Gaming Develops Character(s)

I’m sure this will come as no surprise to many of you, but I absolutely adore RPGs. Now, just to be clear, I’m not talking about rocket-propelled grenades (not even the video game kind, noobs. Keep those things on your backs). I’m also not talking about video game RPGs, even though I do enjoy a good one of those.

I’m talking about good old tabletop role playing games (or roleplaying games, depending on your region). I’m talking about games where you gather a handful of friends around a table with snacks, dice, pencils, a few sourcebooks, a good story, and then you just let the imagination run wild (along with the sense of humor in most cases).

I’m talking about games like Star Wars (the d6 system, of course), Deadlands (brilliant western/horror mix), Wheel of Time (even though it’s d20-based), Runeland (epic fantasy mishmash of my own using the d6 system), Serenity (based on the movie follow-up to the best sci-fi show ever), and now Firefly (based on the best sci-fi show ever).

I’ve been organizing and playing these games since I was in grade school, and they’re one obsession I just can’t shake. Now that I’m writing novels, I’m glad I never succeeded in breaking the gaming habit. Let me ‘splain.

Role playing games can easily take over your life, in both good ways and bad.

Good ways:

Your creativity goes into overdrive when you’re thinking up scenarios, stories, and characters. The excited anticipation of upcoming games can get you through the toughest work weeks, and annoy those coworkers who will no doubt label you as a nerd.

Bad ways:

The time commitment can be significant. Playing a game eats up an afternoon, at least. 4-hour sessions are about the average for me, but they’ve been known to stretch well beyond that. Well, well beyond. And when you’re the one writing and running the game (the Game Master) as I usually am, the prep time before the game is usually double to triple the time it takes to play, at least. Do that math and you can see how other things can fall by the wayside when you’re gaming on a regular basis. One might therefore assume a gaming addiction could kill a dream of becoming a full-time writer, which also consumes monstrous amounts of free time. There’s that risk, to be sure, but gaming has another big benefit that makes the risk worth taking for me: character development.

Big Good:
The easiest stories I’ve ever written were based on games. The action flowed, the dialogue came naturally, and I never had to struggle to picture a character or think about their motivation. Reason being: gaming builds characters, literally.

To play an RPG, you first have to make up a character. You come up with a back story, a personality, all the flaws and strengths you think will make things interesting, and of course you use the rules of whatever system you’re using to apply numbers to all your character’s traits and abilities. As an author, all that information is writing gold.

Through an RPG, you can put your characters through their paces, see how they stack up against others, see how easily they interact with and play off others. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made up characters thinking they would be fun to play, only to find out they were a little flat and dull. Not to mention the times a two-dimensional bit player in a story ended up stealing the show.

Last weekend, my lovely wife was obliging enough to test out the new Firefly RPG with me. To assuage my guilt over gaming instead of writing, we used a few of the supporting characters from Children of Evolution, the forthcoming second book of the Gateway series. We had a blast, and I learned a few things about a couple of characters who have a larger part in this book. Win, win.

As an author, I now see the value of gaming as a testing ground for characters. I’d much rather learn a character is a dud during a game, long before I finish a story, than find out from readers after publication.

So, heads up, friends and family. More gaming requests are coming your way from your friendly neighborhood Toby. Prepare yourselves.