My guide to RPG storytelling

This is a guide to running a particular kind of RPG session and it sits as a kind of manifesto for that style of game that now sits in an interesting place post-OSR.

The guide makes the case that the most interesting type of games are ones that are plotted lightly with input from the players but which are primarily guided by the “Storyteller” who constructs satisfying closed stories that centre the player character as the protagonists.

Essentially it places itself in the realm of the kind of games espoused by 80s Dragonlance, 90s White Wolf and the more heroic end of all Call of Cthulhu scenarios.

Things that RPG storytelling is not

The style of gaming espoused in the book means rejecting a lot of other styles.

It rejects the sandbox-style as being too unstructured and unsatisfying, after all these kind of things are clearly not a “story”.

It rejects White Wolf Chronicle style play as being too railroady with the highlights being on the major characters of the game’s universe rather than on the players.

It also rejects the highly improvised style of game facilitation as lacking depth and satisfying internal logic. The author feels this style is often exposed as shallow, inconsistent and again lacking in narrative drive.

Conclusion

If you want to run a game in this style and you’re struggling to do so then this is a pretty good guide to doing so. If you’re looking a fun experience that is going to engage the players then again this is a book of pretty sound advice. Nothing here is going to scare the horses.

However the approach here is very much centred around progression-based Dungeons and Dragons style gaming and there is barely any acknowledgement of different games, principles such as zero-prep or why people may not want to play in the story style. As such for readers with a wider appreciation of roleplaying the book comes across as insular and stuck in a mode of thought that is probably decades old now.