From time to time I get involved in tabletop role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars Saga Edition (now discontinued) as well as some others my friends have made themselves. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these games, I'll give a basic explanation of how they work. For those of you who are familiar, feel free to skim past the next couple of paragraphs.
In tabletop role playing games (hereafter referred to as RPG's), one player is designated as the Dungeon/Game Master (DM or GM). This player creates the world, based on the RPG's rules, including the obstacles the other players face, the enemies, the puzzles, traps, quests and just about anything else the players will encounter. Often times the DM/GM is nicknamed the god of the world since what he/she says is law. Some DM/GM's are more lenient while others are more strict with what options they place before their players and what detours they're willing to allow the players to make from the main story arc of the game. A single game can span several playing sessions, taking weeks, months, and even sometimes years if the players have the desire to draw things out that long.
The other players all get to make characters and play in the world the DM/GM has created for them. They can work together to complete each quest, or opt to fight amongst themselves (usually inuring the wrath of the DM/GM and making their campaign more difficult). The main point of it all, though is to play their character. Each character has stats for their attributes: Intelligence, Strength and so forth. So even if the player is a genius, if their character has low intelligence, then the player is suppose to play their character to reflect that lower mental prowess.
Alright, enough explaining the game play, on to why I'm bringing this up. While in the past I have been a player with a character who runs around and lets my DM/GM define the world I played in, I have since become the one who plays the DM/GM and it has helped my storytelling in ways I didn't expect.
As stated before, it is the DM/GM's responsibility to create the world in which the players interact. As such, I have had to plan ahead, taking into account possible side plots the players may pursue while ensuring I always leave plenty of options available so they don;t feel like I'm steering them down a one way road. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.
At the beginning of the gaming session, the players found their city under attack. They were told by their Master to stay hidden. The players characters were all children and so, understandably, they hid. When things started to go from bad to worse, however, the players were posed with certain options: do they try and escape, do they keep hidden or do they try to stand and fight?
I as the DM/GM don't know before hand which possibility the players will select and so I, in my planning before, had to map out where each course of action would lead. This example is a fairly straight forward one and wasn't all that hard to craft. There are other, story altering decisions that appear from time to time that change how the rest of the campaign will play out. For example:
Following the invasion of their town, the players had to flee. They were given the choice of several locations to which they could flee, each with its own challenges, risks and rewards. Each location, I had determined in advance, would lead the players down drastically different stories. And while I would on;y have to flesh out one of those stories depending on which the party chose, the world they're playing in is still all interconnected and so events in those other places would still effect them even though they never went there. Because they didn't go to that other town, it fell to the invaders as well and so later when they meet some refugees who are from that town there will be people and events that wouldn't have otherwise taken place. Some good, and some bad will come because of the decisions they made.
The game world can be as complex as I want it to be, just like when writing a book or making a film. The depth of the story can only go as deep as the storyteller is willing to dig. By forcing myself to dig a little deeper in these games it has helped me to do the same for the stories I write and the movies I make.
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