Maura Wright's Weblog

Characters and storytelling in D&D

February 20, 2012 at 5:49 pm (Uncategorized) (D&D, storytelling, writing, character, development, dnd, rpg)

I play a weekly D&D game with some friends.  We use OpenRPG as we’re scattered all over the country.  The game has been going for almost 4 years and it has been a constant source of inspiration for me.  A couple sessions ago we had a character event that left me feeling emotionally affected, and upon retrospect, was one of the strongest reactions I’ve had to the game in the ~4 years I’ve been playing.

To summarize without having to explain the past years of plot, the characters are gifted with subconscious-based superpowers that are generally mythology themed.  For a parallel, think of the Persona series of games, but in our setting we call them “whispers”.  One character decided to separate a sentient whisper from an NPC because it was going to be aggressively experimented on by its host.  In setting, we have learned that separating a whisper from the host equals death for both parties involved, but this player/character (we’ll call him N), found a way to separate the two without any death.  To do this, N basically dupes and drugs an unrelated NPC (lets call her S) into switching whispers temporarily, which breaks all the rules that the characters were aware of.

This is where the emotional backlash comes in.  Since N uses dangerous and downright villainous means to get S and the other NPCs to cooperate, namely drugging them and not telling them what he actually had planned until we were too far gone, the characters and players absolutely exploded.  Did player N have the right to do this?  He shouldn’t force S into anything, and since she’s an NPC, she doesn’t have the player awareness to say no to the situation.  Do his methods justify the end result of saving the sentient whisper from a violent end at the hands of its host?  Should N have warned the other players about what he was about to do?  Arguments about fairness, what was “right” in setting, and player vs character information were raised, and I’ll admit I was honestly emotionally uncomfortable about the situation, but it took me a day to process why I was upset.

It was a combination of the above points mentioned (fairness, right vs wrong, OOC vs IC knowledge), along with the issue of control and culpability.  The player was well and fair in his right to do the above whisper-swap per setting rules, and while he was indeed right in trying to help the sentient whisper, his methods definitely rubbed everyone the wrong way.  I think the issue of OOC vs IC knowledge was a big issue for some players.  Out of character, we all knew this meddling with the subconscious was terrible, and other examples from the setting have showed us that it was extremely dangerous.  In character, none of the players’ characters knew what was going to happen until it was too late.  I think that was a big point of contention: we all “knew” it was the wrong way to go about it, but that’s player knowledge.  We have to separate that for better storytelling and leave room for surprises and genuine character reactions, or else we’re all just reading ahead in the script.

Control and culpability I think was what really got under my skin as a player and as a character.  I rotate between 3 different PCs since they’re generally not combat-oriented.  At the time of this character altercation, one character of mine that was trained in dealing with whispers and switching them was out of the plot (which, coincidentally, made it the perfect time for N to do this without being told not to).  Another character has been out of the main plot for some time, and the third has no association with whispers, so in essence I was helpless to the situation.  Watching the scene unfold and knowing that I had a character that could help but, due to plot, wasn’t around, made me feel like some sort of accomplice. That was definitely the worst part for me.

N behaved like a true mad scientist, dragging us all to witness his great feat of science and being astounded that breaking the laws of nature did not endear us to his results.  Despite it all, I’m not mad or upset that I got upset.  On the contrary, I’m actually really excited that it happened.  To be a part of such modern-day storytelling is a joy, and its reason I’m excited every week for the next game session.  No matter how many big budget or indie games I’ve played, I’ve never had such a strong emotional connection before than the one I did with this particular D&D session, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

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