Hannibal Symes
Sailor, Soldier, and Envoy of New Carthage
During the Las Vegas campaign, I had a lot of fun playing a character some you might know, Hannibal Symes. In playing Hannibal, I got to have a lot of fun tooling around with some RP I hadn’t really tried before, namely PvP (Player vs. Player) RP. Sarah Willis and Hannibal were frequently at odds with one another, but I think our character’s rivalry made the game a lot more fun for both of us as players. And, it got me thinking about the role “conflict” plays in roleplaying games.
Before I go any further, I want to distinguish a few things, terminology-wise. Lots of things can be considered roleplaying, even if there is absolutely no conflict involved in them whatsoever. Two characters chatting at a bar with no stakes attached is just as much roleplaying as anything else. So, when I talk about roleplaying in this essay, what I’m really talking about is plots, that is, a meaningful event to which stakes and conflict are attached. I will argue that in order for there to be a plot, there must be conflict.
In order to have a plot, at least three elements must be present: A character, an obstacle, and a goal. Without a goal, you just have a character pushing a boulder up a hill, sisyphus style. Without an obstacle, there is nothing to prevent the character from reaching the goal, so the entire story is a moot point. And, of course, without a character, there’s no one there to overcome the obstacle and achieve the goal. These three elements, taken together, create a conflict: the character must overcome the obstacle to achieve the goal.
But it’s not that simple, is it? What happens after the character achieves the goal? Is the story over? Well, maybe. Once the character achieves the goal, one of three things has to happen:
In most traditional roleplaying games, this “conflict cycle” is pretty obvious. PC attempts to do a thing. Player makes a roll. Player succeeds (or doesn’t) and moves onto a new thing. However, this cycle can be interpreted onto more ‘free-form’ roleplaying as well. When a player tries to have their character do something (usually in pursuit of that character’s goals), Requine runs a scene for them. In this scene, the player is virtually always presented with some obstacle or conflict that stands in their way of achieving their goal for that scene. Now, the conclusion of the scene is usually a foregone conclusion. Requine isn’t going to stand in your way and prevent you from reaching your character’s goal; that would be blocking. Instead, we play to find out how the character achieves the goal.
Note that this conflict does not need to be dramatic or flashy. It can be very low-level and simple. Say, for example, Hannibal wants Cass Havelock's help. They agree to meet somewhere to talk about it. Now, you might be thinking, unless Cass doesn't want to help Hannibal, there's no conflict. But that's not necessarily true. Cass could want to help, but not exactly in the way Hannibal wants her to. Also, even the possibility that she might refuse is enough to create an obstacle from Hannibal's standpoint.
Where I see things break down sometimes is that people either don’t know what their character’s goal is, or don’t establish either a new goal or obstacle once the old one is met. This, in turn, leads people to lose interest. Once your character has everything they want, if there’s no challenge left, then, the story ends.
So! My advice: Set goals for your characters! Set big goals and small goals, change them around, and pursue them relentlessly. When you start a campaign or a scene, think to yourself: “What does my character want out of this?” Then, go for it!
Before I go any further, I want to distinguish a few things, terminology-wise. Lots of things can be considered roleplaying, even if there is absolutely no conflict involved in them whatsoever. Two characters chatting at a bar with no stakes attached is just as much roleplaying as anything else. So, when I talk about roleplaying in this essay, what I’m really talking about is plots, that is, a meaningful event to which stakes and conflict are attached. I will argue that in order for there to be a plot, there must be conflict.
In order to have a plot, at least three elements must be present: A character, an obstacle, and a goal. Without a goal, you just have a character pushing a boulder up a hill, sisyphus style. Without an obstacle, there is nothing to prevent the character from reaching the goal, so the entire story is a moot point. And, of course, without a character, there’s no one there to overcome the obstacle and achieve the goal. These three elements, taken together, create a conflict: the character must overcome the obstacle to achieve the goal.
But it’s not that simple, is it? What happens after the character achieves the goal? Is the story over? Well, maybe. Once the character achieves the goal, one of three things has to happen:
- The character sets a new goal (and therefore encounters a new obstacle)
- The character’s current goal is challenged by a new obstacle
- The story ends
In most traditional roleplaying games, this “conflict cycle” is pretty obvious. PC attempts to do a thing. Player makes a roll. Player succeeds (or doesn’t) and moves onto a new thing. However, this cycle can be interpreted onto more ‘free-form’ roleplaying as well. When a player tries to have their character do something (usually in pursuit of that character’s goals), Requine runs a scene for them. In this scene, the player is virtually always presented with some obstacle or conflict that stands in their way of achieving their goal for that scene. Now, the conclusion of the scene is usually a foregone conclusion. Requine isn’t going to stand in your way and prevent you from reaching your character’s goal; that would be blocking. Instead, we play to find out how the character achieves the goal.
Note that this conflict does not need to be dramatic or flashy. It can be very low-level and simple. Say, for example, Hannibal wants Cass Havelock's help. They agree to meet somewhere to talk about it. Now, you might be thinking, unless Cass doesn't want to help Hannibal, there's no conflict. But that's not necessarily true. Cass could want to help, but not exactly in the way Hannibal wants her to. Also, even the possibility that she might refuse is enough to create an obstacle from Hannibal's standpoint.
Where I see things break down sometimes is that people either don’t know what their character’s goal is, or don’t establish either a new goal or obstacle once the old one is met. This, in turn, leads people to lose interest. Once your character has everything they want, if there’s no challenge left, then, the story ends.
So! My advice: Set goals for your characters! Set big goals and small goals, change them around, and pursue them relentlessly. When you start a campaign or a scene, think to yourself: “What does my character want out of this?” Then, go for it!