ROIL System for Campaign Design
ARS ARCANA 2.1
Travis Joseph Rodgers
Open-Endedness and Randomness
ARS ARCANA 2.1
Travis Joseph Rodgers
Open-Endedness and Randomness
You are a role player. You roll dice. You assume ridiculous
voices. You might even don the garb of your character. You spend hours working
on back stories, excruciating over the name of your great-great-uncle. You
don’t want a random world to play in. You want the world you play in and the
system you employ to do so to reflect the thought and planning you’ve put into
it. You want open-endedness, not randomness. So, how does a GM (Game Master) or
GD (Game Designer) manage to do such a thing?
I think there are many ways to accomplish this, but I want
to suggest one very helpful path for navigating a few desiderata on a gaming
experience. On one hand, many players and parties want fast start capabilities.
They don’t want a session zero. They
want to be able to sit down and begin playing in the very first session. I’ll
call this characteristic INCIPIENCE.
On the other hand, parties want the structure of some sort of character
creation system that not only lets the players know what their characters’
general capacities are but also gives a sense of that character’s position in
the world. I’ll call this LOCUS. The
players want that OPEN-ENDEDNESS, so
why not call it that? And finally the players want a world and a system that
demonstrates RESPONSIVENESS to their
characters’ action.
Let’s reformulate and create a handy acronym. The ROIL
system is born. A ROIL game is one built from these principles, though
presumably nearly any gaming world/campaign conforms to most if not all of
these desiderata. So, how does one build a ROIL world?
Step 1: What is the general flavor, location, and standing
of the characters and the world, at least at the start of your game? This is
the LOCUS.
Step 2: What are the degrees of freedom you’re willing to
allow, at least from the start, to your PCs? This is the OPEN-ENDEDNESS.
Step 3: What are the general major forces at work in the
game that PCs will eventually have to deal with, one way or another? This
establishes the terms of the campaign’s RESPONSIVENESS.
Step 4: What is the minimal guidance you can offer your
players to help them understand the
campaign they are in, what some fulfilling
goals might be, and what some immediate and more long-term obstacles there
might be? This is the INCIPIENCE piece.
A ROIL campaign. You open the artifact (a cardboard box, a
PDF, an audio file, a START menu), read a quick introduction to the scenario,
and then the players begin deciding upon what sort of characters they will
play. Some rules are listed to guide their creation – classes / levels / skills
/ points / races – and they can crank out a thoughtful character in under half
an hour, for all involved players.
There’s a general trend – like a series of
modules to work through, a villain, a series of unfortunate events, or the
like. Optional story tie-ins are
offered, rules for character advancement are included. At the end of the first
session, the players are left with a sense of attachment – as they have created
a character they now have some investment in. They have a sense of
accomplishment – as they have tackled their first issue as a team. And they
have a sense of purpose – for they have a future before them with some sense of
where they’re headed.
Is it cookie-cutter? Perhaps, but remember that ROIL is
simply one way of accomplishing these goals. There are likely others, and some
may be superior in some or all regards. It’s my personal preference, and it has
been for three decades. Try it, and if you have feedback, please offer it. If
you have other methods that have worked well, please reach out and let me know.
For all human inquiry begins in wonder.
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