Elliot Kessler

Recently, I began playing a few RPGs (role playing games). Namely, “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,” “Knights of The Old Republic,” and “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.” These are fun, interesting games that put the player in the middle of the action in large-scale stories, spanning worlds and galaxies. I’ve enjoyed exploring the worlds and finding new treasures, but, more importantly, I’ve enjoyed playing through the stories. The main quest and side quests. The stories are at the root of RPGs. Without the story, you have no game. There are some RPGs based solely on looting and dungeon-crawling, but those never did it for me. Making your audience the main character of your story is a very fun and interesting way to craft a narrative, but it is also very difficult.

It’s slightly more challenging to give your story themes in the traditional sense. For instance, if I were to develop an idea for a novel, I would look for the stories main themes, or find themes I would want to explore. I would then wrap the narrative around those themes, and have the main character go on a journey specifically to entertain those themes. That is very difficult to do with interactive fiction. Unless you severely limit your audience’s freedom, it’s not going to be easy to implement themes into your story.

Thematically, it might be better for the hero to go to the King and plead for forgiveness. But what if the player decides instead to sneak into the castle and rob the King before fleeing and resuming their adventure? Or, what if the player decides to ignore the King entirely and continue on their merry way?

Fret not, dear writer! There is a way to fix this. Simply have the narrative force the player into a corner. Don’t limit their decisions, of course. Make them choose some way of getting out of the corner. But have the choices be relevant to the themes of the story. If you are writing a story about guilt, have your character choose between confronting their guilt and accepting their mistakes, saving the world, becoming obsessed with their guilt and hiding away, letting the world fall, or attempting to redeem themselves and becoming the Dark Lord, ruling the world.

These choices add to the depth of the story, communicating themes and experiences to the player as they do their best to make the right decisions. It’s a very interesting way of telling a story, and I think it is fascinating.

Unfortunately, I’ve found that the modern RPG culture has deteriorated into pay-to-win MMORPGs instead of the rich, beautiful, wonderfully crafted stories that they used to be. Video games aren’t the only way to make fiction interactive. There are also tabletop RPGs and gamebooks. Both of them can be as immersive as video games, and tabletop RPGs can be a lot of fun with friends. You don’t see gamebooks around anymore, but they are there if you know where to look. There are the classic “Choose-your-own-adventure” books, but there are also gamebooks with more defined rules that play more like an RPG, like the “Lone Wolf” series and the “Fighting Fantasy” series. These books were very interesting ideas, and I wish they were more popular.

Interactive fiction is always a ton of fun, and it is a very unique way to tell stories. It brings the word “empathy” to a whole other level. It’s immersive, it’s exciting, it’s adventurous, and it’s beautiful. There are numerous stories that can only be told through games, whether it’s a video game, a tabletop game, or a gamebook. Putting your players on a journey is a great way to get close to them and have them understand what you’re trying to say through your narrative.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.