Make worse games, game designer! Run worse games, game master!

I will not break any new ground by saying that perfect is the enemy of complete, and if anything I’m writing this article to remind myself more than anyone else. Countless people with countless uncomplete projects, abandoned because they didn’t live up to the ambition of what it could be, know how I feel. Is there truly a creative soul out here that hasn’t ever left a project unfinished, paralysed by what a mess the finish product is going to be?

It’s silly isn’t it? Especially with TTRPGs, a medium chalk full of amateur storytellers, having a great time running derivative stories in good company. In fact I believe that TTRGPs have a unique oppertunity in that regard to pave the way for designing worse. I remember a conversation I partok in a while ago, with someone who was unsure of what they were ‘supposed’ to include in their first module, and, if I remember correctly, was frustrated at parts of the process they deemed necceasry which they didn’t enjoy working on. It was so easy when talking to them to say ‘Look, if people like your work they will find a way to run it. How many people out there houserule 5E til death, practically making their own games, just because they enjoy the content, the world, or sometimes even just the idea of ‘playing D&D’? So often I see people talking about how they made their own aids, handouts, or whole new story sections just to make work something they found cool, but dosen’t work for them alone.’

I’m thinking back to really cool module Gormand’s Larder an adventure made with no text. It is entirely constructed of illustrations. It depics cluttered locations, and random encounters through lesser detailed drawings. What do you do when you roll the picture of a broken sword? I don’t know about you, but personally I instantly get some ideas. It’s such a gift to a community of creators that think, like the new designer mentioned above, that they have to do everything, no matter how much they dislike doing it. Why not omitt statblocks if you hate writing them?

I’m thinking back to Delta Green campaign Impossible Landscapes which is so complex yet captivating that it has developed it’s own community of people sharing what tools they made to ease running it.

I’m thinking back to most games I’ve been part of, be that as a player or a GM, where things go wrong, we forget rules, terrible voice acting gets thrown out, and yet, it is so incredibly fun and memorable. Something I’ve said repeatedly for the past few years when talking about GMing is that, in my opinion, GMs are ‘supposed’ to be ‘bad’, by which I mean that they should not be expected to be good. This is a hobby for anyone, and most people aren’t educated storytellers. Beyond the ‘Mercer effect’ I think we should strive to be even worse. The stories in TTRPGs are special because they’re ours, no matter how ‘cliche’ or overdone. Run those players through a cave full of goblins!

And I guess while I’m at it, you should try to write worse blog posts too.