The Rule of Fun!

(Image stolen from Critical Hits)

This blog was more or less noticed because of one short text I wrote way back last summer about a Wiki I discovered and a fundamental rule that I believed a successful DM should live by.

There is another one, related to the Rule of Cool, made specifically for games:

The Rule of Fun

Games must be fun to play. Sure, we like pretty graphics and a good plot, but the fun’s the main thing. If they’re fun, a lot of incongruities can be forgiven. Go ahead, try to explain why the yellow circle loves dots and why the ghosts are out to get him, or why the frog needs to get across the road. You can’t. Doesn’t matter.

Just replace ‘pretty graphics’ by ‘cool mechanics’ and the definition applies perfectly to Tabletop RPGs.

Similarly, try to explain why a group of adventurers armed to the teeth would enter a trap-riddled, monster-laden multi-leveled labyrinthine ruin.

You can’t? Who cares!

Gygax has been doing it for decades and he still enjoys it enough to play the game with strangers on his weeding anniversary.

I already covered the DMing version of the Rule of Fun when when I discussed Robin Laws’ Rule 0 of DMing.

However, the Rule of Fun should also be applied to everything else in the game, from choice of game, character generation, the color of dice, the miniature players choose, the adventure you use, etc.

For example, your D&D players don’t want to play a healer? Fine!

Make healing potions cheaper and give everyone Reserve points. Also, give each class a “second wind’ power that allow them to transfer 25% of their HP from their Reserve pool once per encounter by spending a Standard action (inspired from Star Wars Saga, thanks Graham). Voilà, this is fun!

With regards to adventure preparation, I suggest that you apply the Rule of Fun whenever you think of adding a challenge (a fight, a trap, or a Skill roll) by asking yourself this very simple question:

“Will playing this out be fun?”

If the answer is ‘no’ or ‘probably not, but it’s logical’ you need to rethink your design choice.

Rolling a climb check to climb a tree to see the advancing enemy troops 50 miles away is not all that fun. Climbing it to avoid a horde of Berserking Goblins has a better chance of hitting the fun mark.

Last night I was sitting in front of a combat encounter that felt incredibly plain. It was logical to have the fight there, and the chosen foe was appropriate but it was just…. so generic!

I didn’t want to bank on my players eagerness to dish out mindless violence to make the encounter a success, so I chose the best possible thematically-linked battlemap I had. I also added some minor foes with interesting abilities to spice up the tactical challenge of the situation.

These will synergize with my player’s penchant for wanton mayhem and I’m sure the fight will be appreciated.

( To be honest, I think they would enjoy fighting toothless Dire wolves with wet towels, but I still need to make an effort)

Try to apply the Rule of Fun to any instance of travel, investigations, NPC interactions and it will make a game session better. (Hint: random encounters, unless everyone wants them, are not usually fun).

Here’s a last example.

I remember in my old Gurps Fantasy Campaign, I created a mini-game where the PCs had to ski down a very long slope. They could set speed and negotiate various types of obstacles vying for styles points (tradable for Gurps’ equivalent of XPs) by risking higher penalties to their skill rolls and trying to upstage each other.

After about 15 minutes of having fun rolling dice and describing some major whiteouts I had a posse of Dwarves attack the PCs in War Bobsleighs!!!

Was it logical? No freaking way! Was it fun? Hell yeah!

The Rule of Fun and the Rule of Cool… 2 simple rules, great results!

Woot! Game tomorrow and all players have confirmed their presence! Wish me luck!