Genre Police: What’s My Motivation?

Just for a minute, we’re going to do something we haven’t done in a while – a history lesson. 

In 1895, the proto-structuralist theatre scholar Georges Polti suggested that in the making of drama, that there were really only 36 potential instigating situations that could be considered worth presenting. Now, Polti’s work is a bit dated these days, without the knowledge of future types of society and writing that might emerge (so for example ‘struggling with existential dread in the face of climate change’ isn’t listed), but thinking about the idea recently, I realised that it highlights a few things about how we develop plots and ideas for RPG settings.

If you take Polti’s 36 situations and examine them, you can break them down into a few large headings, with the majority of them focusing on ideas of conflicting needs or ideals, with five about a need or want, and four about looking for mental peace or the assault by some exterior unstoppable factors such as misfortune or disaster. 

Once we break down our game plotting down into these ideas, we can see these categories as useful ways to generate and deliver ongoing situations and encounters for our players to really get their teeth into.

Creating Conflict

I’ve seen plenty of GM advice columns saying that most stories need conflict and if viewed as a wider conceptual framework, then this is true. Even moral internal dilemmas are in a sense a conflict of the self. It’s at the heart of all good stories and some great RPGs begin with a conflicting question in mind. Vampire is a game about the need to function in society of inhuman predators without becoming one yourself, Sigmata is about how oppression creates extremists, Star Trek is about how living together in a global multicultural society conflicts with the preservation of identity. Or sometimes it’s about space lazers. They don’t always have to be big things. 

Some games conflict is boiled down to ‘some things want to kill you, you’d rather survive’. But it is still present. And it is usually a great source of plots and consequences inside a game. Whenever players take action or face a choice, you can ask yourself these questions:-

Will this bring them into conflict with the plans of others?: This perhaps the easiest question to answer. Sometimes actions taken by characters oppose or undermine, or completely derail the plans of others. Sometimes it’s intentional, like when they foil a cult sacrifice. Sometimes, it’s not so obvious straight away, like when a battle with aforementioned cult ruins the town’s festival preparations and suddenly they are in trouble with the local council members. Sometimes, it’s personal, like one person is trying to achieve a thing and remember that the players stymied them at the last minute. They hold a grudge. Try to think of the responses these parties might have, weave them in as and when the consequences might fall. This can be any group or individual, too. It’s as easy to get embroiled in the plans of a dragon or God than it is a human. Actually, given the long schemes of those entities, maybe more likely.

Does this bring them into conflict with the society they are in?: What are the societal rules of the place they currently inhabit? Are they in a a place with strange culture? In Legend Of The Five Rings, what you say to whom and how you say it is sometimes a dangerous minefield. In Changeling: The Dreaming, often Changelings have to face being labelled as ‘Troubled’ or ‘Weird’ and find society is telling them to fall in line. In Call of Cthulhu, going mad while fighting the horrors is a given, but it’s people who will label you and throw you in an asylum. This conflict is one of expectation and can slowly gather over time. Really individual stories can be told here – players can have to defend their actions or argue ideals with NPC’s, or face some sort of trial.

Does this bring them into conflict with themselves?: Another way we can use conflict is to trigger a dilemma in a character. Look at the sort of moral absolutes they hold and challenge them. Force them to make a choice that is between what they believe and what is practical. Other times, it about finding the conflict already inherent in the character. This is why a popular D&D class is warlock – that internal struggle between means and aims in a person trying to achieve a goal at a cost is written so strongly. This type of internal conflict is often the exact sort of thing a specific type of player is looking for, so milk it for all it’s worth.

Will this create conflict due to disruption of another’s status quo?: Even if someone doesn’t have plan they’ve disrupted, sometimes their life was fine before the PCs entered it and now it’s….complicated. In a game like Vampire: The Masquerade, it’s entirely possible for a player to completely ruin the life of an NPC. This can result in complicated and often vengeful loose ends. Does anyone hate the world the PC’s have created? Are they prepared to do anything about it. I remember once being sucker punched by a twist in a Dragonlance game where we found out that our previous PCs, who were heroes of the realm had accidentally created a faction of terrorists who blamed them for all that was wrong with the world – and they were prepared to tear down their legacy as violently as possible.

There are many ways to view conflict and motivation for players that we can use in our games. This list is just of conflicts the players start. If you want to make a plan for villain and work out when and where the players can find clues, allies and story hooks then simply invert this list. Who has the villain disrupted? Where in society is going to take a hit and notice enough to contact the heroes? Are they conflicted about their own plan? Is anyone seeking vengeance? Suddenly everything about the villain’s scheme feels connected to a world with a variety of motivations. Maybe Polti wasn’t too useful in helping dramatists create new stories, but he can help us deepen the ones we had.

Next time, we’re going to take a look through the other three types of dramatics situation and see what can help us create content for ourselves as a game progresses.