GMs and Players, Keep The Scale of Your Story in Mind

TTRPGs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with vastly different levels of complexity, time investment, customization, and even means of determining the direction the story goes in. However, something that we often forget is that our games (as well as the stories we tell using those games) often have a scale as well. And while some games can tell stories at a variety of different scales, some of them can't... and it's important for us to consider this as players and Game Masters alike so that we're measuring out expectations in the proper units.

Ah, so we're looking at an end-of-the-world scenario, here.

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How Big Are You Going, Exactly?

The question of scale is an important one to remember, because not every game, story, and genre, is meant to go to the same scale. I recently mentioned in Game Masters, When Running Army Men, Avoid White Rooming At All Costs, but feel I should repeat, that designers build certain expectations into their games. This often extends to the scale of your stories, and what the engine is meant to do. For example, Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder are both meant for telling stories that start small, and escalate to high-stakes, high fantasy crescendoes. This is why so many of the adventure paths out there end up with the party fighting ancient wizard kings who have defied death, dragons on the verge of godhood, or entire cabals of apocalyptic monsters bent on reconquering an entire nation, if not the world!

The only thing that stands between those ancient gods, and you, is me.

Now, that is not to say that you can't run smaller-scale games using these systems, but doing so will likely mean that the games are shorter due to a lower level cap, or that players are never going to rise above a particular level so that their skills and abilities don't render these smaller-scale threats and plots something that can be dealt with out of hand. This is a perfectly legitimate way to play, but the assumption in the game structure is that players are going to start at level 1, and likely stop somewhere between 16 and 20 when they wrap up the story.

For contrast, consider a Call of Cthulhu game. The very nature of this game is that you take on the roles of normal people who cling to their sanity as they explore the dark, strange, monstrous corners of reality. You may grow more skilled, or you may learn secrets of dark doings, but you aren't going to grow into epic heroes who fight the Old Ones mano a mano, because that's not built into the genre or the system. You are small parts of a vast world, and your efforts are just turning the lock on a door that, sooner or later, is probably going to open. Your task is to survive the madness taking root in your mind, and to do what you can to stop the machinations of things that would spill the mythos into the world you know.

When a game has a built-in style and scale, it can help to shape your expectations as a Game Master, as well as the expectations of the players around the table. However, when a setting or system could handle a variety of scales in terms of both story and power level, that's when you're going to have to sit down with your players and make sure that what they want to play, and what you want to run, are going to fit together.

As an example...

For example, consider games like Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader set in the Warhammer 40K universe. On the one hand, these games can see players in charge of entire armies, leading crusades against planets filled with opposing forces, and going toe-to-toe with the forces of hell itself in a way that few would dare, and even fewer would survive. On the other hand, characters could also be deep cover operatives working careful sting operations to uncover cults, solve mysteries, and to track down political corruption in ways that might be ended without even firing a shot if all goes according to plan.

When you have that kind of variation in a game, where players could be anything from bottom-rung gangers scrabbling to take over their own neighborhood, to imperial agents whose authority is utterly unquestioned, it's important to make sure you are all building the same type of characters who are here for the same scale of plot. This same kind of variation can be found in the World of Darkness, Mutants and Masterminds, and several games in the Savage Worlds line as well. These are games that could have characters working on small, localized, personal issues where the stakes are only large to them, or games where the fate of thousands of people, and entire swaths of a country (or a continent) could ride on what the players choose to do... or not do.

And since we're talking about assumptions, game designers can only predict so much about what people will do with their games once they're on the market. However, if you're making assumptions as a Game Master or a player, it's a good idea to talk about them before the game starts to make sure that you're both on the same page... otherwise you might have someone who showed up to conquer the galaxy who is now tasked with running down a small-time corruption scandal that could bring down the local mayor.

Lastly, if you'd like to check out some more of my useful tips and tricks for helping your game run smoothly, consider grabbing your copy of 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master, and its sequel 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better RPG Player.

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