Last night I was watching an episode of the old TV series “Combat”. Each show a different combat mission with a story included. Recently I watched “Saving Private Ryan” on a video tape, again a combat mission with a story attached to it. Last week I played in a Vietnam “Battleground” scenario. A good game but was it a story? We NVA players were there to ambush some marines who were out to rescue survivors of the last ambush. There was moving and shooting just like in Combat and Ryan but what we lacked was any connection between the soldiers. We only talked about moving and shooting. We didn’t have the friendly banter of some war movies or the drama either. It was all action and no plot. Many movies and TV shows fall into this same error. No plot development. Folk tales do it to. People act but we don’t know why or what will result from their choices except for the action. What this does is separate the action from the rest of the world. Nothing matters because nothing is connected. Not so with Ryan. By the end of the movie I wanted Tom Hanks to live even though I knew he probably wouldn’t. The story showed where he came from and suggested what he might do in the future. He started in one place and changed in a way that I cared about. Just what Aristotle said a story should be. Five million different weapon’s statistics, a hundred to hit charts, ninety zillion critical hit tables do not make a story happen. Story happens when people talk to one another. Role playing tells a story, Matrix Games tell a story but combat games don’t. Because in the end, who cares if you have a +20 sword of instant death? It’s just a number. We might care if the sword was needed to accomplish a great act of revenge or greedy ambition, but in and of itself who cares! Another thing about stories, they can’t be too straight forward. There needs to be the unexpected. At the start of “Saving Private Ryan” you know someone survived. But when they flip to Tom Hank’s experience you get the impression that maybe it was him. You know it probably isn’t him but you are not certain. It could have been him. The story would have worked either way but it would not have had as much tragic drama. I’ve been rereading a JRR Tolkien book “The Lays of Belerian.” It is an epic poem - not light reading. But now, 17 years after I first read it, I find it lacking. The hero, Beren the human, falls in love with the elf girl. That is okay, she’s very attractive. But she then falls in love with him after he essentially stalks and confronts her! This is too big of a leap. After this the story unfolds in a very straight line. It is worth noting that Tolkien did not finish the poem. Just like he never published the Simarilion (a viciously long book with no plot - I’m the only member of my family to actually finish it). He knew that they lacked plot and were thus not good stories. Good show JRR! Few game makers even seem aware of the need for story in gaming. I never did. I used to like reading plot less books (I did read the Simarilion!) I remember thinking that if the rules were there then people would make the stories happen. It would be easy. But it isn’t. Stories have to be crafted. And this takes art. I don’t care what rules mechanisms are used, they will not tell a story unless the players talk to one another. And if talking they will only tell a story if the players are acting out something in their minds. Limiting the player’s power to act to one character cuts their knees out from under them for story telling. Action sequences always involve two or more people or things. Even a single person climbing involves more than one. There is the climber, the hill and the spectator. Game Masters in role play games can tell stories because they control many people. But RPG players do not. Matrix Game players do. Having rules that allow players to tell stories does not assure that stories will be told. Honestly, people do not know what to do. They make stories that are too straight forward (like the Lays of Beleriand). There is not enough unexpected in them. They need help in putting together a more interesting tale. My answer to this has been to create story guidelines. They many not be the best stories but they create a good game most of the time. Other games have not tackled this problem. They still think that adding new skill lists or weapon’s statistics will make it happen. Sadly my conclusion has to be that while games could tell stories, most don’t. I hope that this changes in the future. Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #28a To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Chris Engle. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com