Narrative Structure in D&D

Narrative structure is used in many types of fiction like movies, television, video games, etc.
I take a look at narrative structure and how it can improve storytelling and game play.

Reasons to play D&D

I like playing D&D and there are many reasons why.

I came across an article on reasons to play D&D.
It mentions imagination, structure, social activity, performance and problem-solving.
I find it an interesting article and I want to add more reasons.

Cooperative Storytelling in D&D

I want stories in D&D in which both Dungeon Masters and players contribute.
People play through a passionate story while having fun.
The DM and players work together on this.

Metagaming in D&D

When I first started playing D&D, I hadn't heard of metagaming.
This quickly changed when I became a DM and had some experienced players.
Metagaming is the use of player knowledge while playing a character.

Discrimination in D&D Societies and Settings

Discrimination in D&D depends on the societies and the settings in which people are playing.
I list my expectations for historical settings and the default D&D setting.
Small changes in settings have a large impact on the diversity of settings.

In the previous post I talked about discrimination in D&D writing.
I looked into the player's handbooks for D&D 4E and found that some societies in the core books have different gender roles.
I want to see what impact a setting has on discrimination.

Undead Stalking the Graveyard

I created a graveyard to scare PCs. It scared them because their enemies were unknown and could ambush them at any moment.

I'm participating in the October RPG Blog Carnival and its theme is horror.

I once had a party with a paladin and a cleric that were happy when they encountered undead.
These characters were extremely effective against undead.
So I created a cemetery with a huge underground labyrinth, crawling with undead.

Discrimination in D&D 4E Writing

I want more diversity in the D&D games I play in, mostly after reading about sexist art in D&D.
Although diversity can fixed by the DM, it's a lot easier if the core books and adventures fully support it, as a good example to new and experienced DMs.

Benefits of Small D&D Parties

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I prefer playing with smaller parties.
There are benefits and drawbacks
to having fewer PCs.

A while back there was an article about
handling a solo party.
I've never run a solo party but I've played with a small amount of players.

I like smaller parties but I can imagine there are DMs that like larger parties because there are more player interactions and large scale battles.

Intelligent Antagonists

Killer Queen by Louise Docker

There are pitfalls when the PCs face intelligent antagonists.
These pitfalls make playing D&D less fun.
An intelligent villain done wrong makes players think of railroads and that they're powerless to face the antagonist because of his knowledge, power level, etc.

Recurring antagonists

Recurring antagonists are essential in story telling as they oppose the PCs.
Their recurring nature creates a connection between them and the PCs which leads to a better story.

Getting Players Invested

Getting players invested in the world around them is necessary if you want to tell a story. If they are only playing to kill things and gain experience/loot there wouldn't be need of a story.

5 Minute Workday

The 5 minute workday refers to the PCs having daily powers which recharge after resting.
I discuss how often the PCs can rest.

TPK and Storytelling

The PCs can all get killed in a combat encounter (Total Party Kill, TPK).
This can be due to bad choices, unlucky dices or too strong opponents.
It's hard to make up excuses for the opponents to simply let them
walk away, so I assume the opponents capture them alive.

Skills in D&D 4E

Skills are important for role playing in D&D 4E.
Ideally, if a player wants his or her character to do
something the DM should be able to map it to a skill.
Players shouldn't feel bound by their skill list to try
out things.

Abstract Mechanics and unexplainable powers

Powers in D&D 4E allow for interesting tactical combat, explaining how they work is often impossible.


Why are Fighters only able to perform some attack once a day?
Why can a cleric only have one divine fortune per encounter?
If a cleric fires a lance of faith, will it reflect in a mirror?
How does one knock prone an ooze?
How does one sneak attack the undead?
etc...

Storytelling in Kobold Hall

Kobold Hall has good encounters but can use more role playing. I try to add a decent story, non-suicidal monsters and player choices.

5 Lesser known undead

Most people know iconic undead monsters like zombies, skeletons, liches, vampires, etc.
In this post we're going to examine some lesser known undead monsters and look at story telling possibilities.

All of the undead here are from Open Grave.

1. Unrisen
   Unrisen are people brought back from the dead by the raise dead ritual.
   Something went wrong, so they look the same but are undead monstrosities at  heart.
   I find them creepy as they are one of the few undead that can easily pass of as normal humanoids. I wrote a quest about them.
   Maybe there exists a way to sabotage the raise dead ritual so that a healer can corrupt an organization or city.
   Or an unrisen healer sabotages the raise dead ritual to create a family.
2. Caller In Darkness
   This ghost is a group of spirits that died in terror.
   It wants to draw others into the group.
   As a ghost it can be defeated but will return until the reason that caused the deaths is solved.
   Also, how large can it become? How many souls can it draw in before it gets huge or gargantuan?
3. Forsaken Shell
   These are undead skins that want to envelop living creatures.
   When these living creatures die, their skins become new Forsaken shells.
   An interesting way to use them is in an encounter with low-level NPCs or even commoners. This forces the PCs to focus on more than just destroying the enemies.
   Only the skin becomes an undead creature, the rest of the body can be used to create or feed other undead.
4. Wraith
   These undead are fantastic. Their phasing and spawn ability (any living humanoid killed by them becomes a wraith) can lead to an wraith apocalypse.
   An intelligent antagonist may keep them and threaten to set them loose in a populated area. Or an insane antagonist may just set them loose anyway.
   Players can then fight against swarms of wraiths or a huge amount of minions.
5. Nighthaunt
   Nighthaunts are shadows that prey on the innocents.
   The cool thing about them is their ability to create corpse grass.
   Anyone that eats even a little of it becomes a nighthaunt at death.
   So it can be put in food, the water supply, beer, wine, etc.
   Once the first infected person dies the fun starts.
   

Storytelling in Keep on the Shadowfell

Storytelling in D&D: Keep on the Shadowfell

I find telling a story in D&D quite hard.
My first experience as a DM was Keep on the Shadowfell.

Keep on the Shadowfell

When I first read the adventure I had no opinion whatsoever
about it. My experience in 4E was limited to being a player in Kobold Hall.

As we progressed into the adventure, the NPCs seemed boring
and one-dimensional.
You have the friendly innkeeper, the old sage, the mayor,
the spy, the healer and the big bad.
The adventure recommended giving the NPCs mannerisms, details and background.

I changed the sage into and old man looking to extend his
life with necromancy.
I made the mayor stupid and incompetent.
I made the spy the mother of the big bad which gave him
a background. That way the PCs had some idea about him
before the final battle.

The big bad had many creatures working for him, like kobolds.
I changed it so the kobolds worship dragons and Tiamat.
They are offended by humans expanding into their lands with
farms and digging up stuff in a nearby dragon burial site.

Later on, the PCs encounter an undead fallen knight as a skill
challenge.
I gave him a quest in which his undead family should be
killed to grant them all peace.
As he was the former leader of the keep I wanted him to have
a bigger role in the story.

Near the end of the adventure, some PCs had left the group
permanently. I made them come back as undead versions of
themselves to attack the PCs.

My conclusions

The NPCs were static and boring. I made them more
memorable with a background and a more active role in the story.
I gave them a chance to be more than a NPC waiting for the PCs
to come by and perform his or her role.
I wanted the PCs to know a bit about the big bad before the final battle.
Otherwise the final battle is a hard battle at the end instead of a climax in a piece of fiction.

The cliches are overwhelming in this adventure:

• the NPCs exist only to fulfill their role

• all enemies either work for the big bad or attack anything in sight

• there are no reasons given why intelligent enemies attack, except that they serve the big bad or get paid a lot
• the big bad wants to open a portal for no other reason to serve his master and gets interrupted by the PCs

How to tell a story

Unlike other types of fiction like books, movies, television, etc
the story isn't set in stone.
Players should have meaningful choices and a way to impact
the world.
That is why I give the PCs situations and see how they react.
For example, in Keep on the Shadowfell, the PCs could

•   destroy the kobolds
•   could talk to them to end the fighting
•   just leave them alone

To make these kind of choices, I give NPCs more backstory and motivation.

The second difference with other types of fiction is that
there may be quite some time between getting into a situation
and having to make a choice about it.
In real life, there can be weeks or months between the two, depending on how often the group comes together.

The third difference lies in the players don't understanding the situation.
This can be because they choose a different path the DM thought they would take. Or that the DM forgot some details or underestimated the information the players need to understand the situation.

The second and third difference can be fixed with repeating information the players need to understand a situation.
I learned this the hard way and found a helpful site:
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule