Sheep fantasy: Silly ideas born from a desire to do what you love.
Hi, you can call me Neru, and I'm here to present something I've been thinking about regarding RPGs for a while. Don't take this as a manifesto or anything like that; I'm not concerned with what you do at your table or in your game. You're not playing wrong by not doing this. What I'm doing here is presenting what I think are good pillars for both game design and table etiquette. Do what you want with it.
Why did I call it Sheep Fantasy?
To sum it up? I've read a lot of articles like this and I want to have my own, and i think the name "Sheep fantasy" is cool.
But if I were to really explain it, it's more a matter of having these ideas for a long time and only now have I mustered the courage to put them on paper. I have concepts in my head that I believe are good lines for both the things I play and the things I create, and "putting them on paper" means I have something I can go back to later for inspiration, discuss with other people, and see how my vision has changed (because it always changes; being an immutable monolith guarantees you can't be better tomorrow).
If it helps someone define an idea for a system, improve some aspect of their game, or even be something for someone to disagree with, say "I'll do better," and create something awesome to be contrary to me, that's a bonus.
Before I give the ideas for Sheep Fantasy, I need to define some terms I'll use, because in a literal sense they may be synonyms or not have the meaning the way I'm using them.
First, I'll separate mechanics from rules, because in the way I'll use it, rules define what you can and cannot do, while mechanics give you the means to do it. This distinction is important for a point I'll make later, but it's not a value judgment; rules aren't a problem, nor are mechanics, but the distinction is important for what I want to say.
Fiction won't just be the lore; it will be everything that defines what a person imagines when playing, including: lore, game examples, art, tables, mechanics, etc. When I say fiction, I'll be referring to this large set.
Narrative, this isn't as important for what I want to say, but it doesn't hurt to define it. It will encompass everything involved in the narrative, including story and interpretation, both the most theatrical and the most game-like possible.
Now I can start yapping...
What is Sheep Fantasy?
Understanding RPGs as games and breaking free from the constraints of immersion.
There's a certain resistance to accepting RPGs as games (which is curious since RPGs originated from wargames, as they came from chainmail). The conversations that arise from this idea are that the game needs cool mechanics but can't have mechanics that make the person feel like they're playing a game. An example is the classic argument that the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons is bad because it looks too much like an MMO (which isn't true, but even if it were, it doesn't explain the problem itself). But this rejection isn't exclusive to games in the gaming sphere; the same criticism arises in some conversations when talking about moves in systems powered by apocalypse, which means the discussion isn't about game design but about an abstract concept of what is "too much of a game" for each person.
The idea that Sheep Fantasy conveys is, let the game be a game and don't be afraid of it. For example, read about board games; they have a lot of material to draw from or be inspired by for RPGs. A great example is Wilderfeast by Horrible Guild, which was translated by Capycat Games here in Brasil. Horrible Guild is primarily a board game producer, but using what they learned from their experiences, they created a system. There's also the example of Tom Bloom, known for Lancer, who has his own board game called Maleghast, and it's a good source of inspiration and bleeds into Tom Bloom's design. Ideas created for Maleghast were explored again in Icon, his epic fantasy RPG.
Another point is not to let immersion become like a chain around your neck; it should be more of a tool to achieve the goal of an RPG, which is fun, not a shackle that prevents you from interacting with the system like a game. It prevents you from using a mechanic you find cool because it's not immersive, from having a certain way of speaking because NPCs wouldn't talk that way, and from making mistakes and asking for help because it would ruin the immersion and the impression that you're a badass storyteller. When immersion starts to ruin your experience, it stops being a tool and you become a hostage.
Games with a clear intention to establish a relationship between the player and the narrator.
Say how you think they should play your game. Whether they'll ignore it and use your grim dark fantasy for My Little Pony doesn't matter. You communicated the expectations, and changes will come based on what you said because they know what the game should be.
This can be done through direct text, where you communicate directly with lists and example game texts, but there is the alternative of doing this mixed into the game's base text in mechanics and descriptions. If your game requires players to think outside the box to win, communicate this. Or does your game assume that players will only win through coordinated teamwork? Say so and give examples. And if your system is horror-based, where you shouldn't fight the monsters because you'll die, put that in the rulebook.
Balance of opportunities instead of balance of power
Balancing power can be important. In a game where combat is the solution and your usefulness to the group comes from how well you excel in a particular aspect of combat, it's important to avoid the problem of Linear Warriors and Quadratic Wizards. But there's another problem, which I'll call "Balancing Opportunities." It's no use having damage to compete with others if what you have doesn't give you opportunities to interact with the game compared to other players. Interacting with the game is how you have fun, and this can be done through interactive mechanics (abilities, powers, etc.) or through the fiction itself. If in your game a wizard moves a mountain in fiction, your warrior should be capable of things just as cool.
What Sheep Fantasy is saying is to give the same amount of opportunities, even if one or another is stronger. If everyone can interact with the game using the options it offers, everyone has the same chance to create their own fun.
Mechanics should be seen as a source of narrative opportunities, not an obstacle to it.
There's a common idea that adding mechanics to things like investigation, diplomacy, and other more interpretive aspects of RPGs ruins, hinders, or is simply bad because mechanizing them would take away the magic...
Sheep Fantasy not only says that this is nonsense, that having mechanics for something doesn't hinder your roleplaying, but also says that in reality it can and should be a source of narrative opportunities, whether the mechanics are as simple or as complex as possible.
Take, for example, something that exists in many systems: a clock. You might not use a clock to symbolize that the NPC isn't easily convinced, but the way the mechanics make this interpretive aspect tangible and visible serves as a stepping stone to elevate your interpretation.
View game mechanics as opportunities; don't think about ignoring them, think about using them to enhance the narrative for both players and game masters.
Fiction is also a rule; what is presented in fiction becomes part of the imagination of those who interact with the game, and this defines the game as much as, or perhaps even more than, the rules themselves.
You don't fly away not because it's illogical; you might be playing games with people made of metal and others who shoot darts from their eyes, things that in themselves aren't logical, but you don't fly away because a fiction was established at the start of the game, both by the group and by the game itself. That's the great rule that prevented you from simply flying away.
With that, I'm finishing (for now) the pillars of sheep fantasy. Do whatever you want with it, I'll be eating grass anyway, yum yum yum.
If you want to talk about it, you can comment here