Morning Myth – Story Telling

 Your Myths

There were three core elements in the design of Castles and Crusades; simplicity, malleability, and storytelling. Of the three, both Steve and I focused a great deal of attention on storytelling. The question we asked ourselves was, how do we design a game such that storytelling is a function of how one plays the game? How were we to create a game that naturally and organically encourages this? I don’t know if we were successful, that’s not for me to decide but it is still one of our core tenants when doing anything related to Castles and Crusades. 

 

With regards the Monsters of Legend (or whatever the book is to be named) we are attempting the same. We want to encourage storytelling on a grander scale, on a mythic scale. We both believe everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has a great story to tell. Sometimes it just takes some nudging to get people to tell their story and, even more difficult, to get people to tell their story on a mythic level. I say a mythic level because I believe the mythic story telling is far more truthful (not honest but truthful) than the day to day factual ‘as we know/see it’ level. A myth reveals the truths of the world as we understand them to be, both individually and collectively.

Playing The Game is an act of Myth Making.

The myths and legends of our world, both from the past and in the present, help us to understand our lives and our place in the scheme of things. These are tails we tell ourselves to let us and others know how we should act, how we shouldn’t act, what is good, what is bad, goals to attain, and basically organize our world or at least allow ourselves to organize within it. The act of story-telling is an act of myth making.  Role-playing is an act of story-telling.

 

One might not think so, but indeed it is true. A hapless and seeming meaningless (though enjoyable) night playing a character rooting around a musty old dungeon for the coins dropped out of some creature’s pocket is story-telling. Mostly the stories are writ small in the beginning but over time, the stories grow and take on a life of their own. The characters develop histories, the antagonists develop goals and aspirations, and both intertwine and act out a story containing, without fail, mythologies of being and meaning.

Building Mythologies

We all do this whether we like it or not. We do it in our daily lives wide awake to the world and in our miasmal dreams. We also do it in The Game. Here we voice the mythologies and give life to them. Mostly these are small myths played out on small scales, not always, but mostly. There are reasons for this; time constraints, mechanical limitations, and story-board constraints. By story-board constraints, I mean the manner in which the protagonists are designed, presented, and managed as part of most games, our game included.

My intent with the Monsters of Legend book and the removal of some monsters presented in the Monsters and Treasure book is to change the presentation to encourage a myth building aspect in the game. To wit, the unique monsters of legend and myth from our world will be removed and reconfigured as singular and powerful monsters the conquest of which would by truly mythic. 

 

But further, and the point of this, is to encourage those who worldbuild and who run games to create their own mythic monsters or creatures that better fit their own world. Creatures and beasts who have their own particular histories and legends within their game. Creating these mythic beings or using those presented should help to anchor the players in the game, give them reference points, guidelines, and goals to attain outside the meager droppings of wandering orcs and other simpering beasts.

The final goal being, build your worlds and tell your stories.