Applying Dramatica to create an RPG

writing
#1

I was wondering if anyone here has experience applying Dramatica to an RPG?

For a little context, I’m a video game Producer (previously worked on Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst and currently working on an AR/VR mobile app) and I have a pet game project developing an RPG that’s focused on telling a story through character development and choices.

The theme is survival during/after climate change and I want to use the opportunity for people to learn about the environment and how our survival as a species depends on it. I also want players to practice social skills and how to build and keep a small community together by making choices via conversation/actions (much like Telltale games).

I’ve been playing around with the Dramatica software demo, trying to figure out how this method can help me create a compelling story. While I love story, I’m such a novice writer and feel a little overwhelmed with even learning this system for a traditional story, let alone an interactive one.

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice about what to focus on first? I have no time limit as this is purely a personal learning/passion project.

Thanks!

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#2

Welcome! Glad to have you. This is a really interesting topic, and IIRC, we’ve talked about it a couple times here on the site. Dramatica was developed focusing primarily on linear, non-participatory stories, but I think the elements can still be useful for games and other interactive media. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

  1. Does your game have a central narrative that the players move through without changing substantially, or do you give opportunities for the players to redirect the ultimate goal of the story?

  2. You mentioned playing with the demo; have you seen the chart? (And subsequently, can you read that chart? :stuck_out_tongue:) Do you understand things like the Twelve Questions, the relationship between the Main Character and the Influence/Impact Character, the eight Objective Archetypes? Do you have any preliminary plans towards using those ideas in your game?

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#3

First, take a look at this thread about dramatica and interactive fiction.

Second, you should probably try to understand Dramatica a bit more before trying to write interactive fiction with it. It’s complicated enough as it is, but adding interactivity changes the complexity exponentially.

Third, @actingpower 's question 1 is a good one. Even if you work with just one storyform, several things allow for some variation, e.g. cost & dividends, relationships, etc.

#4

Welcome @Avalina . It’s great to have you onboard. Let me reassure you. You’ve come to the right place. Dramatica by nature isn’t a static story structure theory. It is built to take into account Dynamic appreciations as well. The very nature of the theory considers the twisting of story points from a baseline(Perfect world) to a full narrative( Story world). It’ll show you areas where conflict should arise and also what you need to solve the conflicts of your story. This forum is rich with real world examples and tips to getting the theory to work for you. So I’d say invest your time in the theory. It is complete.
That said. For your story, it is certainly doable. But first study. Learn some of they theory’s terminology. This will usher you into the Matrix(red pill). You’ll start to gain a heap of insight into what will make any story work. Have fun and remember to ask questions whenever you’re stuck. Also visit www.narrativefirst.com . That site will further breakdown all you need to know about the theory.

#5

I think Dramatica has massive, massive potential for building a story-focused RPG.

In fact, I see echoes of Dramatica in other story games:

  • Burning Wheel with its Beliefs and Instincts, and how you get rewarded for changing a Belief (see also Burning Empires and Mouse Guard RPG).
  • Primetime Adventures has story structure built into it that fits pretty well with Dramatica, if I remember correctly.
  • I bet you would find Dramatica concepts in other well-known story games (Dogs in the Vineyard comes to miind) if you looked, because those games are famous for making good stories, which is what Dramatica is all about.

(I’m not sure how focused any of them are on complete stories – all 4 throughlines – but they might be giving you hints and tools that help towards that.)

For creating an RPG with Dramatica… I think the key would be to connect the Dramatica concepts you want in your game to the game’s reward system. e.g. characters might improve toward advancement when they enter into conflict that relates to the Problem element. Maybe they gain bonus dice when they see Symptom as a problem and try to address it with the Response. That sort of thing.

#6

Definitely start with the thread that @bobRaskoph posted.

In there, Melanie (co-creator) is quoted on two ways to approach IF with dramatica:

  1. The storyform is fixed while player is a non-MC observer, able to witness and discover events out of order but ultimately separate from the main story itself.

  2. The storyform bends, reshapes, and resets as the player’s choices shift the narrative context.

This second option is the most appealing to me, and I imagine the most appealing to the gaming population. They want to have an effect on the world and the story, and they can’t do that if they aren’t participants. Melanie quote:

Of course, the problem here is that not only do you need to become adept at just one storyform, you need to figure out how to shift from one to another, all while saving time and development on assets and game creation. This is relatively unexplored, or at least unanalyzed, territory. It’s uncharted waters, but I think Dramatica is still the best tool to puzzle it all out. Prepare for a long fall down the rabbit hole!

My two cents:
As I’ve expressed earlier, I think IF becomes problematic when the player is both observer and participant. Observing goes well with item 1, participation with item 2, and I don’t think developers should mix the two. When players want to participate, I think they subconsciously want both the advantages and _dis_advantages of a single, fixed perspective. Look at the success of Knights of the Old Republic: that twist bowled over players because mentally they were locked into the Main Character Throughline and unable to see beyond it at first. It’s similar to the film Chinatown where Jake the MC is trying to pry open a world that doesn’t want sunlight. Only towards the end is the shocking truth of the Overall Story revealed.

The recent success of Dark Souls and Zelda: Breath of the Wild shows that players want worlds that don’t cater to their whims - they have to assert themselves, they have to challenge the world’s rules to discover solutions, just like a Main Character facing resistance in the world of a storyform.

#7

When I run D&D campaigns for my kids I figure out a storyform ahead of time, making one of the NPCs the Main Character, and another the Influence Character. I also try and make the MC the Protagonist but then kind of sort of manipulate the kids into thinking they’re the ones making the decisions alongside the Protagonist.

It’s as if they’re the Audience watching this storyform unfold, but they’re playing along with it.

I have yet to actually finish an actual storyform this way for two reasons: a) its not 1977 where iPhones, iPads, Netflix, PS4, and Xbox don’t exist and b) they like making their characters more than playing them (which I suspect is them building up a foundation for a life of writing and storytelling…)

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#8

Jim (and others) … you have got to check out the RPG Primetime Adventures.

(That kickstarter link has the best description, but the kickstarter is done and the game can be purchased here.)

The GM is the “Producer” and everyone else plays one of the show’s main characters. Each game session is one Episode, and consists of Scenes. (So you only play actual scenes with real conflict.) Before you start, you map out the Series Concept together and do a Pilot episode to see if you like the concept or if you want to tweak anything. And then you map out character arcs over the season and decide which episodes will focus on which characters – they get more Screen Presence (like more dice to use) in certain episodes. The characters are defined by their Issues.

I have the earlier 2006 edition. I never got to play a full season as my group was more focused on Burning Wheel, but I remember reading through piles of “actual play” reports. The game was definitely good at creating great stories – the play reports were super-fun to read!

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#9

That sounds really great. Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out.