Let’s forge onwards in this ‘D&D and Workplace teams are similar’ analogy. With the four stages of a team’s development concept, we’ve covered the introduction and the forming of a new RPG gaming group. Now onwards to the choppy waters of a Storming group.
Storming
- Half the players are reading from their manual, fiddling their iPods, cruising the Web on their laptops or leave the table during a fight.
- The Rules laywer goes on and on and on. Every damn session.
- The DM insists on sticking to the plot, no matter how painful for the PCs.
- Multiple, long drawn-out party splitting
- Sulking player or worse, a Sulking DM.
- You come out of the gaming session (DM or Player) feeling you wasted your time, hoping next time will be better.
You probably have yourself a Storming Gaming group.
Definition
Every group will then enter the storming stage in which different ideas compete for consideration. The team addresses issues such as what problems they are really supposed to solve, how they will function independently and together and what leadership model they will accept. Team members open out to each other and confront each other’s ideas and perspectives.
As stated a few times alreadyin this series, there are various ways one derives a positive experience from a RPG session. As the group leaves the forming stage, players start to have different ides as to how to approach the game, the DM has a clear idea about what he expects and the players often make it a point to differ.
The DM and players struggle on issues like DM authority, leadership within the party, splitting the party, etc. While open conflict may be rather rare, indirect or passive aggressive behavior can appear. (players ribbing each other, a player telling others how they should move or play, a DM that forces an unpopular call, etc)
In some cases storming can be resolved quickly. In others, the team never leaves this stage. The maturity of some team members usually determines whether the team will ever move out of this stage. Immature team members will begin acting out to demonstrate how much they know and convince others that their ideas are correct. Some team members will focus on minutiae to evade real issues.
I have had whole campaign at that stage. It’s not that it’s not fun, but the ratio of bad to good sessions could be quite troubling. I distinctly remember my 1st D&D 3,0 campaign (and the 1st part of the second) where I came to expect that having a bad session one time out of four wasn’t so bad. We would have rules argument, frustrated players with anticlimactic release, rules lawyering, arguing, and frayed tempers.
Some D&D group never leave this stage and can derive fun in it. I would argue that they fail to realize that it could get so much better. Player maturity and the willingness to get better as a group is critical. The presence of one or more selfish, uncompromising players or DM can be drivers of an extended Storming stage.
Storming stage is necessary to the growth of the team. It can be contentious, unpleasant and even painful to members of the team who are averse to conflict. Tolerance of each team member and their differences needs to be emphasized. Without tolerance and patience the team will fail. This phase can become destructive to the team and will lower motivation if allowed to get out of control.
I’ll go as far as stating that most, if not all, RPG campaigns that crash is because of out of control storming. It is however inevitable. Knowing about it will help DMs and player get over it if that,s what they want.
Supervisors of the team during this phase may be more accessible but tend to still need to be directive in their guidance of decision-making and professional behavior.
Once again, the DM’s role as a moderator and observer is crucial. The DM needs to questions how much the storming is because of his approach to the game and how much is related to each individual’s reactions and contribution around the table.
He needs to establish, in spite of any emotional issues he may have with his players, if there are selfish elements in his group and target those for some one on one discussions. (Or if himself is being a little selfish too, yeah that’s right, I’m talking to you Mr. Dungeon Novelist).
He does not need to fix this alone, but drafting a few proposals and getting ready to discuss this in a frank and calm manner with the group is a great start. The DM needs to keep in mind that everything is open to debate, including, but not limited to, his natural DMing style.
There’s two ways of getting out of a Storming phase, leave the group or start thinking about common rules and expectations that the whole group can agree to.
That second path is called Norming.
Image Source: Canadian Artist Glen Scrimshaw
Wow I have so been in the storming faze before. I’ve never seen it laid out like that. Holy crap. Where were you like 12 months ago! Thank god we moved out of it. It did take an understanding of common rules and expectations. We (As my buddy Bungee was GMing the group too.) wrote up a social contract. By contract I mean written contract. The real help with the stabilization was when the comic shop we held it in closed. One of the problems was the owner. He always held the trump card of get the hell out. When he became little people like the rest of us. It changed his world veiw for the better. Also the group was quite large. Bungee broke the group up into two seperate nights for his game (3.5 D&D). While I pretty much seperated the wheat from the chaff. So there were only the people who want to play. No feelings of obligation or any of that. I think some of the people came to the game because, its what you did on mondays. Even that group has went through a little evolution. Dropping a problem guy and gaining a guy whose a good roleplayer. Both of Bungees nights have had some personnel shake ups as well. Definitly changing things for the better.
Thanks for the strong positive feedback Ronin. 12 months ago I was witnessing my RPG group falling from the Performing stage back to Storming and and I was struggling with all that.
By your definitions, my group Stormed two thirds of the way through our last Ptolus campaign. It had started so well too, with loads of player enthusiasm, lots of coo-ing over the (amazing, franky) material and a real buzz for playing D&D. That buzz continued for session after session…. then began to wane, bigtime.
After a while, we here just a bunch of guys sitting around munching snacks and tossing dice. The illusion had gone. We were suffering from D&D burnout.
So we did what any sensible gamer group should do in a situation like this. We put that game on hold, and started another one, using a different system. We ran a few scenarios using my own Microlite20, hopping between genres in one-shot sessions like crazy (fantasy, then spoof modern spy, then post-apocalyptic), a mini-campaign of hardcore WWII gaming using GURPS, then onto four-colour superheroics in Mutants & Masterminds. It’s been a blast.
Now, we’re ready, and refreshed.
We’re just getting ready to start D&D again, with a complete back-to-basics dungeon crawl.
The Storm is over 🙂
Good call Greywulf.
Burnout is a bummer and that’s exactly what happened in our Iron Heroes game last spring. We took a break for summer and started a fresh campaign last month.
This strikes so true to home it’s scary. I’ve had campaigns where this went on so long that it devolved into an in game fight between two players (Yes i was one of them).
It actually resolved it though, we were fighting because our characters would naturally hate each other (An ex soldier who distrusts magic and a man whose backstory says his power comes from demonic possession). When he was forced to reroll a new character, the back stories didn’t clash and we got along fine.
Thanks for the comments Seth.
While I was writing this series, I was pulling from my experiences with various gaming groups. Initially, it Struck me how similar to a workplace team a RPG group could be. But as I was progressing in the series it became downright eerie how fitting the 4 stage model applied to RPG groups.
Oh, and thanks a bunch for adding this here blog to the TV Tropes Wiki. I was wondering where all the referrals came from.
Our group is so stormy that the last campaign we attempted devolved into physical OOG violence between two members in the first adventure.
There wasn’t a second.
.-= Nathan Abrahams´s last blog ..Podcasting =-.
@Nathan: I hope you moved on to greener pasture since… God, an actual fight? Sounds like the Iranian parliament.