For the next phase of this column we’re going to get a lot more organized and try to pull everything together about duet roleplaying. Remember a duet is a roleplaying experience where you have a narrator who runs the world and a single player who runs a character, or Player’s Character or PC, though that world. We’re going to begin with a method of breaking down duets into what we’ll call duet sagas. A duet saga has the following components: setting, campaign, story arcs, adventures, scenes, and characters.

The setting is the reality where the duet saga takes place. Setting intrinsically limits the campaign but this is necessary as the setting establishes the limits that allow a campaign to exist, because it provides the framework for the player’s PC to navigate through the setting.

The campaign is the journey of a PC in that setting. Campaigns develop organically from the actions of the PC in response to the situations presented by the narrator. The narrator doesn’t really design the campaign as it simply unfolds as things progress.

Story arcs are currents of events the PC can ride, change, and possibly even stop. Story arcs are driven in large part by other characters, what we’ll call Narrator Player Character or NPCs, and their agendas.

Adventures can be nebulous in duets as to where they begin or end but think of an adventure as telling a story. It rarely is a story about the PC. I know that seems counterintuitive but adventures are almost always about someone or something else whose fate is determined by the PC.

Scenes are interactions between the PC and NPCs usually defined by a specific location. Scenes can be battles, roleplaying, or some other event or challenge the PC must face. Scenes can be stand-alone (what we’ll call vignettes) or linked to an adventure or perhaps a broader story arc.

Finally, the characters are what drive everything. Characters are NPCs, items, locations, natural phenomena, or anything that the PC must engage in some fashion. Once again it may seem counterintuitive to consider a thunderstorm or inn as a character but they are and if you treat them as such you’ll get a better reaction from them.

Duet Campaign v. Duet Saga

Often there is no difference between a duet saga and a duet campaign. The majority of my duet campaigns use a setting specifically designed for that campaign. In this situation the duet saga and the duet campaign are one, but sometimes narrators and players like to revisit a setting again and again. This is the essence of a duet saga in that it can encompass multiple campaigns.

One approach is for both members of the duet to serve as narrator for two separate duet campaigns. The best way to handle this is for both narrators to divide up the setting so they each can have their own area to do as they wish. They should also agree on some common elements they can share in their campaigns as well as some limits on what they can do - neither should really be allowed to destroy the world in their campaign. I do have a bit of advice here on how to make this work. Basically, let the other narrator do their own thing. If the society they design is illogical and not something you would design then the other narrator is probably on to something: the real world isn’t logical. Two minds can make a far better setting than one mind in most cases if they can communicate effectively.

Another approach that is popular with several narrators I have talked with is a generational approach. This is where the player runs a series of PCs over time in the same setting with each PC related by blood or lineage to a previous PC. The events of past campaigns build upon the current campaign and this is a neat way to develop a setting and link together PCs in a historical fashion. I’ve started a Star Wars duet that is planned to be a chain of short campaigns from the dawn of the Republic to the Rebellion all linked in certain ways that will bridge the gaps of thousands of years between campaigns while highlighting the ebb and flow of the Republic and Jedi. Of course, you can also just run various duet campaigns in a setting that aren’t directly linked but still connect in subtle ways. If you have a large and detailed setting it might be possible to run several campaigns with different PCs all running at the same time. Really the variations are considerable; experimentation and being bold is what makes duets truly successful.

Session

There is another component of duets that has to be mentioned: sessions. A session is simple the time when the narrator and player sit down and roleplay. Sometimes there will be aspects of a campaign that occur outside a session, such as if the player and narrator resolve some matters via chat or email such as correspondence between a PC and NPC, administrative matters, or just the communication of background knowledge. However, almost all the action will occur in a session. The proper execution of a session has to be the primary goal of the narrator. Yes, the actions of the player account for 50% of the success or failure of a session but the narrator has far more tools to make a session successful. We’re going to talk a lot about executing sessions in future columns but here are a few points:

1) A good session involves the PC having to make real decisions. A real decision is one where there are both real choices and significant consequences for those choices. This is somewhat difficult to communicate but the essence is that the narrator needs to set up situations where the PC controls her own fate or the fate of others. No story arc or character is more important that the decision of the PC. If the PC lops the head off a villain then don’t bring back the villain with some convoluted explanation - come up with a new villain. The same goes that if the PC decides to back a side in a civil war you didn’t expect, then just run with that - never force the PC to join the side you wanted her to join. Narrators develop problems and it’s the player who develops the solutions.

2) A good session will have a few good scenes and no bad scenes. Good scenes are engaging. Bad scenes are boring. The success of a scene is determined by the NPCs and whether they generate a response from the PC or not.

3) A good session requires a bit of thought by the narrator beforehand and a bit of flexibility during the session. It’s the ability to merge these two that is the mark of a great narrator.

4) A good session requires the player and narrator to both make a real effort to make it work. Related to this I will say that it is best for all concerned that if either player or narrator are tired, not in the mood, or just not prepared then they should probably cancel and reschedule. It is a dreadful situation when a session that would otherwise have been good is ruined because one member of the duet wasn’t prepared or in the mood.

5) A good session leaves both narrator and player excited about the next session.

Time Management

I think the greatest difficulty facing a narrator is time management; but this is a self-inflicted difficulty. I’m going to come out and be blunt: the stuff you want to design for an adventure/campaign is often the least important. Let’s look at our breakdown again: setting, campaign, story arcs, adventure, scene, and characters. Let’s say they are all equal in importance, then you should be spending an equal amount of time designing all these elements. You don’t. We get distracted by things that catch our imagination. We spend hours drawing maps that will only be referenced for a few minutes in a several hour session. We spend days drawing up a villain and his minions but don’t develop the story arcs or characters to make the PC care about defeating this villain. We develop pages of background information about a holiday in a city that only produces one or two scenes in an adventure. We do this all the time. Sure we can still churn out a decent adventure but the art of narrating can only be mastered when you learn how to manage your time by figuring out what matters. These are somethings that matter:

1) What comes up in a session is more important that what it is the background.

2) Everything can’t be important and some things need to be shallow. 75% of characters the PC will interact with will not be important so don’t try to make them all unique and special. This undermines the characters that need to be important and is a waste of time.

3) Only worry about the statistics of a character if those statistics are important. If a character is only going to be talking to a PC and never going to fighting battles with or against the PC then you don’t need to develop statistics. It’s far more important to develop a personality with some notes. Only worry about the statistics you will actually need.

4) Less is more. A picture is worth a thousand words if the words are mediocre; otherwise the ratio is probably closer to a hundred good words. If you want to describe a scene don’t get bogged down in detail, aim for fifty words that are evocative and allow the player to fill in the blanks with their imagination. Think of narrating as putting up hooks on the wall where the player will be hanging up pictures and paintings from their imagination. It’s not your job to hang up pictures, just provide the hooks for the player.

5) Recycling is a good thing. Reuse old ideas and borrow from books, movies, and so forth. I have said many times in the past that the pursuit of something new and innovative is a lost cause. The more important goal is to produce solid and engaging material that works. Yes, there are a lot of cliches and the like that are mocked by some, but if you toss in a little twist and execute it well then it’s no longer a cliche but a classic.

6) Thinking is a good use of time. It can also be done anywhere, whether you’re on your commute to school or work. Related to this is to seek out counsel about your duet saga. Other narrators can be found in forums and the like across the Internet and this is a resource of great value that should be used.

System

I rarely discuss particular game system and this will continue because I think the mechanics used aren’t all that important. I know roleplayers love to debate various systems and editions, but the best system for a duet is one that the narrator is happy running and that the player can tolerate. The reverse will not work as well and of course the best is if both narrator and player like the system. However, I will say one thing: balance has no place in a duet. Free yourself from the artificial constraints and limitations imposed by various roleplaying games and don’t be afraid to experiment and bend the rules.

That’s enough for this column and next month we’ll delve into settings and work our way through the components and the process of executing duet sagas.