect is about creating the world in which the RP takes place. I will take a good example now, of an RP that takes the environment aspect with near perfection. And, although not really desiring to use ‘real’ RPs in this tutorial, I think that I should really use this RP to further elaborate on this point. The RP in question would be Kouketsu’s Ghalerion. He created an entire world with cities, and political situations, the differences in the cities, sub areas for RP, namely the Sparsian Academy, still within the world of Ghalerion, but an entirely separate RPing ‘arena’.

With a more complete world, we can further grab the attention of potential RPers in our game. A fully encompassing world can bring the players into the world in a certain entirety. They will have a feel for how their character will react, and will further help them choose which muse to bring to the forefront for the particular RP. This, obviously is a link to the characters element in the three basic essentials.

Also linking to the elements of conflict aspect, knowing the world with such a great understanding will allow a much greater understanding of the ways in which conflict can occur, and the reasonings for it. This will mean that the conflict has meaning, rather than just basic conflicts that happen in human nature.

And now we move on to the next aspect – stipulations.

Stipulations are, in some way, a set of rules, a way of ensuring that your RP is not a wild concoction of many different ideas. As an example, let’s look at the Fantasy genre; as this is, perhaps, the place where stipulations can ensure continuity and consistency.

There are various races, eg: Elves, dwarves, fae, pixies, dragons, and the list goes on. However, people may well take entirely different viewpoints as to the appearance, abilities and character of each race. For example, one person may believe that magic can be learned by all races, yet another person may well believe that only certain races can learn magic.

In an RP, this will create obvious problems, and the possibilities of arguments. Someone playing a dwarf, who also believes that any race can learn magic, may well come under fire and ridicule by someone who is under the belief that dwarves cannot wield magic. Unnecessary OOC discussion/argument may well ensue, not only causing clutter for the actual thread, but restricting progression in the story.

So, to apply this to our continuing theme of the world war, let’s show a few examples of how stipulations can be applied.

The west, being much more forceful, are all about ultimate force, and as such, their troops all carry heavy duty weaponry, such as chain guns, rocket launchers etc as standard. Pistols are not commissioned, and are a rarity in legal availability.

However, the east, being more about tactics and technology, are more focused on stealth and using technology to their advantage. As such, more high tech weaponry is used, for example, pistols with heat seeking bullets. Heavy weaponry is rarely used, and an Eastern soldier is more likely to be found high in an abandoned building’s top floor, a sniper rifle in hand, than out in the streets in head on battles.

Those two paragraphs give the facts of the situation, and place stipulations on characters’ equipment. Not only does this ensure that players are not in a battle to have the most powerful guns etc, but will also help them to place their character. If their character is more naturally a heavy handed machine gun toting person, they will know to place that character in the Western army.

In essentiality, stipulations are there to make things clear in many respects, and to ensure that the game is set up the way YOU want it to, whilst still allowing complete flexibility for other players.


And so, we now look at the very last element of making a good RP – Limitations.

Too many limitations may well turn potential players away from the game, however they are essential.

For example, in the continuing war theme, one limitation may be that all players are of a rank no higher than Sergeant, or that no one can deploy nuclear bombs.

Why would you place the above two limitations on a game, you ask. Well, the second one is perhaps the easiest to explain – A nuclear bomb exploding essentially ends the game, or starts a nuclear war, that then ends the game. It is a pointless endeavour that someone may well decide to undertake.

The first one, that may be so that you ensure all players are actually on the battlefield, rather than sitting in an office giving orders via various forms of communication.

I don’t personally believe that any further explanation is needed on the limitations aspect – it is simply as put; limitations on the players.

I would say that the essence of this comes from God Modding, and is a measure to entirely prevent it from happening.

However, I will again reiterate that too many limitations will turn potential players away from your RP. So, just a small amount is needed.


So, in conclusion, to make an RP as good as it can be, you need the three primary, and three secondary aspects:

PRIMARY:

*A story
*Characters
*Elements of conflict

SECONDARY:

*Environment
*Stipulations
*Limitations

With these six ideals grasped, you can make an RP that will appeal to a decent amount of people who will be willing to join your RP. Of course, however, you need to consider that never will everyone be interested in your game. Nor will there be instant response all the time. Some people may not like the particular genre of your RP, some people may take a while to actually consider where they can place a new or existing character into your RP.

With patience, you will see a good response in time. Also, as more people join, you will find that the number of participants will increase – people will, subconsciously, be more inclined to join an RP with more posts.

And remember, to get your RP out there, make a post in the main lobby, use the RP Advertisements thread, or other ways, besides harassment, to get people to notice your RP.

As always, if you have any further questions, you can ask myself, any of the Staff members here on Gateway, or a tutor from the RPAcademy, who will be more than happy to help you in building your own RP.

I don't agree that conflict needs to be part of or integral to RP, in fact I feel RP often loses out because people are so obsessed with getting into some kind of conflict with one another. I've participated in many good rps without any form of conflict and they've often been the ones I appreciated the most. The delicate and intricate play between characters can and usually is more interesting than axe weilding megolamiacs trying to kill people. I'm not against a bit of tension.. because it happens and can be a lot of fun (especially UST XD) but I'd like to get away from conflict as being a driving force for rp.. let characters talk for themselves.. not all of us are waiting to pull out our claws at every turn. Otherwise.. enjoyable tutorial.

Thank you Lantis, I am glad you enjoyed the Tutorial.

I am not entirely sure I have explained my point on that one fully then.

Elements of conflict is not just about where we can beat each other up, or shout at each other at the top of our lungs, but, it is that natural, human interaction. Wherever there are people, there will be conflict. Be that in the form of a fight, or more about a difference in opinion, no matter how slight, and then coming to a happy medium.

It involves love, the internal conflict of having such emotions, the conflict arising from different needs and wants.

Conflict, in the sense I tried to put it in, is essentially the interaction between individuals. And because we are individuals, conflict on many, many different levels (More than just combative levels) will occur naturally.

I really think you should throw the word 'objective' in the conflict part.

Without a problem and a goal to reach for, the RP is just...people. There has to be some sort of purpose for the people to be together, be it internal to the characters or a wide-scale conflict. Such as a love story: the objective? Win that sexy girl's heart. The conflict is slightly more hidden, but does exist: competition against other guys, your character's social status is too low to get 'er, etc. However, in this case, it's easier to refer to the objective.

I'm pretty sure this was what you were trying to go for in that section.

Conflict is the driving force behind all stories. This isn't necessarily physical combat, either.

The standard progression of a story is introduction, conflict, climax, resolution - for a story to be interesting, there needs to be some sort of conflict. Soulless has it right - perhaps the protagonist wants to win the heroine's heart - that's not necessarily an interesting story, but if there is some sort of obstacle that he must overcome, it becomes an intriguing and engaging experience.

Thank you guys.

You see, for me, when writing about such things, makes perfect sense in my own mind. I believe that you have managed to clear that up.

And yes, Soulless, that is exactly what I meant when talking about the Elements of Conflict.

Article needs editing. Way too long-winded. Find the core of what you're trying to say and cut away the rest.

Also, say "essentially", not "in all essentiality".