46 years into this thing and I’m still learning! Man what a life. A quick reflection:
Ran Inevitable at the pub game last night. Offered it as the start of a 3-shot but I think I won’t continue it. In attendance: my cohost’s wife filling in for a no-show, the sister of one of my regulars (who was totally baffled by showing up for the finale of Deathmatch Island last month; I told her to come start a new thing), a couple new guys, brothers I think of one of my regulars. And one guy who, sure enough, showed up thinking I was offering D&D. I really need to come up with a more unambiguous way to convey that my games aren’t D&D. Not gonna lie, I also want to sell tickets. The ambiguity hasn’t bitten me in the ass yet!
You know the thing where 10 happy messages will not quite cancel out one unhappy message? Yeah, that’s not what I learned 45 years in. I know that one. Cohost’s wife played a grumpy old man Mystic and had a good time! The two brothers played a Roamer and a Balladeer and had a good time! Little sister (she’s not “little,” she has a 15 year old) took the one required Errant Knight and was completely at sea about being the one in charge. And a “but I thought this was D&D” guy played a Shadowjack…and also had a good time. Shadowjack player and I agreed the system qua system is quite simple, that all the juice is in the setting and lore and vibes. But of course I kept thinking about the Errant Knight’s player, thrown in the deep end. It made me sad, despite the other players having varying degrees of a good time.
One of the brothers, the one playing the Roamer, had never played an in-person RPG before. But he’s played Baldur’s Gate. He’s even “designing a one-shot” at home with zeeeero experience outside BG3 online! Love the ambition. And he seems like a smart, self-aware guy. And yes he had a ton of fun, but in debrief he also said “I feel like the good stuff here is in playing more sessions and really getting into the setting, learning about these NPCs, all that.” Smart! But also: “Yeah in BG3 I’m really into messing with the systems and the builds.” Which there really is none of in Inevitable. You get 3 Reputations and 3 Abilities and that’s it.
My first game in my Indie RPG Taster Series at the pub was Zombie World, which is a bit chewier system-wise. Then we ran a 3-shot of Deathmatch Island, which doesn’t have much system but you have to put your hands on at all times. And there’s regular in-game advancement. None of those things exist in Inevitable. In fact, given Inevitable’s scene-level conflict resolution style (not unlike Deathmatch Island!), your awareness of character, situation, plot, all that does all the lifting.
So I guess I’ve always known it but it was a good reminder: awareness of character, situation, plot, stoooory, whether before, during or after play? That stuff doesn’t necessarily come naturally to everyone. Grown ass adults can spend a lifetime reading and watching shows and not really care about the underlying structures.
My poor lost Errant Knight player was, of course, so worried she wasn’t playing as well as everyone else. And she wasn’t, but not because of the play-acting aspect. That shit’s at the end of my “good play” list, even if it’s the most visible. And that’s my real takeaway, thinking through my good play list. I think it’s this, in order of priority:
- Situational awareness. Understanding that whatever is going on in the fiction is your decision space. And “what’s going on” isn’t a snapshot, it’s situation in motion. Where we came from, where we’re going, context.
- System awareness. Understanding where you can use the system to project agency. But without #1, you have no idea why you’d want to project agency. Which is why I’m putting this at #2.
- Character awareness. Understanding interiority as a thing. Playing in a principled way toward a character’s needs, desires, fears.
- Play-acting. Outward expression of your character’s interiority.
Yeah I think that’s my list.
Note I’m not saying mastery. Mastery comes with time and interest. When I say awareness I mean exactly that. Do you even know what the situation/fiction/SIS is? Do you even know where and when you can put your hands on the system? And so on.
