[RPG] What constitutes a “story game”

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In Dealing with players of vastly different skill levels?, I got into a discussion with @SevenSidedDie about characterizing Dungeon World as a story game. @SevenSidedDie stated that:

@neontapir Point of order, Dungeon World isn't a really a storygame. It's pretty traditional in most ways, except rolls being for randomising what rule governs what happens next instead of randominsing a binary pass/fail. DW would probably suit this player (these choices would be more likely to result in adventure, less stabby death). An actual storygame is different enough from D&D and DW, and each storygame is different from all the others, that there's no way to guess whether one would suit this player.

He further described Dungeon World after I prompted him for more information:

Me: I'm intrigued, @SevenSidedDie. I've always thought of it as one. The tag for its parent, AW, says "Apocalypse World is a storytelling game by Lumpley Games that tells the story of a world in the aftermath of some unknown event." If Dungeon World isn't a story game, then what is?

SSD: @neontapir I'm not sure I could lay it all out. I started out thinking of it as a D&D-storygame, but as I've played and discussed DW more, I see more and more the traditional structure under the rules. So, a non-traditional presentation and structure to generate a traditional game style, perhaps?

I acknowledge the structural similarities. I replied by citing the tag definition from Apocalypse World, which Dungeon World was based on. It states:

Apocalypse World is a storytelling game by Lumpley Games that tells the story of a world in the aftermath of some unknown event.

There is a difference of terminology here between storygame and storytelling game. Are these two terms interchangeable? If not, what are the differences?

Assuming they are synonymous, there is clearly a difference in tone and approach between traditional tabletop RPGs and storytelling games, but both @SevenSidedDie and I struggle to articulate the difference.

What constitutes a story/storytelling game, such as the presence or absence of a certain mechanic? What are some exemplars of this kind of game?

Best Answer

A bit of history

"Story Game" has been used in many different ways, but at least in the context to Dungeon World, it has a definite lineage.

The term as associated use today, was first coined by Clinton R. Nixon (I believe around 2006-2007?) as a simple and catchy term for Narrativist games. This allowed a way to promote these types of games without having to deal with the baggage (social, terminology) of Forge Forums' GNS Theory (now "Big Model Theory" as developed by Ron Edwards).

It caught on with a subset of the Forge crowd and became the inspiration for the Story Games Forums where a sizeable chunk of that crowd ended up migrating to. As they kept producing games, or talking about games developed from the Forge/SG crowd, "story game" got applied to a lot of games, regardless of whether it was Narrativist focused or not. Basically the term ended up getting broadly applied for many things much like "indie" has been for the last several years.

How it gets used now

Well, "story-game" usually gets used to mean ANY one of the following:

  • A Narrativist focused game

  • A game that focuses on fictional elements over mechanics (which usually means inclusive of many Simulationist games, particularly if they are rules light)

  • A game developed by regular members of Story Games Forums or the Forge Forums

  • A game that is designed with a focus

  • A game that is rules light

  • A game that is innovative or different than whatever folks consider "Traditional"

  • A game that can be played in short form

Is Dungeon World a Story Game?

Well, there's a lot of potential definitions up there. If you ask most of the Story Games Forum crowd, they'd probably say yes, since it falls into the usual definitions they tend to use more often with it.

As you can see, though, there's a lot of options and no definite answer. Depending on what you mean by Story Game, maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

It's definitely focus designed, developed by the Forge/Storygame crowd and influence, it's different in some ways than traditional games (especially in the GM advice/hard rules for GMs, as well as the improv nature) but it's very traditional in the way it treats player/GM power divide and events.

Is it narrativist? I know Apocalypse World is, but that's because AW pushes hard moral decisions and character exploration, while I haven't had a chance to look close at Dungeon World's details to say.

Story Game vs. Storytelling Game

"Storytelling" is a term used nearly everywhere, and it, too, has a bunch of definitions. Overall, the problem is you're asking for hard definitions from terms people just kind of throw around and mean a lot of different things with.

On the other hand, "storytelling" doesn't have the same connotations as "Story Game" for the people who use the latter the most. Given how poorly they're both defined, neither do a lot for really telling people what kind of game they're going to be getting into most of the time.

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