RPGs Are Not Movies

D&D is just like the Lord of the Rings! Shadowrun is just like Neuromancer! Eclipse Phase is just like Altered Carbon! Mutants & Masterminds is just like a Superman comic!

Not so fast! ENnie Award-winning RPG Producer Justin Alexander loves a good movie, comic book, TV show, or novel as much as the next person, but join him for a celebration of what makes roleplaying games totally unlike anything else!

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Twitter: @hexcrawl

[LordSusaga]

There's a podcast called the Film Reroll where they play a movie as a game of GURPS, and that's a very good example of how wild the events of a story can be as an RPG. They follow the exact same starting point and characters as the original film, but they still end up having Dorothy attack Glinda outside the Wicked Witch's castle, or Jafar falling in love with a reluctant Aladdin, or resolving the entire plot in the opening sequence (this has happened multiple times).

[TikiCollection]

I love the blogposts that analyze movies as if they were RPG sessions. They aren't the most useful ones, but they are the most entertaining.

[benpuffer]

Always enjoy the videos. Just wish they were more frequent.

[ChrisGeisel]

I've followed your blog for years, you've got some of the best RPG content on the internet. It's great that you're expanding into YT.

[danieldurham]

It occurs to me that being familiar with fanfiction might help with grasping this distinction. The vast majority of fanfics, after all, are built on the premise of "what if the story went in *that* direction instead of *this* direction". So if you've read half a hundred Harry Potter fanfictions in which the plot goes in as many different directions, it's easy to grasp that a give scenario can spawn countless different plots depending on where the players/characters/author chooses to take it.

[garryame]

Holy... This guy has a wonderful way with words!

[emmamacfarlane]

About being predetermined by the writer; there’s a good analogy in there about not every writer having a clear idea about how things are going to progress. It’s pre-determined when you get to it, but there was always a point at which it wasn’t, whether that was in the early outlining stages or the writing stages.

So in a way, RPGs are first draft storytelling where the storyteller isn’t quite sure where things are going to go yet. They’ve got some plans, but there’s always interesting places it can go that haven’t been planned for, and you might ultimately wind up removing the planned villain from the board in favour of a bigger or alternative threat.

[geoffdewitt]

Y'all, Justin Alexander's back!!

[hawkthetraveler]

My favorite movie was RPG is The Mummy. System: Deadlands.

[nolanbond]

It's a fun exercise to watch movies and TV shows through the lens of an RPG session. Contemplating how a show like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad would work in an RPG context is an enjoyable practice.

[migueldemaria]

love the blog, lovin' the channel. thank you for bringing your knowledge and insights to this channel!

[AvengerYouT]

I never get tired of videos and blog posts stressing the importance of not enforcing a particular outcome in RPGs.

[WilliamKellerTheSkeptic]

Good stuff, as usual!

Justin, where did you grow up? The way that you pronounce "scenario" and "narrative" really jumped out at me.

[neilcarver]

Good points... coming from 40 years of RPG play, I'd like to see this expand on what is really the issue, which is conflicting expectations.

Even if the players generally understand "Things don't play out exactly like they do in the movies" there can still be a lot of conflict in the understanding of "What CAN/SHOULD happen as things play out." Sure, we may both agree Luke might save the Deathstar instead of blowing it up... but the player might still expect "whatever happens, Luke is still the destined hero" and the GM might be thinking, "Eh... one lucky Stormtrooper shot and Luke's brains are all over a wall, 'cause that could happen."

It is the expected tropes, more than specific linear plot action, that I feel cause the biggest issues in play. Less confusion over play to see what happens... more conflict over what kind of things are acceptable to happen in play.

[JesseSierke]

I’ve been noticing RPG-like storytelling cues in streaming shows lately. Many plot arcs seem to begin with a seemingly random diversion leading into a whole “campaign” before the characters return to the main plot.

[simontmn]

It's a shame that even most video games are so linear. And of course so many published RPG campaigns. Kill Alduin, kill Runelord Karzoug. In my own Runelords game the PCs failed to kill Karzoug, which really took things off the rails into unsupported territory.

[explodingsofa]

I definitely fall into the trap of thinking of my story as an anime. Always a good reminder to think dynamically!

[PrzybyszzMatplanety]

People tend to forget that RPGs use tools utilised in creating book and movie stories but themselves aren't the same medium. That's why there's a lot of scenarios that don't have any other paths that was not prescripted by the author. It is good that someone reads guides to writing scenarios or structuring stories, but the whole things fall apart when Lukas Skyhopper decide not to use his action to run towards Millenary Eagle, but to cut the head of Dark Knager by throwing his laser spade. And what if he succeeds? Then "RPG is like a book/movie" GM just ignores it, or fudges dice because it ruined his story. Let's use movies as inspirations, techniques to create and set scenes, how to move plot further, but do not forget that RPGs aren't indeed movies.

[Ts-ltbu]

A movie-related trend I’ve seen lately is mentioning “the camera” zooming in or panning in descriptions. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this, especially in an RPG that is supposed to feel like more like a movie, but if I am imagining the world as a living breathing reality mentioning “the camera” takes me right out of it. That is not really how I see things in my head. Why paint your world as if it were a 2d image?

[estebanrodriguez]

Games as art and games a a whole different medium is slowly getting more and more traction as more and more games become more common on our households.

I like the description that games are "interactive" mediums ... it doesn't work as a "definition" though.