Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Combat As A Form of Storytelling

For the past year now, I've been teaching classes on stage combat at gaming conventions. Using a lightsaber (because it's the great equalizer) to teach basic stage combat skills to role players. This past weekend, I was asked to teach a class on dueling at Waking Dreams, the Changeling the Dreaming blockbuster larp in Atlantic City. I was to teach the character as my character, Connor.

My main goal was to impress the notion that while dueling is a combat scenario, it's still a part of storytelling. "It's a conversation" I said during game. "Between parties who have decided to use violence as the language of discourse. The First Rule of Dueling: Do Not Get In One. Second Rule of Dueling: If you end up in a duel, Get Out of It. Rule Three: If you have to fight, make it public, make it a scene. Rule Four: Because if someone is forcing you to duel, let it be known by civilization that they are AN ASSHOLE."

We were all then brought in to a special fighting arena lead by one of the staff Non Players, playing the MC. A darkened bar next to the House of Blues, bathed only in garish red flood lights. Those that wanted to fight could fight. Those that wanted to watch could watch in the shadows. The rules were simple: First to five touches wins. No stabbing. Don't bore the MC.

I know some pretty kickass women 


And then I got to some of the best fights I've ever seen in boffer combat. One of them even included a grenade and a very reluctant "Boom".

Afterwards I got to talk to some of the players and especially Leanna, the staffer playing the fight-room's MC, about combat storytelling.

Which in itself was actually refreshing. For years, every time I try to bring up Combat in gaming, people gloss over, tell me we don't need to talk about it, or it becomes a session of reliving our worst experiences in role play. What I'm about to discuss is dedicated to the last, and in spite of the first two.

I think that we, as players, game designers, and game runners, need to discuss combat in gaming and make it an open dialogue. The first reason is obvious: Safety. We're in the fun making business here, kids. If we aren't being safe, we deserve the consequences.

As I was writing this, I had posted a fun meme about Player vs Player/Character vs Character combat, and it created a discussion about some of the more terrible experiences about players being attacked in the dead of night without ever knowing in real life who did it. There was no story to it, no fun. Just suddenly woken up, as a player, and told you're murdered. No discussion, no checking in with one another, no in character or out of character repercussions. Nothing. That's fucking traumatic as shit, and to this day, players (former now) are still trying to process the experiences that happened. 

The second reason we need to make combat a dialogue is almost important: It makes combat fun. When everyone is in on the combat, they're more likely to have fun. When we were told to make the fights interesting at Waking Dreams, we made the fights interesting. I got my throat ripped out by a RedCap while screaming bloody murder and saw at his back with my sword. I saw the MC get coup de grace'd (she got better, thank you magic-blood-ritual room)  in a gurgling heap. I've seen combat before, which can just boil down to playing the numbers game and landing points, but nothing beats putting on a show for ourselves and an audience.

Combat, as I said in the class, is a conversation told in conflict. It's a tool to help the story in four ways:

1) Instigate the plot: Bruce Wayne doesn't become Batman if his family isn't mugged and his parents die in the struggle. John Wick doesn't come out of retirement if criminal scumbags don't steal his car and kill his dog.

2) Escalate the Plot: Things have grown intense, tensions have risen. A fight breaks out. It doesn't end conclusively, at least not for one of them. Tybalt fighting Mercutio and Romeo setting the stage for all that comes after.

3)Conclude the Plot: The final conflict, when all has been said and done. "I have no words, my voice is in my sword." This is when all avenues have been closed, all other doors shut down. And either one or both must go.

MacDuff was done with MacBeth's bullshit

4) Show, don't tell:  Is the character someone who talks fast, but will run faster to the exits when the blades come out, but will tank a gang if they think an innocent is in danger? You can't tell someone that and make them believe it. It needs to be seen through action.

So, here are my thoughts on how to make combat in games fun and safe for everyone. This is not a comprehensive list, and I will be expanding on some of the points as time goes on.

Before I do that, let me break in, because I can hear people saying "Who are you to suggest this?". Actually, my favorite one I'd heard was 'I don't think most game designers are qualified since they haven't experienced ACTUAL combat.' (paraphrased, but close enough to the mark). So, an introduction: I have been a member of a stage combat collective since 2009. I have been on stage for fight shows at conventions and events throughout the tri-state area. I have written several of those shows, a treatise on a martial arts surrounding a certain fictional weapon, a follow up blog to that, and I'm currently writing the book for it.

And, for those of you looking for more of the practical: I have a black belt in JiuJitsu (Japanese, not Brazillian) and with the thanks of said ten years of being in a stage fighting collective I've gotten to experience and discuss a variety of styles ranging from fencing, longsword, escrima, kenjutsu, systema, kenpo, and a few of the kung fu derivations. I also have two years experience bouncing for an event planner.  I do not consider myself a trained martial artists. I'm an artist who has trained himself to research the martial aspects of humanity.

And now, Craig's ways of making combat fun, safe, and entertaining (The Short Form). This is not comprehensive, or exhaustive. I'll be coming back to these in the future and expanding upon them.

1) Role Play is a Collaborative Storytelling medium: This is not open to conversation or interpretation, this is the spirit of the law. Digital; Tabletop; or Live Action, everyone is in the room, at the time, to tell a story and to help others tell their stories. This includes the game runners, too, because sometimes the runners and the players need to be reminded that they're all in the end a bunch of fucking nerds making make believe.

2) You're partners, not opponents. This is one of the things I tell everyone in their first class of stage combat. The illusion is to make everyone feel the enmity or the tension, but at all times you're working with your partner to tell this story, communicating with one another, engaging them and making sure they are okay. Your characters can hate each other, you as players are in this together.

3) Fight like everyone's watching.  One of the first mistakes people make when making a fight is making the fight for only them. It gets boring, because they're too busy making the fight happen then making the fight interesting. In stage combat, there's always an audience watching, or else its just practice. In Role Play, you are always surrounded by your audience. Let it be performative, let your character show. Let the story show.

4) As partners, you're there to make each other look good. It's hard as hell to come off like a badass is no one in the room gives a shit. If your character got hit, sell it for all its worth. Scream your pain, shout your frustration. Put some bruise make up on after the fight. You can play with this, depending on what you and your partners decide.

It's how I won the crystal I'm wearing. Screaming bloody murder while getting eaten
5) It's okay to lose. I know the model is to see this all as a game, but role play is about what's the best story to tell here. What is the worst that happens if your character loses? Is that a fun challenge? Lets see what happens there. Also, with an audience, you get to do something a performer enjoys: Awesome 'death' scene. It doesn't mean 'expect your character to die' unless you and your partner are both down for that, but expect to sell your defeat.

6) Play out the consequences of your actions. This comes from stories where people try to shirk away from the consequences of their actions. The drawback of violence is that violence is often all that it breeds. The best story to tell is what happens next. The cycle of bloodshed continues and these violent delights have violent ends.

Again, this list is not exhaustive. Nor, I should point out, is this the only way to tell a story, let alone one through combat. But from the conversations I've seen over the years, and from the rise in focus on collaborative narration, we should start seeing combat as part of the narrative toolbox. From what I've seen of this past weekend, and from the seeming demand for it, performative combat is worthy of discussion. I look forward to any thoughts.

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1 comment:

  1. Brilliant write up and 100% my views as well. Combat is part of your experience, but it is also part of everyone else's experience. Make game for eachother and share it liberally. ��

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