Putting my focus on the current “Game State” refined the way I think about and run role-playing games.

I came across this idea several years ago while watching a talk given by the video game designer Jonathon Blow. I’ve embedded the video at the bottom of the post if you want to watch it. It’s about 50 minutes long and directed at video game design. His concepts apply to tabletop role-playing games.

I’ve had excellent results using the concept which taught me to be open to the possibilities of what the system can generate. This has made my games far more entertaining and meaningful.

Here is my interpretation of Jonathon’s ideas as they apply to classic fantasy role-playing.

What does a game system do?

It answers questions.

What happens when a party of adventurers meet a pack of goblins?

Can a lance of light mechs defeat a single 100 ton assault mech?

When the player makes a choice, a question is generated. The mechanisms of the system return an answer.

DM: You’re in a tavern. There’s not much going on. A sketchy character with one arm sits down at the table and says, “I have a job for stalwart adventurers.” What do you do?

Player: I punch the guy in the face.

DM: You hit. He falls off the bench and hits his head on the table behind him as he falls. He is not breathing.

1. The game master tells the players the state of the game.
2. The players decide what they are going to do.
3. The game master applies the rules of the game system
4. The state of the game changes.

This loop repeats over and over.

The system is the author of the outcome

A game designer thinks of a question or several nested questions when they are working on a game or scenario. Then they create a rule, a procedure, or mechanism to answer that question.

What invariably happens is that players will think of ways to use that mechanism to do things that the designer did not anticipate or intend.

The game produces an outcome and the game designer did not predetermine that outcome. The designer did not know the outcome was possible until a player discovered it.

“What’s important is that those answers were not authored by me. They were generated by a system corresponding to the questions that I asked.”

Jonathon Blow- Truth in Game Design

Even computer simulations produce surprising answers when they come in contact with people.

Video game designers call this “emergent gameplay”. A game with deep mechanics is going to produce outcomes that the designers and developers did not anticipate.

How do I think in “game state”?

Thinking in terms of the Starting State->Player Interaction->System Response->New State loop helps when I’m making rulings in a game.

During play, I’m constantly asking myself, “What is the situation in this moment?” Each round of play is a frozen moment in the time of the game world. The result of that question can produce surprising results.

First, when I’m building a campaign, adventure, or encounter I am focused on the questions being asked. I can choose the rule set, setting, house rules, adventure objectives, villains and obstacles that I suspect will produce interesting answers. I can’t know for sure if they will. I have to accept uncertainty.

I have found that when I try to pose an interesting question with the situation I’m building, that the resulting answers are just as exciting as the question.

Second, is to simply allow the model that I’ve created for the players to interact with, to return the answers that it produces without interference. If the outcome produced by the mechanisms, the dice, and my rulings say that the resulting game state is not “fun” or a murder hobo rampage, then that’s the outcome. I accept it, whatever it is, note what I learned from that and use the lesson for my next game.

By giving players as much autonomy as possible, and resolving the choices they make with the rules where they apply and consistent rulings where they do not, I find is that the results are far more interesting than anything I would have thought to script or plot.

My most enjoyable game experiences come from asking interesting questions and being open to accept whatever answers the system produces.

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