Well, this made me think of tabletop roleplaying games, and especially of the game Heart of Wulin, where the protagonist all have entanglements with two other people ... and that doesn't always create conflict, but it certainly guarantees tension - and the essay clarified that for me.
I most certainly will keep tension as a story driver in the back of my head when running games, it's an amazing point!
Thank you! And I think tabletop is a great example of the distinction I'm trying to draw. You don't necessarily want inter-party CONFLICT, of the "the rogue wants to kill us all and steal our stuff" sort, but you almost always want inter-party tension--the wizard who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth vs. the down-to-earth countryside paladin, etc. That drives character relationships and intraparty narrative. Then often the GM provides an external force, which feels more like a classical conflict."
That's a great point if you're running a game that wants to emulate stories like Studio Ghibli films or Jane Austen novels: There can be lots of tension but very little real conflict. (Pride and Prejudice, again.)
And you can adjust the size and severity of conflicts, and the fallout from them, as well as their frequency. You can also have stories with lots of conflict but very little tension--action romps work this way, where you're legitimately surprised if something on screen moves you.
I love this post! Makes me think of many things, but my mind latched onto the sailing analogy. It is so apt -- not until I read this did I realize the parallels between the tense journeys I've taken out on the water (even just the Charles!), the constantly shifting winds, the other boats, all in *tension* but not in conflict (hopefully), and the tension of a good narrative, the twists and turns that move the reader, or the player, this way and that, in a winding curve shaped by the wind of the sotry, until they reach the safe harbor of the conclusion. Thank you for sharing!!
Yes, that's it exactly! And every ship's journey on the harbor is different, depending on the ship, the sailors, their skills and issues, the forces they face... it stops fiction, or gameplay for that matter, from collapsing to formal logic.
Well, this made me think of tabletop roleplaying games, and especially of the game Heart of Wulin, where the protagonist all have entanglements with two other people ... and that doesn't always create conflict, but it certainly guarantees tension - and the essay clarified that for me.
I most certainly will keep tension as a story driver in the back of my head when running games, it's an amazing point!
Thank you! And I think tabletop is a great example of the distinction I'm trying to draw. You don't necessarily want inter-party CONFLICT, of the "the rogue wants to kill us all and steal our stuff" sort, but you almost always want inter-party tension--the wizard who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth vs. the down-to-earth countryside paladin, etc. That drives character relationships and intraparty narrative. Then often the GM provides an external force, which feels more like a classical conflict."
That's a great point if you're running a game that wants to emulate stories like Studio Ghibli films or Jane Austen novels: There can be lots of tension but very little real conflict. (Pride and Prejudice, again.)
And you can adjust the size and severity of conflicts, and the fallout from them, as well as their frequency. You can also have stories with lots of conflict but very little tension--action romps work this way, where you're legitimately surprised if something on screen moves you.
I love this post! Makes me think of many things, but my mind latched onto the sailing analogy. It is so apt -- not until I read this did I realize the parallels between the tense journeys I've taken out on the water (even just the Charles!), the constantly shifting winds, the other boats, all in *tension* but not in conflict (hopefully), and the tension of a good narrative, the twists and turns that move the reader, or the player, this way and that, in a winding curve shaped by the wind of the sotry, until they reach the safe harbor of the conclusion. Thank you for sharing!!
Yes, that's it exactly! And every ship's journey on the harbor is different, depending on the ship, the sailors, their skills and issues, the forces they face... it stops fiction, or gameplay for that matter, from collapsing to formal logic.