What do you do if being put on the spot to create makes you cringe but you want your happily ever after? This month’s agony aunt question has some advice for those seeking a narrative in their gaming. Read...
Greetings, dear reader! Today is World Book Day, and to celebrate, we have an agony aunt question to help those who like storytelling in their games, but who prefer the role of reader to writer…
Dear Aunty Chella,
I love the idea of games with a narrative, but the thought of role playing gives me performance anxiety! I like the idea of coming away from a games night with a story to tell, but I’m just not up for writing a character as I play - I feel way too self conscious… but it’s hard to do one without the other… right?
I want to know if there’s something else out there for me in the world of games. I enjoy lots of other kinds of board games and card games, from party games to the more serious kind. I’m good at quickfire word games, and escape rooms, and I enjoy games that have a frame story. I even find myself adding a bit of a story to games that don’t have one, imagining I’m a super-duper-spy-guy trying to get a real code word to my super-duper-spy-teammates before we’re all super-duper-killed by the assassin during an perfectly ordinary round of Codenames, for example.
I’m keen and willing to try other suggestions, but something about playing a role in general, and actually about D&D in particular, is too daunting - designing a character, committing to a campaign, counting up numbers on dice, talking in a ‘ye olde’ voice and pretending to be casting spells… it all feels very not me. But making up stories round a table, particularly in a competitive way - that is definitely my idea of fun! Can you please help?
Narrating in Nether Edge
Treehouse Agony Aunt Chella has always been a fan of stories…
Dear Narrating in Nether Edge,
I am itching to hijack my own reply in an attempt to win you over about role-playing games and character-based stuff - maybe tempt you to start with a one-shot, or a dice-free system, or an entirely elf- and wizard- free gaming universe (the steampunk ones are my personal favourites) and assure you that the right one for you exists, or encourage you to create your own! But I will save that story for a future post and not put you on the spot, for your quest is already a noble one, and I promise I did not just say that in a ‘ye olde’ voice. I’m happy to say there are a number of exciting solutions to your problem. If you don't want to be put on the spot to get into character but still want to spend an evening spinning a good yarn with family and friends round a gaming table, then story-based board games could be the answer.
And… there may be one or two gateway role playing games on the list, just in case you want to make it a new year’s resolution to give something outside your comfort zone a go. After all, board games are a form of escapism, whether we’re shouting out rhyming words or laying down tiles or stacking up blocks… and stories are one of the oldest ways humans have created to throw some magic into everyday life - if we’re honest with ourselves, stories have the power to create a little bit more connection than knocking over a stack of blocks ever could. And although that’s a serious sentiment, the games don’t have to be! Read on for games with a bit of storytelling, from the ridiculous to the sublime.
Adventure Games (1-4 players)
Mystery awaits you inside each Adventure Game…
I must start with the Adventure Games series, a co-operative ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ style mystery-solving game for 1-4 players from the same makers as Exit The Game (whom we are big fans of here at Team Treehouse). If you are familiar with those games, or if you survived the highly satisfying Exit Advent Calendar this past Christmas, you’ll know that gameplay relies on combining cards, small printed objects, details from a pre-prepared storybook, and your own observation and deduction skills to complete the game. The Adventure Games series sets are less ‘timed-escape-room’ and instead more of a leisurely journey through a mystery story with a lot of thrills and excitement, problem solving and decision making, that all lead to a satisfying ending. Although you can’t un-make decisions as you play, there is no time crunch and no destruction of property! Yes, unlike the Exit series where you and your team are encouraged to cooperatively destroy, fold, cut up and otherwise ruin the game in order to escape, Adventure Games can definitely be played more than once, and there are lots of sets to choose from. These games are all story and should meet your needs!
The Distraction Agents is an amazing combination of board game, interactive film, and personal call to adventure, and the characters have all been created and performed for you, with no theatrical input needed from you, so no worries there! Written, designed and performed by local but internationally lauded Third Angel theatre company, this is a game that goes far beyond the cardboard box it comes in. When you sign up (or sign someone else up - it makes an excellent surprise experience gift), you receive a parcel in the post. The sender is disguised as someone completely different - no mention of the game or the real sender or purchaser, so the mystery begins even before you get started.
Every trainee Distraction Agent receives game supplies in the post alongside online communiques.
The box contains an enticing series of objects and numbered envelopes, with instructions to tune in to a weekly video link in order to follow along with the game and instructions. You have been recruited to train as a Distraction Agent: someone who sets small, benign, but intriguing stories in motion for the general public to encounter. As part of the game you (individually or as a team at one address) learn from experienced agents who send video communiques each day over the course of a week, and there is an open-ended task in the real world that you can also try for yourself, but there is no pressure to do so. Although the makers are local to Sheffield (and whom you may bump into at the Treehouse from time to time!), they’ve worked hard to ensure the game is not location sensitive, while still maintaining a bit of a scavenger hunt element that I found really lovely when I played.
Players are trained by this esteemed group of experienced Distraction Agents.
The video recordings were all scripted and filmed in very atmospheric locations with some excellent performers who helped devise the material in different formats, including a theatre production that explores more aspects of what it means to be a Distraction Agent in the show The Department of Distractions - if you get the chance to see it or another Third Angel show - check it out, or read the script - their world-building is very delightfully gamified, even on stage. What’s nice is that even after you’ve completed the game, there are several souvenirs and even some activities that you can come back to…and you’ll never see the odd distraction out in the real world the same way again.
What Next (1-4 players)
This new game from Big Potato Games uses small props and table-based activities to stand in as proxy hazards and real world challenges, translating the dangerous events of the story into playable mini-challenges that keep the game moving and add a tactile and interactive element that keeps the narrative going in a fun, tangible and fairly unusual way.
It is way more focused on the activities, the escapes and the real-time negotiation between the players, so no role-playing necessary. The adventures are pretty silly even before you add in the table-top rock climbing, but fans of Big Potato will be used to the kind of ridiculous high jinks that are bound to ensue. This is a cooperative game, so players have to vote on what course of action to take - with different consequences on each decision. And even though you can have up to four players, what’s nice about this one is you can get your narrative fix on your own as well and play it solo.
An unlikely scenario? Perhaps. But this set up from the game What Next? makes for a heck of a story.
If you are immediately hearing the JXL vs Elvis song A Little Less Conversation you’re not alone (and if you’re remembering waking up early to watch the 2002 Men’s World Cup whenever you hear this because it was the theme song to that tournament, get out of my head!). This game has a very catchy title, but instead of taking Elvis’s questionable advice, this game encourages players to talk more.
In A Little More Conversation, you WILL be playing as a character, and exploring their views and origin story with the other players, but… that character is YOU! The cards invite participants to start superficially with casual questions that are easy to answer, then dig deeper each round with opinion questions, ethics debates, and even invitations to share old memories, making this a lovely game for couples, big groups of friends, and inter-generational families.
Whilst it’s great to be able to play games in person a bit more often, this one can easily be played in an online video chat session, as long as someone takes responsibility for the cards, or even better, if two households have a set each. You can stick to the surface level stuff or just have a round of reminiscences with family, but with a new group it pays to play the rounds in order as an icebreaker so you’re not dropping everyone in the deep talk deep end straight away.
Braggart (2-6 players)
Braggart combines storytelling with card collecting and rule-changing, and it’s set in the sort of fantasy medieval tavern that’s at the start of many role playing games. It allows players to enjoy competitiveness and one-upping as part of the game mechanics - braggarts and good storytellers are both rewarded… and punished! It also (sorry not sorry) is generally enhanced if players get into the spirit of things by imagining they are the sort of character who would get into the sort of situations depicted on the cards used throughout the game. You don’t have to but you may want to try it as a subtle way to shift into this side of role playing without all the faff you mentioned above.
Back to Braggart though: There’s a draft round where players can choose cards that show the sorts of settings, characters and events they’d like to weave into their story, and then a storytelling round where each player has a go at bragging about the adventure they’ve allegedly just had. The actions are stereotypical adventurey type things, and the foes are fun. The level of detail is up to you. Other players can challenge the story using cards and actions in their own hands, and tell a funnier version that casts the original storyteller in a much more comedically pathetic light. This game is most enjoyable when the folks playing with you are all the sort of people who like to tell one-upping stories anyway, especially if one of you is a notorious exaggerator that everyone thinks is a braggart anyway! Best played in an actual pub, bar, tavern or board game cafe, preferably one that serves ale and mead (ahem).
If some of these options are still not your style, don’t worry - just having a game night, real or virtual, is the kind of connection we need in these tough times, and we’re drawn to this kind of game because sharing stories makes life that little bit richer.
Yours very truly,
Chella on behalf of Team Treehouse xx
Do you have a board game related query? Send your question to contact@treehousesheffield.com for a heartfelt reply containing an upsetting number of puns.
Chella Quint is a Treehouse staffer, board gamer, and author of the books Be Period Positive and Own Your Period.