How To Retain Your Players
And stop them from cancelling last minute…
Our culture is no different to what it was 10,000 years ago when ancient man huddled around the campfire, eager to learn what had happened to their beloved hero at the hands of the Elder beast of Munnar… Fast forward aeons, and still we gather around a bright hearth soaking up the creative talents of our beloved writers, actors and directors.
Days are then filled with us retelling these adventures to others…
Oh you’ve not seen Breaking bad? Man, you’d love it!
Oh, you’ve not watched the Wire? You have never lived.”
And if we met someone currently hooked on the same TV show as us; the instant rapport is practically brotherhood!
Every night we tune into our favourite stories because they affect us, they shake our foundations; the craving for adventure, drama, and conflict resolution… Good vs Evil.
So how can we draw a parallel between tv shows and your gaming table?
Story structure is a tried and tested ancient formula for engaging people in a tale. Without it, we would simply be watching people going about their lives, making tea, vacuuming the house, answering the doorbell and popping to the shops because they ran out of milk. All the while the audience is waiting for something to happen, and usually, nothing does. This is why stories are so compelling to us. And this is why every game of D&D that doesn’t contain a decent story usually sheds player numbers until you’re left with a bunch of unpainted minis, scratching your head wondering what happened!?
A basic story structure is a good place to start, but too often, DMs rely on this and only this simple Beginning Middle and End, Good Guys vs. Bad Guys structure. It’s not good enough to just stick to the basics!
Be better!
Be the one at the camp fire!
Ask yourself, do you want your players retelling your story?
Do you want them to give you the complement every DM dreams of hearing?
And do you want them to be so excited at your gaming table that when they arrive, every ounce of their being is screaming with excitement for you to start?
If the answer is yes; keep reading.
Character investment - They all deserve an arc
Without a doubt, the toughest part of story structure is character arcs. But there is a simple way to break it down and how you can inject this epic element of story into your tale…
Take a PC (Player Character) and go over their backstory.
Most backstories you’ll encounter will have a haunted past, where the player was wronged and is often seeking vengeance. So let’s go with this typical example...
A young elven girl is orphaned after their village was destroyed by a great and terrible conquer, and now they seek vengeance!
Okay, perfect…. But this isn’t really going to affect the player enough to have that sweet resolve. Everyone knows vengeance is never the path to fulfilment.
So instead, consider that actually, the PC needs to forgive what happened to them.
How then as a DM do you make that happen?
In your game leave breadcrumbs for this PC to slowly discover that their parents were slain ironically in vengeance. Twist the point of view, so the player realises that they were ignorant all this time to the evils of their lineage. Then, once this realisation unfolds, embed this into the larger story.
You now have a character, that understands the power of forgiveness, and the wisdom to subjectively consider different points of view. So have them tested later in the story and reward them for playing true to their character based on this revelation of self. This also presents a great opportunity for different elements of conflict.
Constant Conflict
No this doesn’t mean encounter after encounter after encounter. Conflict can take many different forms but ultimately this is the Antagonist pressuring the Protagonist in one form or another. This can transpire as follows:
Emotional
Stress
Violence
Passive conflict (often called indirect conflict)
Unforeseen circumstances (the unpredictable)
Technology
Self
Nature
Supernatural
Fate
Emotional Conflict
Emotional conflict is the wake our characters travel on after undergoing an ordeal.
Sadness from the loss of a loved one can hinder actions or cause poor judgements.
Anger without violence occurs when expectations fail to be met.
This type of conflict resides in drama and is often used in soap operas and romance novels. But don’t let that put you off. If your PCs loot a dead body, have a lawful NPC companion argue with them over the morality of that decision.
I can’t believe you are looting their bodies, have they not suffered enough at your hand? Look at them, they’re dead!
Having emotional conflict in your game’s story will really bring it to life. So always with your NPCs write down what they hate and what they love when bearing witness to the actions of people.
Stress
Using the exhaustion table purely for physical exhaustion is great, but go a step further! If the players are struggling with a puzzle, introduce stress as an exhaustive punishment. This is especially good when they have to make rolls etc and then need to do it with disadvantage. You are upping the auntie!
Stress is a very real problem in our world, so inject it into them and enjoy watching the drama unfold.
Violence
In life, violence is the last resort to conflict resolution. In D&D, it is how the players answer the threat of a world filled with monsters.
Transferring the real-life principle into an RPG story can be difficult, especially if your players want constant battles.
The best way around this is to keep the players feeling the story enough so that when a battle does occur, they feel like they have so much to lose. The weight of a defeat would be massive to them.
One way to make your battles more epic and interesting is to have an NPC with the party that is extremely fragile or valuable to the antagonist, and it is up to the players to protect them.
Sit back and watch how decisions change in battles if you add this element to your story.
If you would like to learn more about story structure and to make your players your first literary fans, be sure to sign up to our mailing list here where you’ll find updates to the rest of this course together with many more from the soon-to-be dropping… Rolldark School of Game Mastery!