An Intersection of Storytelling

 I've talked a bit about storytelling before, but somehow the fact that I'm a huge tabletop RPG nerd came up at my writing group. It probably has something to do with my propensity for writing sword and sorcery fiction.

Regardless of whatever brought it up, it gave me a great chance to talk about the intersection between two of my favorite hobbies.

Storytelling is an art as old as humanity. We've been refining the process for centuries upon centuries, and all modern media is influenced by that long history. Each medium approaches its storytelling in different ways--novels perhaps being the most traditional, while interactive forms like video games and tabletop RPGs being more revolutionary and interactive.

Now, the real question that went around the table was why I (a prospective fiction writer) would want to write stuff for RPGs. Aren't they two different toolsets?

Well, yes. There are certain stories that are difficult to tell through the lens of an adventure and others that don't really lend themselves to the long (but still episodic!) format of a novel.

But what I'm really interested in is that interaction between the two. To me, a great RPG is like the world's most amazing Choose Your Own Adventure story. All of the pieces are there: a fantastic plot complete with twists and turns and surprises, heroes and villains and rivals and roadblocks, a purpose and drive, and that awesome feeling of story. But, unlike a novel, the story is never set in stone.

There may be some rails to the story (a prospect to which many gamer stick up their noses), but they exist solely to keep the players invested and interested while the story moves on. The author, the GM, and the players all join into a grand exercise of cooperative storytelling. No two games may ever run quite the same, but they all follow the skeleton laid out by the author. NPCs may rise or fall in importance, rails may be entirely overrun, and sometimes the heroes do not emerge victorious.

Each time an adventure is played, a new story is being told. Partly because no two characters are ever quite alike, and partly because the game mechanics ensure variance. Sometimes the mightiest warrior has an off day. Sometimes even the humblest peasant can stand his own against evil.

Each story derives from the author's vision, but each earns a personal investment as the players don't simply follow the close third-person narrative of a hero, but become that hero.

And that is why I find RPG writing so fascinating.

The Cyberpunk Dilemma

So, like many tabletoppers, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Shadowrun.

The setting is awesome. The lore is super frickin' cool. The fact that the world's story advances each time they make a new edition makes sense. The cyberarms and wagemages and badass hackers and wuxia monks dodging bullets Matrix-style. I could do without technomancers (fuck those guys), but we can't have everything we want.

The first of my problems, like many others, is that the rules are so obtuse. Sure, there's something inherently satisfying about picking up 30d6 and throwing that shit across the table. It's also a huge pain in the ass to clean up when you get a little overly enthusiastic about such throws, but that's another matter entirely.

SR5 eliminates a couple of the worst offenses, namely by putting the multi-layered combat all on the same initiative. Sure, hot-sim deckers and astrally projected mages get a massive boost to their initiative, but they're not going that much faster than your 'wared up terminator. Decking makes a little more sense to me in this edition (not much more, admittedly). Noise and new anti-wireless shenanigans prevent everyone from sitting in the car and playing a rigger and/or decker. Technomancers can still go fuck themselves.

My other problem is that my SR-GameGen-Fu is decidedly lacking. And yes, that's not really a problem with the game itself. But when I compare the number of available adventures to pull and learn from with the system I grew up on (3.5, which evolved into Pathfinder) the pool is unbelievably small. And, without an OGL to let 3rd party publishers muck about with the system, we're just left with the sort of glacial pace Catalyst produces SR content at... and where most of their resources are dedicated to putting out sourcebooks, not adventures.

Sure, there's the Shadowrun Missions thing, which is pitifully small compared to PFS or D&D Adventurer's League. There are also a couple of small books of runs, most of which contain a few tangentially themed runs rather than a set of interconnected events.

Basically, where's my Shadowrun Runner's Paths?

I'd love to be able to make decent runs to send my players on, but I don't always have the time to put in the effort it deserves. Nor do I have the SR-Fu to make something really great. Those few runs that are out there? Those are pretty awesome. I want more. I'd totally, absolutely pay for more. I'd subscribe to those just like I'm subscribed to Paizo's Adventure Paths.

And it's not even about using the whole thing as-is. They're not just premade stories to pick up and play. They're lesson plans in how to make amazing games happen at your table. How to build an adventure people want to play, the sort that people will talk about for years to come. They're set pieces and maps and NPC Codices and idea thinktanks.

From a game design standpoint, adventures have it all. The way that the story and the mechanics and the cartography and the whatevers all come together is just awesome.

So why can't I have that, but with pink-mohawked trolls leaping through skyscraper windows into their waiting escape chopper as the entire 32nd floor of the Aztechnology research facility goes up from the C4 you mounted to the elevators?