Making Games that tell stories

larienna,

Your question, "...what elements are necessary to make a good story..." Is something storytellers have asked themselves for centuries. Story has always fascinated me and in my search to understand it I have come across one especially helpful resource. In his book THE WRITER'S JOURNEY Christopher Vogler expounds on the idea that there is an essential DNA of Story that can be determined by studying the commonalities between Myths in multiple cultures that have stood the test of time. Vogler describes an outline of "the Hero's Journey" that can be found in some shape or form in every story ever told. For example every story begins with the following stages: The Ordinary World, The Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Meeting With the Mentor, etc... (you can read it all at http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm) Take a look at the Hero's Journey and try to think of any good story that did not have those elements in some form. Let me know if you think of one... I have not.

Vogler also explains that there are character archetypes such as: Heroes, Shadows, Mentors, Shapeshifters, etc. that can also be found in every story.

As a game designer I have spent many an hour contemplating how to use this understanding of Story to create truly interactive and dynamic Story mechanics. Obviously there are games that have succeeded in telling a story. One of the strengths of DnD is that there is a story teller who can intuitively include these elements and archetypes. There can't be a DM for every story based game though so we have to create some mechanics that will produce these elements in interesting and plausible ways. There are games that have already explored doing this. The Pathfinder games do a good job at creating a randomly generated stages in the journey. Games like Of Mice and Mystics take a more scripted approach.

Take a look at the Heroes Journey (and Heroin's Journey) at that website and let me know what you think.

What ways do you (and anybody else) see The Heroes Journey in well known games?

How can we use this knowledge as we create stories in and through tabletop games?

P.S. ON ABSTRACT GAMES: I would argue that even abstract games are Story driven. In Chess there is the story of a medieval power struggle where the Quean is actually most powerful and even a pawn can rescue her. In Catan other players act as enemies, allies, mentors and shapeshifters. There is even a shadow character in Catan! Or am I defining Story too loosely?

A well-designed game will create stories even if it is not a story-driven game. I'd prefer to think that the SCENARIO more than the designer's plot construction is important.

Example: "We were playing Forbidden Desert, and we almost got out of there but the Navigator didn't get back to the launch pad in time! We were so certain we had it made until the Storm started to pick up 3 times in a row." The designer (Leacock) did not ever write that specific storyline to unfold, but it did anyway because of the scenario.

Even in abstract games, some of my best game memories are from times that someone shot the moon in Hearts and totally screwed everyone else. I vividly remember my friend Matt doing laps around the house (literally, outside around the house) after one of those events.

If you ask me, most games are NOT designed to really tell stories. They exist to give us a risk-free environment of tension and release where we can try new things and experience a different world, or job, or culture, or fantasy, etc. The only real story-driven games I can think of are tabletop RPG's since it really is the story that directs most of what happens, not the mechanics, or the deck you've built, or seeing who has which region under control.

I disagree about there not being boardgames with a scripted story. Ambush! is an extreme example, but (as hinted at already above) any game with scenarios will tell a scripted story of some sort. For instance any scenario in a historic wargame will usually tell you the background for some battle, what events lead up to it, what units were there, what was at stake, what the historic outcome was, and whatever happens in the game will tell you a story based on that.

For games to generate a good story though, I think the greatest story-tellers in boardgames are dice. Something hilarious and extremely improbable happens and you have an instant great story right there. But you have to play a game many times before that is likely to happen, and for any given player group might never happen to your game for them. If you have enough groups playing there will be stories generated by the dice that are told and retold, increasing the popularity of the game.