“So…how do you win?”
Person after first hearing about TTRPGs
While the process and definition of winning a board game is explicitly stated, the term “winning” isn’t often used when describing how to play a TTRPG.
Still, that hasn’t stopped many from trying to implement competitive elements in TTRPGs. Many a gamemaster has experimented with adding hidden player objectives or secretly collaborating with a player to reveal their character’s traitorous intent. Games such as Deathmatch Island bring competition to the forefront. Only one character is getting what they want, often at the expense of the other characters.
At its worst, competitive TTRPGs become a poor experience for everyone at the table. Games grind to a halt when players argue over which objectives to pursue. Player resentment comes to a head when deeply-invested characters are killed. At its best, competitive TTRPGs create memorable experiences of character growth and meditations on trust. Dramatic points of tension are retold time and time again.
This post is an exploration on the player mentality required to ensure the success and enjoyment of semi-cooperative TTRPGs. It stems from my recent work in this space on games such as Six Arrows to Sunset and Chain×Link. In short, TTRPGs with competing player objectives can’t exist–the key to a successful semi-competitive TTRPGs is the understanding that a player’s objective can differ from a character’s objective.
What is Winning?
When you win a game, you’ve achieved a specific objective as defined by the rules. Once the objective is complete, you’ve won, and the game ends. Understanding that winning is an objective-focused mentality offers a potential framework in which to view board games and TTRPGs.
Winning in Board Games
In board games, a win-state is explicitly stated in the rules of the game. This win-state is the objective of the game and informs all the actions taken while playing.
- If players all win or lose together, then the game is cooperative.
- If only one player can win and everyone else loses, then the game is competitive.
- If only one or more players can win OR none of the players win, then the game is semi-cooperative.1
The process and definition of winning is clear before the game starts and everyone understands what the end-states are. Because of this, board games avoid the issues stemming from mis-matched expectations.
Winning in TTRPGs
“Winning” is rarely used within the rules of a TTRPG, though that doesn’t mean that the game isn’t played without objectives. Objectives can be on the character-level (“what does your character want?”) or they can be on a player-level (“what do you want?” or to put it less psycho-analytically, “what experience does the game offer through play?”).
Objectives at the character-level, or “winning” for the character, can be:
- Slaying the dragon
- Uncovering the conspiracy
- Stealing the treasure
Objectives at the player-level, or “winning” for you, can be:
- Play to lose. This often includes doomed characters in a tragic story where they will not make it out at the end. Examples include Trophy Dark, Ten Candles, or (self-plug) PREQUEL.
- Play to find out. This is a broad category but is a term often found in story games that describe the many dramatic points of conflict that will arise through play and how the game’s rules will facilitate their resolution.
Character-level objectives are similar to the objectives of a board game, they are concrete and quantifiable. Player-level objectives are about the process of play, rather than the end-state of play. We all know we’ll tell a tragic horror story, the fun is figuring out how our characters get from point A to point B.
One could be tempted to draw the conclusion that “traditional” or adventure games are those with character-level objectives (and thus, offer only character-level control of the world) and story games are those with player-level objectives (and thus, offer the ability to influence the world and narrative beyond the character’s limits). But the distinction is not always true, and most importantly, it’s not true in a semi-cooperative TTRPG. In a board game, the player represents only themself. They may assume a specific role or have a specific set of objectives to win, but there is no “character” to consider. In a roleplaying game, you are playing a role. There are actually two objectives to consider: the player’s objective and the character’s objective.
Player and Character Objectives
With an added dimension of a character’s objective, we can define TTRPGs by how a player’s objective and the character’s objective align with each other AND how these objectives align with other players and characters.
By default, TTRPGs are cooperative.2 All players at the table share the same objective. If all the characters share the same objective, they are also cooperating. Thus, there are two dimensions of cooperation in a TTRPG: player-level cooperation and character-level cooperation.
If the players’ objective is the same as the characters’ objective, we call this singular objective a character-motivated objective. Players want the characters to slay the dragon, because that’s what the characters want. Players have fun when the characters are doing what they want. If we imagine a relationship diagram where Player A and Player B each play Character A and Character B, respectively, the objectives in a cooperative, character-motivated TTRPG look like this3:
| Player A | Character B | |
| Character A | Same | Same |
| Player B | Same | Same |
Games with player-level objectives have the opportunity for the players to all share the same objective and all the characters to share the same objective, BUT the shared objectives of the players are different than that of the characters. The players are cooperating, the characters are cooperating, but on a different objective. The players’ objective is a narrative-motivated objective because the players are making decisions for their characters based on what a character wants but also in service of the story they want to tell. Players want to tell a story of heroic sacrifice, so they’ll lean into their characters’ objective to slay the dragon, but that self-serving thief will eventually reveal their heart of gold and make a spectacular last stand, even if that wasn’t the character’s original objective.
| Player A | Character B | |
| Character A | Different | Same |
| Player B | Same | Different |
So what is a semi-cooperative TTRPG? This is a game where the players have the same objective but the characters have different, often mutually exclusive, objectives. The players are cooperating at their level, but the characters are competing on their level (or the characters are cooperating only because it is a necessary step to achieve their mutually exclusive objective). For this to occur, the shared player objective MUST be a narrative-motivated objective, because when the game is “over,” at least one of the characters is not achieving their objective. One of the players has a character who works for the dragon and reveals themselves to be a traitor. However, the player embraces their character’s defeat, even going so far as to sacrifice their character to fuel a demonic ritual to empower their dragon overlord, adding a new element to this game of heroic sacrifice.
| Player A | Character B | |
| Character A | Different | Different |
| Player B | Same | Different |
The Losing Mindset
The key to running a semi-cooperative TTRPG is ensuring that players understand their objective, each character’s objectives, and how they differ. It’s a matter of framing that makes all the difference in how we view actions within the game. I call this the Losing Mindset, because it’s a mindset where we as players are ok–even encouraged–to explore how our characters “lose.”
If a player understands that another player’s character is backstabbing the party because this is a game about exploring how loyalty is tested, then the event is no longer a source of player conflict, but a wealth of narrative and character-development potential. It’s a framework that lets players embrace character conflict in service of a shared, narrative purpose. Rather than exiting a game in a blaze of glory, we now have the option of exiting in a blaze of hubris.
Some questions I ask myself when playing with the Losing Mindset:
- What is the shared player objective?
- What is my character’s objective? How can I use my character’s objective to explore the player objective? Can I do that now?
- Does my character have a secret agenda? Can I share that now?
- When my character acts in a way counter to another character’s objective, do the players see how this relates to our shared player objective?
- How can I “inadvertently” set up other characters to achieve their objectives?
- How can I turn another character’s action as a potential to explore our shared player objective through my character’s development?
- What is a narratively satisfying way for my character to not get what they want?
Some questions I’ve asked myself when designing with the Losing Mindset:
- Is the player objective and character objective clear in the rules? Is there a narrative reason for characters to cooperate up to a point?
- Is it obvious the ways a character can compete with other characters? What mechanisms enable characters “to be assholes” to one another? What mechanisms give others the upper hand?
- Does a player still have fun even if their character doesn’t get what they want?
- Have I recently re-read the Skeleton Code Machine post on the challenges of semi-cooperative game mechanisms?
Play to lose by playing to win
Semi-cooperative TTRPGs offer an interesting design and play space where players play to lose by having their characters play to win. As with any TTRPG, semi-cooperative TTRPGs require plenty of communication and trust. But if players are approaching everything from a shared objective, as is necessary for any TTRPG, they are empowered to take more narrative risks.
Footnotes
- Definition by Board Game Geek. Worth noting that for competitive games, the win-state is mutually exclusive–only one player can win. In a semi-cooperative game, the win-state isn’t mutually exclusive. ↩︎
- The source of player conflict arises when players no longer have the same objective. It doesn’t matter what the character-level objectives are if the player-level objectives are all different. If all players have different objectives, then each person is playing the game for a different reason, which can lead to mismatches in communication and incompatible play styles. These differences can be reconciled, but they require expectation setting and early communication. A TTRPG has difficulty functioning with competing player objectives. Shared player objectives are a necessity. ↩︎
- We don’t concern ourselves with how objectives align between Player A and Character B, or Player B and Character A because Player A can only influence Character B either as Character A, or by interacting with Player B. ↩︎