Uncertainty in Games: Schedule

"Something's come up."

We've all been there, on both sides of the deal, where higher priority events have blasted over our gaming schedule. Even if gaming is high on the list already, there's always something higher. We schedule games weeks or sometimes even months in advance just to have a shot at playing. But when we do finally make it to the table: it becomes that much more special.

Schedule uncertainty is something that few games actually have. The only games that consistently use it as a core feature are mobile games, where players must wait X minutes or hours before being able to consume additional content (unless you pay, or course). That uncertainty, of when a player can and will be playing allows there to be "competition" in the game.

Tabletop RPGs naturally have this form of uncertainty, because it's never known when players will actually be able to get together and play. A lot of games combine this with other uncertainties to actually encourage players to come; even in more indie titles like "Tales from the Loop", players get XP as long as they played in a session at all.

It may be unfortunate, but schedule uncertainty in our hobby can be recognized and handled in various ways. Luckily, most of us want to be present thanks to the fun of the rest of the uncertainties packaged into each gaming session.

Uncertainty in Games: Development Anticipation

Building characters is sometimes one of the best parts of a game. You get to explore the game's mechanics, prepare your best for what is to come, and set off on a path of advancement. That path has many possible forks, however, and it's that uncertainty of what will come that makes character development so intriguing.

The min/max player may already have their entire advancement path planned out. I would argue that if you've purposefully removed this uncertainty from your RPG game, you're missing out on the excitement of various possibilities. But, even when planned, the anticipation and uncertainty of when development will happen still leads these players down the road.

A new character class or special ability that results from a surprise plot twist or random event feels alive, and is ultimately more memorable than one picked ahead of time. Likewise, an item looted from an ancient crypt or dragon's hoard feels more rewarding than one bought from a town shop. Lastly, NPCs that the characters meet can end up being important and powerful allies, and those that you meet organically are the ones that we talk about years after the game.

Most RPGs draw heavily upon development anticipation to entice players. It's distinct from narrative anticipation in that it focuses on how a single character evolves over time. Games that embrace this change can get the most out of the very start of all tabletop sessions: character creation.

Journal Entry: Kill Your Darlings

We've all heard it before. Kill your darlings. Not all of them, mind you; your game has to be about something. But if a mechanic is not about that thing... kill it.

In the case of Hostargo, I'm in a huge purging process. I've built it up with all my favorite things from every RPG game I've ever liked (exaggerated). But now that it's basically functional-complete, I have to ask myself if all of those functions are really necessary.

Just a bit ago I considered the point of the city of Hostargo. The idea started with a world around the chaos of a "gold rush". It's because of this I was planning on adding three distinct viewpoints from which the players could play: corp, crew, or gang. But I weighed the plusses, which are mostly just replayability, against the effort and complexity of both creating them and using them in game. Wasn't worth it. Slash it.

The idea of character "gears", or motivations, borrowed almost entirely from Cortex Plus's "drives", is something that I loved. It was even a major talking point on my sell sheet. It gives characters dynamic and ever-changing ideals, which I think is just so cool. But... this game isn't really about the characters. It's about the city. It's about the characters in the city, yes, but there's already so much to drive them forward that they don't need gears chugging away in the background. I had to tack on mechanics to fit them in, so it's best if I just rip that extra piece out right now.

Lastly, I love the idea of a meta-resource giving character's natural luck. Hostargo used to be all about the ebb and flow of luck, much like FATE points. But now it's a shell of what it used to be, after the much more integrated mechanic of Effort Pools was introduced. I even wrote a whole blog post about how I was still going to use luck... but in the end, was it necessary? Not really. It solves a problem that doesn't really need to be solved. Not when the rest of the advancement mechanics support a tight reward cycle already.

I'm enjoying the bonfire. Cutting back on some of the extra slack is a quick way to get to the finish line! It gives me some room to breath, and I plan on breathing life into this creation very soon.

Uncertainty in Games: Narrative Anticipation

There's nothing like a good nail-biting story. The excitement one feels in the pit of their stomach keeps them on the edge of their seat, anxious to know more. In RPGs, playing to find out "what happens next?!" increases the enjoyment players get out of narrative anticipation uncertainty.

Whether the GM is railroading, or the group is playing in an open sandbox, the table is involved in dynamically creating a story. Like a good book, even the most railroady of adventures can be enjoyed. While the character's fates may be sealed, unpacking and playing out those fates is still enjoyable to watch unfold. In a sandbox setting, the GM can be just as surprised as the players when the story that is produced is something they could never have anticipated. 

Many types of games use narrative uncertainty to drive gameplay, plunging players into various scenarios based on the current events of the story. Some games push the story with minimal gameplay elements, while others use it as an excuse to set up challenges. How much enjoyment is had by each person is based on that player's style, but both provide an uncertainty that is a force to drive gameplay forward.

The combination of forward gameplay momentum and nervous excitement of the unknown is what makes narrative anticipation one of RPG's most important uncertainties. In some games, it can be cast to the side as flavor, but when character-actors gather around a table, a unique story always emerges, whether the GM wanted it to or not!

Uncertainty in Games: Hidden Information

Knowing is half the battle. Knowledge of where your objective is simplifies getting to it by eliminating any possible false paths. But hidden information is different than just a straight unknown. Hidden information is when one side has knowledge that the others do not.

If no one knows where the objective is, we're all on equal footing. If it's a pre-game setup, then it's randomness. If it's up to the skill of the player, it may be player, solver, or perception uncertainty (we'll get to perception uncertainty soon). But when one side has the information, and another does not, it becomes hidden information.

This type of uncertainty adds an element of sly play and espionage to a game. Poker is the ultimate form of this, where skilled players read each other and calculate their odds in order to win. Many board games have similar mechanics, with hidden objective cards or even deduction puzzles.

RPGs rarely use hidden information, but when they do, it can be the surprise twist, or player vs player conflict that is the highlight of a play session. I would count the GM as a neutral entity, much like a random game setup or a 3rd party puzzle master. Their "known" information is hidden from the players, yes, but it's also subject to change, making it much more of a narrative uncertainty (which we'll get to later as well).

A common form of hidden information in RPGs is a betrayer, or person goals mechanic. Generally, smaller, more focused games have mechanics like this, so that the scenario allows that hidden information to be meaningful. But, there's no reason a long campaign can't end in an unexpected twist that the GM and another player have been in on since the beginning. But be careful with hidden information in RPGs; it can make or break a player's experience with the game if it was an "unpleasant surprise". Make sure the outcome generates more fun than anti-fun.

Not everyone digs hidden information. It can certainly muddy the waters and make the game feel lopsided, even if in theory all players have equal portions of hidden information. It can also feel random, as even the best poker players can be bewildered at the flip of the cards. But it can also keep tensions high until the very last minute, making the climax of any story a memorable one.

Journal Entry: Slash & Burn

I missed a week or two, and it's because my mind has been focused on the tons of design work I've got in my lap. I'm DMing two bi-weekly D&D games, working on a design for an AR game by SightWeave, putting together playbooks for South of West, and trying to still slowly tackle Hostargo.

So we'll do a quick pause on the mini-series :)

As an update for Hostargo, I'm slashing two of the "classes"/"jobs", now just calling them "styles" to better suit how the character approaches situations:

Through movement/tactics = Vessel

Through chaos/disruption = Eddy

Through discretion/trickery = Weaver

Through control/balance = Warden

Through confrontation/force = Plow

I'm also slashing the crazy three-tiered corp/crew/gang idea.

That basically nullifies my answers for the Power 19... but oh well.

I've been inspired to focus much more on the city itself, and introducing core

mechanics for the city growing and having conflicts that the players must deal with.

I've also been working on tying in runes. Magnostone has always been a cool

thing that floats in the air and can be used as generator fuel,

but I never figured out why or how it's made. Now I'm going to say that it's

formed from the gathering of memory, much like how water evaporates and forms clouds.

But instead of causing rain, it will simply grow into the floating islands you see around the world.

Runes then will be formed from that stone, basically by animancers acting as

sculptors to make the memory-infused rock focused into some specific effect.

But the types of effects depend on the types of memory. Magnostone only forms with large amount of memory, such as from a city. Now, the ancient ruins of civilizations and races long forgotten are filled with unique magnostone deposits, which is exactly what the mine in Hostargo is: less of a mine and more of an archeological dig!

It's got me excited again, and that's really all you need to keep pushing forward :).