The Culture: Proper Play Promotes Practical Problem-Solving

(Following from yesterday's post.)

What you think of as a role-playing game is, in reality, a fantastic adventure wargame.

Wargaming, at its root and from its inception, is about practical problem-solving. The problem is defined by the scenario. The solution is an iterative process, bounded by character resources and objectives. The first party to iterate their way to success--defined by as hitting their Win Condition before anyone else--wins the game.

That this scenario posits a secondary world more often than not, or an alternative (future) history so varied from our own that it might as well be one, does not negate this fact. Magic, elves, golems, super robots, intergalactic empires, cosmic beings, and more do not change this. All it does is change the set dressing and operational parameters; you still have a problem defined by the scenario, and solutions iterated into by players using limited resources to solve that problem.

Playing a whole campaign, where individual encounters are just iterative steps towards the solution, means dealing with trial and error at multiple levels. Don't have information that you think you need? Then how do you solve that problem in order to solve the big one? Need more of a resource you're low on? Or a different one altogether? How do you solve that problem? Plans didn't work? Figure out what went wrong, how, and why- and don't repeat those errors.

This is what is missing from the hobby: "Okay, you're in the shit. This is the situation. Figure it out."

And one problem, one fundamental problem, drives players to bring characters off the bench and into play: expenses.

You Got To Pay The Cost

It's not just time that you spend in campaign play. You also need to spend that gold to equip your man (and his men) (DMG pp. 28-29, 34-35), to make new spells & items (pp.114-118), general living expenses (p. 25), and to train when your man is eligible to gain an experience level (p. 86).

All of these are a constant drain on your man's finances. Some of them you can opt not to do, but general living expenses and training costs are not. No cash? No bash. Consider it a soft loss condition, in that being dead broke cripples your ability to do anything else.

What does this mean? It imposes a problem. That problem has a solution: get out there and find more treasure.

This is one of the core drivers of any Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition campaign. Something nigh-identical will be apparent in every game worth playing, having the same effect and granting the same solution as the go-to remedy.

This is not a bug. This is not a design flaw. This Working As Intended, and it is meant to keep players from having their characters sit on the bench indefinitely. Yes, even those successful Name Level lords will need to come off the bench from time to time in search of a big score, especially if they want to improve their domain in a manner that affects gameplay or a hostile party comes upon them seeking the same.

You don't need to arbitrarily beggar characters to do this. Just play the game as it is and the pressure caused by dwindling gold piles will be sufficient to prompt players to bring their men back on the field. It will force them to consider how to make money in more than just looting lairs and hauling off hoards, be it erecting businesses that bring in regular profits (fair or foul; Evil characters and slaving are going to be common for the same reason it was historically) or making things that cause such a demand that you alone can supply (e.g. the sole source of a new spell).

As this goes on, the better players will figure something out, something ghostwriter Joshua Lisec explained recently in a newsletter: "People lie, but how they spend their money, doesn’t."

The smarter players will figure out what others need done not by listening to what they say, but what they do (i.e. Revealed Preferences) and then sell them the solution to that problem- one they are able to provide. This is how the winning players develop a habit of winning, and in the process become dominant in a campaign. They solve others' problems, get paid for it, and use the proceeds to continue the efforts to solving their big problem- the one defining the campaign.

If you think this doesn't apply, then you haven't figured out diplomacy yet or you've never been successful in either business or politics.

The players that learn how to win at D&D are learning habits and patterns of thought that will allow them to win in real life- just like the wargames of old trained officers how to win in war.

Winners adapt to the situation and solve problems. Losers whine and demand that things change to suit their whims. Take it from someone that had to do it for real; you are better off learning to adapt and solve.