So, one thing have noticed is that a lot of GMs seem to look to rules to help them make their games more interesting. I constantly see things on Reddit where GMs bemoan the lack of good mechanics for monsters, or damage, or combat. They are looking for things like “impactful damage type rules” or “rules to make enemies behave more realistically.”

My friends, I’m hear to tell you that the issue isn’t with the rules. Most of the things I see are things that a GM can easily add in as part of their narration or by taking into account the fictional narrative of the world as if it were real. Why do the bandits fight to the death? Why is this bear attacking? How did that fireball not burn down the entire building?

Let’s Define Some Terms

This is easily a thing that GMs miss, but if you think about it, its just as much our job to roleplay as it is the player’s. We are, after all, players, just like a square is a rectangle. Its just that this means more when it come to our role. We aren’t just the NPCs, we are the entire world, and there is a very real way in which the drapery going up in flames because of the lamp getting knocked over is a part of that!

But lets back up a second. Maybe we need to define our terms so that this whole thing makes sense. Roleplaying Games are made up of at least two parts, the Roleplaying, and the Game. The game is all the mechanical bits and bobs, the rule that are used to make everything work in a cohesive and agreed upon way. The Roleplaying, on the other hand, is the narrative, the story, the setting. Basically everything else.

So, a fireball deals so much damage to the character’s bodies, that is all game, defined by the book and the dice. But the fireball’s effects on the character’s feelings and their thoughts? That is all narrative. Likewise, does that nearby chair get obliterated in the fireball? Most rules definitions don’t specify, only that it is an area of effect ability but not that everything in that area get hit, just that the characters in that area take the damage. In that case, whether the chair is destroyed is also purely narrative.

That means that it is within the realm of your ability to just do it if it makes sense, just like a roleplaying character can convince the Viscount there is a spy in his court by showing him the documents they found. Nothing mechanical happens in either case, its just a narrative interaction. It is a change in the world based solely on the actions of the characters and not the rule system.

How Roleplaying Fixes Most of You GM Ills

So, hopefully its already becoming obvious how thinking about the entire gameworld as a character that can roleplay is useful, even necessary, for good gamemastering. But just in case, lets dive in a little more to several issues that can cause a lot of games problems and how this approach fixes it.

1. Repetitive, Boring Combat

One of the big things that drive people to ever more complex or “crunchy” games is a feeling that the simpler systems have “boring” combat. And sometimes this is true, and sometimes this depends on your definition of fun. Some people like playing Final Fantasy Tactics with dice. If that is you, I have almost nothing to add to the conversation, godspeed. It wouldn’t sell if it didn’t make a lot of people happy.

For everyone else, some of the issue can be that the dynamic part of combat is from the narrative elements that you might be leaving out. Describe those attacks, describe those misses. Better yet, encourage players that are into it to describe their own! But also look at what is going on in the scene. Is it a barroom brawl? Describe tables and chairs getting flipped or broken. Is it in the forest? Those shadowy trees could be hiding enemies, and there are always rocks or broken branches to have enemies trip over or to throw in the player’s face for a distraction.

That goes double for magic though. Many of those flashy effects should have lingering consequences. We’ve already talked about fireball having the potential to turn that bar room or forest into a raging inferno, but what about other spells? Acid eats through leather armor, reducing its effectiveness, or maybe that ice or water spell makes the ground slick.

I know some folks may be saying “but the that unbalances those spells,” but my only real response to that is that balance is honestly an artificial creation. Once you start letting the spell effects be what they are then the players are going to start thinking about using them in new and unique ways which will create the new paradigm in the game. You know that your wizard loves using that acid spell to damage armor? Then start having enemies that can counterspell it, or send some monster (or create one) that is immune to the effect that the BBEG trains as war beasts. That character is going to feel even more excited to see the immersion of the world changing around them to counter his methods, and the other players are going to be excited to have the occasional bonus to hit or damage, or whatever, that the damaged armor gives them.

Rules don’t balance games, they bloat them. The GM is the one that balances games.

2. Every Encounter is a Battle

Also dealing with combat, there are a lot of people I have seen want to add mechanics to combat that triggers the NPCs to act in certain ways if they’ve taken so much damage, or that gives some mechanism for making the creatures act in certain ways. Things like the Bloodied mechanic from D&D 4e or the old Morale Checks in D&D BX.

I think that this is, ultimately, fine. The idea is to make the creatures act in more believable ways. But you know that is easier than typing up a bunch of rules that you then have to remember? Actually just playing the NPCs like people with hopes and fears.

If that bandit is a living creature, they are going to surrender when it looks like they’ve lost. That bear is not going to attack a group of well-armed adventurers unless it feels like it has no choice. Real creatures don’t throw their lives away for no reason. Just think to yourself “why is this fight actually happening” and then go from there.

If you want to be more organized, I assign every NPC an objective, basically what they are trying to accomplish. Just with this simple, non-mechanical adjustment, so many of my issues as a GM have gone away, and my players react accordingly. They stopped seeing every creature as a bag of XP, and started seeing them as living breathing characters.

Conclusion: Roleplay, Its not Just for Players Anymore

I hope that helps someone see the ways that you, as the GM, can up your game and make it more interesting without having to actually write new mechanics. In many cases, a liberal application of the same rules for good roleplaying can get you a long way, which is a fundamental part of the whole “rulings over rules” ideology that is so common is OSR and some other movements.