Thread by @qh_murphy

So, I talked about action and its contract of effective violence yesterday.

I wanna talk about something else that goes hand in hand with our action fantasy: tone.

Specifically I want to talk about the comedy/drama spectrum. Wrote about this:

thoughtcrimegames.net/tough-but-funn…

Talking about it some more, it breaks down like this:

Whether we are moving towards comedy (more upbeat, amusing, not just jokes) or drama (more serious and consequential) is a function of character resiliency.

How easily do characters "snap back" from stress?

A characters ability to tolerate stress without change is what sends us signals on how we should feel about that stress.

When bugs bunny gets blown up by a bomb: we laugh because he will be munching on a carrot in the next scene.

In a drama, that same bomb is not funny.

Why?

Because that bomb has done something permanent and lasting and negative to that character. It might have killed them, it may leave them with emotional and physical scars.

For more comedic examples, we can look at sitcoms. They stress and confound or characters, but their essential nature returns to normal by the end of the show, signalling we can laugh at what happens to them within that time...they'll be OK!

But you're not going to view an episode of Watchmen and laugh at stress easily. All signals point to characters changing.

Actions have consequences.

Oh hey! Action! Didn't see you there...let's talk about you some more.

In our action fiction we can have action comedies and we can have action dramas.

So let's look at the action contract again and extend it.

In action fiction, violence can solve problems.

In action comedies, violence can solve problems without lasting consequences to the characters (hi Dragonball Z Super!).

In action dramas, violence can solve problems but can also create lasting consequences to the characters (watchmen, MHA).

So let's talk about all of this in the context of TTRPGs.

Most games with an "atomic" combat engine skew towards action comedies. Characters have tools that afford them resiliency and systems are discouraged from creating lasting consequences, bc it creates bad gameplay.

(hey, here is my disclaimer not to post all your exceptions! It's not my point and I'll just fail to interact with those tweets, thank you)

Games that view action on more of a positional/gestalt view tend to be better at action dramas, because they can make one position or approach bad without taking away all of your approaches or positions.

Neither action comedy or action drama is better than the other! You might have preferences, but inherently these are just frameworks for telling the stories we want to tell.

What I hope is that these frameworks help us build games and tell stories with intention and mindfulness

For example, I know there are a lot of reasons why people have problems with D&D, but the fundamental problem I see most often is people trying to do deep drama with a system that is inherently comedic.

Again, not haha joke comedy: I mean violence without lasting consequence.

And a problem I see widely everywhere is people mismatching their story and character resiliency.

We can't have deeply changing characters who are weighed down by stress of the world in a light heroic jaunt.

We can't have juggernauts in a nuanced somber story.

We can have moments of comedy in our drama.

We can have moments of drama in our comedy.

But we have to know which thing we are primarily so we understand the story we are telling.

And in our gaming we want to do our best to match the system to the story we want to tell.

I know this is the type of thread where someone will assume I am saying you can't make a drama with D&D.

What I am saying is that you can make a drama up to a point, and then the system will not support you.

And that is OK, because systems are trade-offs.

A system that does everything well is an impossibility...or maybe it's the definition of Nirvana.

I'd rather have the thread be viewed as me saying to learn what you want in a story and find good ways to support your story.

Ok, I had a LOT more to say about this than I originally thought; getting into work mode, hope you enjoyed!