This week’s post will be a short one. Not that I have nothing to write about, but I really want to focus on finishing a few things, while I’m distracting myself with swords.
Digging Better Dungeons
Those who visit this site regularly might have noticed my interest in dungeons. That’s nothing rare among Dungeon Masters, Game Masters, and other suchlike individuals. There are many approaches to creating and playing dungeons, and none of them is wrong, as long as everyone’s having fun. Some people like their dungeons to be challenging first and foremost. Others want an engaging story, brimming with emotions, that somehow takes place in a dungeon. Some want their dungeons to make sense.
You probably already know I belong to the third mentioned group, and I’ve started a series of articles dealing with various aspects of dungeons. There are still topics I want to look at, but I’ve set this series aside to work on other stuff. You can have a look at what I’ve finished so far on the list below:
How to Behave – Reasons for entering and what to do next
Recently I’ve had some contact with tiny fragments of the German role-playing scene. I’ve mentioned Roland several times already, and his feedback is one of the things that make me return to the dungeons. He also gives a lot of thought about the dungeons he’s designing, and it’s very interesting to see the process.
The other German blog I’ve started following is Kritischer Fehlschlag. It’s operated by a group of TTRPG enthusiasts, and there’s a lot of stuff in there. What caught my interest immediately is the Erde & Wasser megadungeon project by Rackhir. My first contact with it was a newsletter email about the second zine being published, so I looked it up, and it’s looking great. Check out the Design Principles and you’ll see why I like it. There’s lot of overlap between our views, mainly in that the dungeon has to make sense. This is definitely something I’ll be watching closely and looking forward to updates.
What to expect?
I’ve already advertised it somewhere, but now it’s official – Digging Better Dungeons is the new name of the series. I’m really bad at giving estimates and promises when it comes to publishing schedule, but there are at least five articles I would like to add to my series. Two of them are in draft stages, the rest is just in side note stage for now. But I will finish them somehow. The first on the list is an elaboration of the Palimpsest Dungeon, a case study.
Video Game Shorts
This will be very short as well, it’s called “video game shorts” for a reason. Anyway, there’s one thing that’s extremely common in one video game genre, and I think underused in TTRPGs. The genre is platformer, and the thing is that enemies often send you towards doom. Without touching your HP, at least not in a significant way. Whether it’s by actually pushing your character off a ledge, or by one-shotting you and the in-game explanation being this.
By having the enemies use the environment in this way you can create danger where there normally would only by little of it. Small goblinoids get trivial at higher levels no matter their numbers. But if they throw you full-plated paladin into a pit, they’re much more dangerous now. Ogres are formidable foes for a low-level party, but later they’re just a large nuisance. Let your ogres fling the high-level party around and suddenly they’re another thing.
As with all things use hero-tossing enemies with moderation. And if your players take a liking to doing this to their enemies, maybe change the scenery a bit. Don’t let your campaign become Jedi Academy with force choke. But that’s another story.
Final Remarks
Once again I have to state that I’m not affiliated with any of the mentioned entities, and I receive no compensation for any promotion.
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The title might be an exaggeration, but since it’s #swordtember, there’s bound to be lots of swords in many places. Even here. I promised to post more often, so here’s a summary of the last week.
Cooperative Curiosity
Mentioned last week, the fruits of collaboration between Roland (Dnalor the Troll) and me are finished and published. The whole thing started when Roland felt that I discarded curiosity as a motive for entering a dungeon, and we agreed to both write about our views of curiosity in TTRPGs.
Roland’s article An Ode to Curiosity – what drives us forward in the dungeon? is a fine one, and he makes many strong points. It is indeed an ode, and Roland manages to capture and describe the curiosity that drives both players and their characters forward, onwards to new challenges, secrets, and experiences. You should definitely check out his article, in which he uses many fine examples to prove the necessity and worth of curiosity. And while you’re there, browse through the rest of his blog as well, there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there!
Mine is a bit different approach, though I appreciate curiosity in many forms and in many aspects of a TTRPG game or setting. You can read my thoughts on the matter in the Motivated by Curiosity article. To sum it up, I believe the curiosity we usually see while exploring a dungeon is not sated by simply knowing. There’s always something it’s connected to. The knowledge has to have some use. Or it’s not knowledge the party seeks, but wealth, fame, and powerful artefacts. When they’re curious, it stems from those desires.
#Swordtember
As you might have noticed, I am doing the #swordtember challenge again. As usual there’s the “official” #swordtember prompt list by Faith Shaffer (who originally came up with the challenge), and several alternatives. Last year I combined the original with one of those alternative lists, and tried to come up with swords that combine two prompts. It wasn’t always easy.
This year I’m of course doing the official one, as well as one that’s mostly been made by my four year old daughter. You can see it below, and feel free to use the prompts, if you like them.
I post my rough sketches on my Bluesky account, until I can remake them into usable item sheets for D&D. The plan is to publish all of them, maybe batched together with the last year’s swords, but first they all need have passable illustrations, and descriptions. Below is an example of an extremely rough sketch and a first description draft.
A massive two-handed sword with a broad perforated blade. The perforations lighten the blade while keeping anything sticky from adhering to the sword. Ideally suited for slicing puddings, jellies, and blancmanges. Will also cut nicely through killer tomatoes and other soft murderous berries.
D&D Feat Paths
The new Underdark-themed Unearthed Arcana offers, along with two subclasses, the option to slowly turn into a mindflayer. The Path of Ceremorphosis is a feat path, i.e. a set of feats that are chained and offer additional character development options.
This apparently isn’t a new thing, as The Kind DM kindly pointed out to me (and you can read his review of the UA Underdark Options here). WotC used the same mechanic in the Villainous Options Unearthed Arcana with their Path of the Lich and Path of the Death Knight in. I admit I haven’t been paying attention to those, but it seems this is something that’s been repeatedly done.
Why is this interesting to me? I have several such developments on my table, and so far I’ve played with creating special “technical classes” you would multiclass at the prerequisite level. This is similar to the way feats work, but sacrifices some levels of your main class. And since campaigns don’t always get you all the way to level 20, you could miss out on important stuff.
The feat paths provide a better option, in my opinion. You still get to progress in your class as usual, and you get the benefits (and other, less beneficial effects) of the feats you choose.
Anastasios, aka the Kind DM, also pointed out the feat path option is not ideal either, and I agree. But it’s better than technical classes, and better than just slapping new powers and mechanics onto a character. Things like this are better suited for classless point-buy systems, but then we would be playing a whole different game and blogging about that one, right?
Long story short, I will be working on a few of these feat paths. There are several I have in form of notes, and I’ll have to see if they’ll amount to two paths, or somewhere in the region of five.
Jack Vance & TTRPG
Jack Vance is one of my favourite authors. Even though he’s not in my Top 5, and I have read but a fragment of his body of work, I like the way he wrote. And his ideas are often worth reading even today, after decades of authors being influenced by him.
There’s an article on Jack Vance’s Influence on Dungeons & Dragons by Bill Ward on the Goodman Games site (home of the Dungeon Crawl Classics). It’s a good article summarizing all the stuff D&D owes to the visions of Jack Vance. As expected “Vancian magic” takes the spotlight, but not for the whole time. Bill Ward also focuses on the contribution Vance has (unintentionally) made to the image of the D&D thief class, later replaced by the rogue.
Ward names Cugel the Clever “the original murder hobo”, and I couldn’t agree more. Vance writes him in a way that it feels in character, even though as a DM you would probably hate your players for half of the stuff Cugel does. I bet many never heard of Cugel the Clever, yet they manage to re-enact him very well.
Even though Cugel is the archetypal murder hobo, I don’t remember him murdering that often. Characters in the Dying Earth series often choose other means of defeating their enemies. Disgrace and mockery are regularly viewed as more fitting, and perhaps even worse punishment than death.
There’s of course more to Jack Vance than Dying Earth, even though his other works probably didn’t influence D&D and by extension other TTRPGs as much. If you haven’t read anything by Vance (hard to believe, if you’re my target audience) you should definitely remedy that. The four volumes of the Dying Earth series are obligatory, of course. And I would also recommend one of his later works, the Night Lamp. It’s a bit slow at first, but then gains momentum and finishes with pretty much a Dying Earth vibe.
Last but not least, if you want to play a game in the Dying Earth setting by Jack Vance, you can check out the DCC modules presented at the end of the linked Goodman Games article. You should also check out Pelgrane Press, as they’re dedicated to publishing everything you need to bring Dying Earth to tabletop life. And if you want a really good deal, they have a bundle ending in about three days currently on Humble Bundle. The Dying Earth RPG Collection costs just short of 20 €, so I guess about $23-24.
Video Game Shorts
Every few years I have the urge to replay the Shadowrun games by Harebrained Schemes. I finished the original game a few years back for the third time, and I’ve started my second Dragonfall run recently. Of course I will have little time, so I might finish it somewhere around New Year.
I consider Dragonfall the best of the three, although they are all very good. What I want to focus on today is the way the game(s) build a sense of belonging, both inside the party and towards the broader community you become part of.
There’s a lot of characters, many minor, around your base of operations. It often take s a while until they become relevant, but you slowly become familiar with their stories. And you start to care about them. This is something that games (and to some extent other media, such as TV series) can’t quite pull off. A lot of the newer RPGs manage to do this with one or two characters, but rarely with a whole community.
My advice for DMs therefore is go play the games if you haven’t. You get tens of gameplay hours in great TTRPG video game adaptations, and can get inspired by the way the communities around the PC headquarters are written. Not to mention the rest of the very good writing. Dragonfall is really something.
I actuall never read too much into Shadowrun. There was a Humble Bundle with a complete ruleset for one of the newest editions a few years ago, but I still have to get to reading any of the books. I’m definitely looking forward to, there ought to be lots of inspiration there.
Oh, and for anybody interested, I’m making a chromed-up melee street samurai, after playing a pure mage last time. Glory will sit on the bench most of this run, I’m afraid.
Final Remarks
Once again I have to state that I’m not affiliated with any of the mentioned entities, and I receive no compensation for any promotion.
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Estimated reading time: 14 minutes For the last month or two I’ve been exchanging messages and comments sporadically with Roland, or Dnalor the Troll. He’s writing a TTRPG blog and there’s about a decade of quality content. You should really check out his page and delve in, there’s a lot of inspirational stuff to be … Continue reading “Motivated by Curiosity”
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
For the last month or two I’ve been exchanging messages and comments sporadically with Roland, or Dnalor the Troll. He’s writing a TTRPG blog and there’s about a decade of quality content. You should really check out his page and delve in, there’s a lot of inspirational stuff to be found there! If you have any interest in the The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) system, it’s a must! That’s the system behind the Realms of Arkania video game series (one that I hope to beat one day and write about it).
Anyway, at first we talked about dinosaurs and their TTRPG applications, because every sane person loves dinosaurs. Then Roland read some of my old articles, such as Dungeons: How to Behave, where I discussed the various motives for the party being in a dungeon, and he wrote this comment:
Another interesting article on the subject of dungeons.
“Note that I have omitted exploration from my categories. Of course one can imagine a party that just ventured down some stairs to see what’s down there. But I also think in this kind of situation there is something missing – motive.”
However, I would disagree here. I think curiosity is a very strong motive for entering a dungeon. The best real-world equivalent that comes to mind is urban explorers who enter old, forgotten bunkers, villas, or other abandoned buildings, hopefully taking nothing but photographs and leaving nothing but footprints. They, too, explore a dungeon out of pure curiosity.
— Dnalor the Troll
On one level I agree wholeheartedly, curiosity is one of the strongest motivators. You can see my whole reply below:
I understand what you mean. And certainly for urban explorers the motivation is curiosity, the thrill of exploration, perhaps thrill of trespassing. But it’s a completely different state of society we’re talking about. The urban explorers probably have their day jobs and go “dungeon crawling” for fun. In a typical TTRPG setting the characters do so either out of necessity, or feel some calling. Even if they’re just curious, the curiosity is based on what can be gained, or what has to be eliminated. The urban explorers have it in their code not to take anything, and certainly they’re not looking for potential dangers to be eliminated before they manifest.
So essentially I agree that curiosity can be a motivation. Maybe the settings I’m used to and like don’t cater to curiosity for the sake of curiosity well. My “school of thought” is based on a more realistic and less heroic take, where you don’t take risks you don’t have to, etc.
It’s however a valid point, thank you again! Perhaps we could both write articles with our takes on curiosity as a motive, what do you say? Cheers!
Let’s start with the basics, and clear out the terms we’ll be using. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines curiosityas a “desire to know”, either in the form of a) intellectual curiosity, or b) nosiness. There are other meanings, but this is the one I’ll be working with, and I believe it’s the one Roland meant.
Motivationis defined by Merriam-Webster as “a motivating force, stimulus, or influence”. Again I won’t be dealing with other meanings, such as the act of motivating someone. Let’s also include motive, which is “something (such as a need or desire) that causes a person to act”, again courtesy of Merriam-Webster. For some unknown reason the Cambridge dictionary keeps giving me blank pages, so I guess I am pledged solely to Merriam-Webster from now on.
Now that we have this out of the way, let’s take a look at the different levels both curiosity and motivation are used in TTRPGs. I will also be using examples from other media, such as video games, where appropriate.
Curiosity as a Characteristic
Being curious is often a prerequisite to becoming an adventurer. Character backstory doesn’t always have to be riddled with betrayal, loss of loved ones, and suffering (really, trust me!). Sometimes all you need is the thirst for answers. What lies beyond the woods? What does the capital look like? Are the elves real?
Most commonly associated with either scholarly types, or cheerful upbeat characters. Bards, rogues, young apprentices, they often have in common their curiosity. But not only those; a fighter wishing to see the world (out of curiosity) might join the army, then leave to become an adventurer.
Curiosity is also something that is relevant in many types of settings. Your “regular fantasy”, space opera, hard sci-fi, early 20th century mystery, modern weird, whatever. What could be different is the way curiosity is regarded by the majority of the society, and whether it can be a motivation in itself.
Curiosity as an Attribute
Before we tap into the fields of motivation, let’s discuss curiosity as an attribute, something measurable that influences the way the character acts mechanically.
This is definitely Roland’s field, because one of the few things I know about the Das Schwarze Auge system is that there is curiosity in the form of a negative attribute. There are others, such as acrophobia, claustrophobia, or avarice. A character has to succeed on check, or give into the vice/phobia. So much I remember from the video games, and I apologize if I’ve got it wrong. Roland will surely correct me in his part.
Similar mechanics exists in Darkest Dungeons, where curiosity is a negative quirk that raises the chance of the character interacting with tomes and other pieces of knowledge. The video game describes the quirk as “obsessed with the acquisition of knowledge”. Needless to say, opening and reading every book found in the evil-infested biomes of the Estate often leads to unnecessary fun.
I can also imagine curiosity being beneficial, for example when researching, or learning something, even in small talk. In the Crusader Kings series it is a childhood trait, and it usually helps becoming better at learning and diplomacy. There’s also the chance the Curious child gets the Cynical trait as it grows up, which in-game essentially means you don’t like religious zeal at all. And the religions don’t like you.
Curiosity as Motivation
Now we’re getting to the part that started all of this. My premise was that exploration for exploration’s sake, just out of curiosity, is rarely the real motive for entering a dungeon. As you can see from the quotes above, and will probably see in his article, Roland disagrees. And it’s absolutely fine, because anyone can play these little pretend games anyway they like.
In this part of my article it’s my objective to explain my point of view. Why exploration simply out of curiosity is not something I would expect or support in a game or story. And what kind of game or story I would find better suited for curiosity to be motive enough in itself.
Curiosity Killed the Cat
Everybody knows the saying, though in our world it’s not always spot on. Our lives would be much poorer if not for curiosity, both our own, and of those who brought us the wonders of the modern age. We could rightfully sing odes to scientists, explorers, and great thinkers, who were led by their curiosity and made the world a better place.
TTRPG games usually take place in settings different from our world. Even if the setting is a version of the real world, usually there are some supernatural or sci-fi elements. Those are usually dangerous to some extent, and the same curiosity that could bring progress and prosperity could bring death and suffering. Opening a container and releasing a plague/demon/AI/whatever. Stepping inside a monster’s lair and becoming its victim. Reading a forbidden book, or downloading a malevolent virus. Inventing teleportation technology that unfortunately uses literal hell as a shortcut.
Those are all actions that stem from being curious, and can have negative outcomes. Or positive ones, for example the container might store vital knowledge or a cure. The monster might not actually be a monster, but a potential ally. Either way it’s perfectly reasonable for such things to happen, for the characters to act out their curiosity. But we’re talking about one action, or a set of actions. Jack opened the container out of curiosity, but he had a different motivation for being in the mansion in the first place.
Moreover there are settings where it’s common knowledge, or at least common enough for the player characters, that there’s a danger to being curious. An unmarked flagon is not something to drink. You take it to an alchemist. An amulet found in a crypt is not to be worn immediately. You seek out someone who can check it out and find any curses (“identify” in video game jargon). If you’re on a quest from a mage to recover an old tome, you’ve been briefed not to browse it and to absolutely never read from it aloud. A character might of course think otherwise, but that’s the fun part. Realistically it can be known that being too curious can be very dangerous in such a setting. You can literally die from curiosity.
Crawling out of Curiosity
One of my basic assumptions when it comes to dungeons is that they are dangerous. The source of danger might vary, there might be monsters, traps, environmental hazards, but still it’s no walk in a park. You can realistically die in a dungeon, and it’s many times more probable than bandits or goblins raiding your village. Or than a catastrophic failure of your ship’s systems. You are actively pushing your luck when entering a dungeon, and you better have a good enough reason.
The reasons for entering a dungeon can be varied, but I tried to sum them up in Dungeons: How to Behave. The table below is supposed to list some of the various “behavioral modes” for dungeon crawlers. It’s not exhaustive, but many times what the party will be doing is a variation of one of those.
Explore everything
Defeateverything
Time span
Manpower needed
Transit
no
no
short
party
Assassination
no
no
medium
party
Extermination
yes
yes
medium to long
army
Treasure hunt
no
no
medium
party
Reclamation
yes
yes
long
army
Now the thing Roland was missing is exploration. Crawling through the dungeon out of curiosity. As I mentioned before, there are situations where I can imagine such an undertaking. Roland mentioned urban explorers, and yes, they indeed “crawl dungeons” purely out of curiosity. They also have a code that is very much the opposite of what most dungeon crawls do. There’s no “official” Urbex Codex, but the one I linked is more than enough for the purposes of this article.
Exploring a storm drain tunnel. Photo by Alejandro De Roa on Pexels.
In most TTRPG dungeon crawls, unless it’s specifically forbidden or unwanted, the party loots, damages, and destroys. Sometimes there’s nothing to destroy, but even if looting is not the main reason for being there, it occurs. And even if a character’s motivation for entering the dungeon is curiosity, they are curious about what could be found in there. Or perhaps they are curious what threats could escape if left unchecked, the next step being stopping those threats, or at least spreading the news.
The curious mind seeks knowledge and information, but in the settings I’m familiar with, these are akin to other treasures. The curious mage doesn’t crave knowledge because it brings them joy to learn something (though it might as well), but to further use it in their research. Or apply it directly. Same with information in a space opera or cyberpunk setting. Sure your boss is curious what’s with the increased activity near that moon. But they want to use that information as a bargaining chip, not just sit contently knowing something new.
I will however offer one situation in which curiosity becomes acceptable even for someone with my mindset. The betterment of the society through knowledge, experience, and sensations gained from satisfying curiosity. Something that should ideally be happening right now in the real world, or at least that’s the idea behind a lot of research being done. There’s another “however”, though.
The Luxury of Curiosity
There is one other thing that prevents me from accepting curiosity as a motive for dungeon crawling. And it’s the same thing that makes me resent most treatments of archaeology in games. I will write an article about how most works use archaeology the wrong way one day. Yes, it is my field, and most of the time archaeology in games is as annoying to me as a lot of sci-fi staples must be to engineers and physicists.
Sunlight entering a cave. Photo by Heber Vazquez on Pexels.
For curiosity to exist as the primary motivation the world, or at least the society in question, must meet some conditions. Since research and exploration just to satisfy curiosity would sit quite high in the pyramid of needs, conditions enabling at least some members of the society to engage in such activities must exist. In most settings those people would not be the player characters. More likely it’s the quest givers, and the rewards are probably something other than satisfied curiosity.
People with means to fund the satisfaction of their curiosity also often need those means to either secure their own position, or further the needs of their society. As in an archmage devoting their power to the protection of the realm, a brilliant scientist working to find a cure for an epidemic. If no such threats exist, the setting is either a utopia, or something like the real world. Down to the fact that the people with means to battle the existing threats would rather not.
We’re getting close to cyberpunk territory in those last sentences, and I’m reminded of the times I’ve seen curiosity as a motive in Shadowrun. And indeed often the runners are sent on a mission just to learn something. Whether it’s true that X, or what happened at Y. We could say the motivation is curiosity. But there’s usually a follow-up, such as revenge. I would perhaps say that it’s more of a “need for information” than curiosity. And information is just like any other treasure, so a dungeon crawl/run/mission/whatever motivated by the acquisition of certain knowledge would fall into my “treasure hunt” category.
Summary
In this article I have tried to present my views regarding curiosity as a motive for entering a dungeon. In my opinion in many settings the real motive is different. Curiosity is then something often possessed by those who make a living of crawling dungeons, perhaps the driving factor for their life choices, that might influence the outcome of certain situations.
In other words, the party came to the dungeon to gain something, or perhaps eliminate a threat. The curiosity of individual party members might help them, they might for example find hidden loot, or alternative paths. It can also harm them, for example by making them more susceptible to traps and lures.
There are settings and context where curiosity can serve as the primary motivation for dungeon crawling, or whatever the player characters do. These however might not make that much sense unless several conditions are met. I might get to describe those in detail in another article. For now let’s say that doing dangerous things only to sate one’s curiosity requires a lot of more basic needs met, and that TTRPG settings are often not built that way. If yours is, please share a link in the comments!
Curiosity is a wonderful thing, both in the context of TTRPGs and in the real world. DMs build worlds and adventures hoping to pique the players’ curiosity so that they want to see more and more. And curious characters can be both fun and rewarding to play. So definitely build your stuff around curiosity and be curious yourself!
An introduction to video game analyses that will be appearing on the blog. More coming soon!
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Video games and TTRPGs have a long history that needs no introductions. Many great computer role-playing games (cRPGs) are based on TTRPG systems or at least their settings, as you probably know well enough. Like other media, video games can be a great resource for your game, and sometimes the less obvious choices can be more interesting. Everyone got some inspiration from some cRPG they played, but great gems to add to your game can be found in any video game genre, and even in those that are not really good as video games.
The other strong point I’d like to make is that video games are very accessible and in my opinion can make TTRPGs more accessible as well. Not everyone starts with ASCII Dwarf Fortress or Space Station 13, but there are tons of games even casual gamers or non-gamers recognize. You are probably thinking about some examples right now. On the other hand not everyone who wants to play TTRPGs is a devoted tabletop gamer, well-versed in all the editions and different systems. Many times your friends are not even avid readers, having read perhaps Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter because everyone read it at the time. They might play video games though, and through them you can explain TTRPGs, whether it’s the mechanics or general principles. I know I have had players whose only connection to TTRPGs was through video games, and the experience helped them get into tabletop gaming.
In this series of articles you will find not exactly reviews, but rather analyses of different video games. Sometimes they will be in-depth, sometimes I will only cover a select mechanic, piece of lore or storytelling, or just make stat blocks for a few interesting monsters. The selection of covered games is not really governed by any principle other than what I find interesting to write about, but if there is a game you would like me to have a look at, please leave a comment and we’ll see about it!
Genres
As I stated above, the obvious genre choice is cRPG. Some amazing titles fall into this category and surely some of them will appear on this blog. There is, however, more to video games than role-playing games, that can be used in your tabletop games. The closest to cRPGs in terms of TTRPG relevance is the triad of adventure, action, and strategy games.
Adventure
Adventure games usually share much with cRPGs in terms of rich story and worldbuilding. What’s usually missing is the progression of the main character(s), but even this is not always true. Adventure games also often rely on puzzles and item combination rather than combat or other contests. Exceptions exist, but generally the are not that common. There are action adventures where there’s combat and platforming interwoven into the adventuring part, like the Legend of Zelda games. There are RPG-adventure hybrids that are not exactly RPGs, but contain many RPG elements, such as character selection, levelling, and combat, with the Quest for Glory series being a wonderful example.
The very beginning of the VGA Quest for Glory I. All rights reserved to Sierra Entertainment and/or other respective owners.
Obviously you can take inspiration from the story, puzzles, or characters in an adventure game. You can also focus on the visual side of these games. Unique environments, fantastic creatures, or spectacular spell effects all find their place in adventure games. Especially in later 90’s and early 00’s with studios such as Cryo there has been a trend of beautiful graphics and wondrous locations that can give you a creative boost.
Action
Action games come in many flavours, from simple shoot-’em-ups or fighting games through platformers and shooters, metroidvanias and souls-likes, to action RPGs. They even differ inside their category, mainly when it comes to depth of the story and worldbuilding. Story is not top priority in these games, but there are exceptional titles with top-notch storytelling – pick any title from Supergiant Games for an example.
Even if an action game isn’t an “action RPG”, RPG elements are often present. Most of the time it’s some form of character progression or selection, and equipment management. Having multiple choices isn’t that common, though again, not unheard of.
The Prince enjoying a beautiful view in Prince of Persia (2008). All rights reserved to Ubisoft and/or other respective owners.
The various subgenres offer different experiences, but concerning what they can offer your tabletop gaming needs, they are quite similar. Environment and level design, puzzles, enemies, weapons and spells, or character options are some of the features that can be found in most action games. Of course the weapons will be different in a shoot-’em-up like Tyrian from those in Doom or Prince of Persia. The environments will also be of a quite different scale. Can you use them all for inspiration? That’s up to you!
Strategy
As with action games, there is a large spectrum of strategy games at your disposal. The basic distinction is whether they are real-time or turn-based, and this often dictates other parameters of the game. They can be peaceful with little to no fighting involved, or full-scale wargames. The emphasis can be on tactical decisions or large-scale strategy, micro- or macromanagement. Whatever the case, usually there is enough inspiration to be found for your tabletop game in any strategy.
Tactical strategies are often closest to TTRPGs, and the inspiration probably works both ways. As with action games, you can pick enemies, weapons, spells, and all sorts of other options from tactical strategy games. Whether real-time (Commandos, Desperados) or turn-based (UFO, Jagged Alliance, The Banner Saga), they offer plenty of options that can inspire you. RPG elements are often present in the turn-based camp, not so much in real-time games.
Builders such as The Settlers, Cultures, or Anno series offer different scale and experience. While combat is commonly present, it’s usually much simpler than in tactical strategies, and only supplements the main focus of these games – building settlements, bases, kingdoms. Exceptions exist, with Stronghold being a good example of a builder with heavy emphasis on combat of the siege variety. Usually mid-scale economics play a large part in this type of games. They can be used as an exercise in settlement design, and for learning how to think in a slightly larger scale than party-level in your worldbuilding.
Just another day in Crusader Kings 2. Also a good plot hook for your next adventure. All rights reserved to Paradox Interactive and/or other respective owners.
The 4X or grand strategy games are the next step in scaling upwards. Often the focus of these strategies are whole nations, worlds, or planets. The Civilisation series and games by Paradox Interactive are good examples of this subgenre. Again you can get inspired concerning the large-scale matters of your TTRPG. The way kingdoms and empires interact, the issues that need solving both inside and across borders – all of this you can try out in this kind of strategy games before using at your table. Just start a game of Crusader Kings, let the time flow, and you’ll have tons of ideas for your setting in the first ten minutes.
Other genres
What other video game genres you can get inspiration from? Well, the obvious answer is “anything you feel inspired by”! Like racing games with car tuning and championships? Maybe you can use similar ideas but in your game it’s chariots instead of racecars. What about other simulators, such as train simulators or fishing simulators? I bet you can see where this is going. You can also cater to your players’ preferences if you know what genre they like and add just a few noticeable traits from there.
What to use?
You can choose between two approaches. You can lift an element as it is in the source game, i.e. a monster, and use it at your table. Give it stats, maybe figure out its place in your world. Your players will recognize it and either scold you for laziness or praise you for using something they liked elsewhere. Best make sure the second option is more probable before you do this. If you know your players you might have an estimate, but you probably don’t want to do this for your first session with a new group. Either way you should be careful with this approach, as after the twentieth monster and fifteenth item from the games your players love, it might get quite annoying.
A plasmid vending machine in Bioshock (2007). All rights reserved to 2K Games and/or other respective owners.
The other approach is to analyze what makes the element you like work, and then build upon that. Let’s say you like plasmids and tonics from the Bioshock series. They are essentially consumables that grant spells or spell-like abilities, and are commonly available from vendors. Don’t use the terms “plasmid” or “tonic”, invent a different set of effects, maybe a different delivery method. Someone might still see the inspiration, and you make no claims otherwise, but it should fit better in your setting, and not come off as a rip-off. This is of course applicable to any source of inspiration, not just video games.
I have to say one of the best campaigns I experienced as a player was heavily based on Icewind Dale, where the DM essentially copied most of the plot and added his own elements (a lot, to be fair). But what you get with this approach is often a clash between your players’ expectations and your adaptation. If you’re lucky, you will only be reminded of this a few times each session.
Final remarks
It is quite possible that there’s nothing new for you in this article. You are probably familiar with video games and have used them as inspiration at least sporadically in the past. In that case you may consider this article an obligatory introduction, in which I state my goals and methods. If, on the other hand, you are not at home with video games, you might want to check some out as there are many original ideas scattered around.
As mentioned in the beginning, there will be analyses of video games in the future. Some of the games mentioned in this post will surely have their own articles, and there are many more I would like to write about. I hope you will find the articles interesting and inspiring. First of these will be posted soon, so you might want to follow the blog so you don’t miss anything!
