Tabletop Role-Playing Game Design(Postgraduate Project)
Tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs) have more than 40 years of history and have achieved far-reaching influence, especially in countries where English is the primary language. However, even though many new games appear every year, TRPGs still do not occupy a dominant position in the game market. Most gamers prefer video games and board games to TRPG. The aim of this project is to use qualitative analysis to investigate which parts of TRPG design prohibit players from engaging with TRPGs, and then to create a novel TRPG that addresses these design problems. The project focuses on the example of China, where many people play video games and board games, but few know about or play TRPGs. Therefore, this research will mainly study the gaming behaviour and feedback of Chinese participants to study what methods can attract Chinese players to TRPGs.
Research
The first aim is to understand the current research and related theories of TRPG design and apply some theories to the Chinese game market. I posted a questionnaire on a Chinese website and interviewed some of the participants.There are total 81 Chinese players participated this survey
1. Complexity of the game
The first obstacle is the entry of the game. The difficulty of playing the game is high to new players. For many TRPG, reading is the essential part of learning the game, as it is a tabletop game which does not have clear video tutorial like video game. However, reading too many texts may distract player’s attention and make learning more boring. Designing a simple game would be a good option.
2. Culture
Second barrier is the culture, TRPG is originated from west, so most of this type of games is based on western fantasy or western culture. It does succeed in western countries. However, in Asian countries, it is not that good. Based on the questionnaire, players prefer Chinese culture games.
3. Language
Foreign language is always the obstacle for non-native players. So in this case, designing a Chinese version rule or something to guide Chinese players is a nice and easy way.
4. Social reason.
Some players answered in the questionnaire that, they do not have enough time to
play the whole game, or it is hard for them to find group to play with. Time is limit and so do their friends. So breaking the whole game into small pieces could help them have time to experience a completed gameplay.
play the whole game, or it is hard for them to find group to play with. Time is limit and so do their friends. So breaking the whole game into small pieces could help them have time to experience a completed gameplay.
Four Design Criteria
1. The first step is to determine the theme of the game, which is the background of the story. As a case study, this research will focus on the Chinese player community as the research object. According to previous questionnaires and interviews, 35% of the respondents hope that Chinese culture will appear, and 20% like games based on mythology. Therefore, this research chose Journey to the West, which is well-known by Chinese players, as the story background of the game.
Players prefer Chinese culture games.
2. The second step is to determine the rules of the game, combine the analysis of four different styles of TRPG, select the advantages of each game to integrate and simplify the game rules. In this research, I studied Dungeons and Dragons, Fate, Fiasco and Power by the Apocalypse.
The game is an introductory game. The main purpose of the game is to simplify the rules of the game and allow new players to start quickly. Therefore, the design of the player's custom character was deleted and replaced with the four characters, Monkey King, Pig Bajie, Drifting and Tang Sanzang. The design of character race, occupation, etc. was deleted, and the character’s character was simplified to the character set by the four characters. Players did not need to make any changes to the character design, they could start the game directly.
I removed some parts in order to make the game much simpler and clearer.
3. The third step is to design the game mechanism to make it more friendly to the player. This step includes three main designs: dice design, ability check, and combat session. As the core mechanism of the TRPG game, the dice system is designed to refer to the symbolic dice of Fate, with four portraits of the four characters as the four faces of the dice, and only the need to count the number of times the portrait is thrown as the final result, which simplifies the judgment of each calculation.
Symbol Dice
As one of the important tools during the game, the character sheet is designed with reference to Dungeons and Dragons, but it is more concise and clearer.
4. In response to the player’s visual guidance feedback during the first prototyping test, a comic version of the rule book was drawn in the second prototype production stage.
User Testing
1. The purposes of the game test are:
To assess the effectiveness of the rulebook and whether the player is motivated enough to learn the game
To determine if the game is attractive and interesting to participants
To determine what specific feedback novice players can provide to enhance the game to understand how the game can be improved
2. The first step in game testing is to determine which players can be tested. First, these gamers need to be Chinese gamers, and secondly, they must be over 16 years old. As some respondents in the previous questionnaire were interested in game testing, I contacted these players and conducted online and offline game testing. All file provided to gamers are in Chinese and English.
The game test took place in May and June, and a total of 15 players participated. They put forward their views on the overall feeling of the game and different parts of the game.
3. Result
The average duration of reading comics is 10 minutes.
It takes up to half an hour to read the text version of the rulebook.
Players found that comics are interesting and can be further improved, but it is indeed helpful for game understanding. Because of their sufficient knowledge of Journey to the West, they quickly entered the role and played the game smoothly.
Conclusion
Simplification of game rules, perfect rule guidance, understandable language and relatively familiar game themes are all the design criteria summarised in this research that could effectively increase the player's engagement.
