Design Inspiration: Anthology Storytelling and Octopath Traveller
Finding inspiration for game structures in anthologies, and quick reviews of encounter-based games.
Spooky season is often the time my TV viewing turns to anthology shows: classics like The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, as well as newer media like American Horror Story and Black Mirror. (It seems like the Horror and Sci-Fi genres just lend themselves really well to the format).
I love anthologies. While sharing some similarities to episodic storytelling, anthologies are collections of stand-alone, unrelated stories connected only by a specific component, often removing the restriction of a set structure or need to fit into the chronology or canon of an ongoing narrative. When the anthology format is used within an ongoing narrative, such as with The Simpson’s “Treehouse of Horror”, Futurama’s “Anthology of Interest”, and Marvel’s What If?, creators are able to explore and expand upon established, beloved characters, concepts, and themes by changing the genre, setting, or tone in completely unrelated stand-alone stories. The freedom from the larger narrative allows for some of the most fun, weird, and surprisingly introspective tales to be told.
In recent years, one of the biggest influences on my game design has been the video game series Octopath Traveller. It takes the concept of an anthology inside an episodic narrative and structures its play experience around weaving stand-alone stories together. Much like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the game follows eight strangers (identified by their occupations) traveling together as each recounts their individual stories. The first game mostly keeps these stories completely unrelated to one another, with each character’s journey providing a fully stand-alone tale that requires zero interaction with the others to feel complete. Despite this, the stories feel related because the graphics, combat system, setting, and narrative structure remain constant.
The sequel, Octopath Traveller II, expands this concept by once again having eight individual stories that work well on their own, but then having the stories in constant conversation with one another and referencing a larger narrative that is gradually built from story beats in the individual tales. NPCs will make references to other stories, the inter-party conversations feel more frequent and develop relationships between the characters, and the game adds additional chapters that focus on pairs of heroes working towards a shared goal. The structure breaks the game down into satisfying, short chapters that can be enjoyed in about an hour, allowing players to experience the game in short bursts and come back to it after an extended period of time, while still maintaining the feel and scope of an expansive RPG with an epic overarching story.
The episodic anthology structure of Octopath Traveller is a godsend for busy gamers who can’t commit to binging a complete playthrough of a game, and provides an answer to an ongoing problem for many TTRPG groups: keeping momentum through an ongoing campaign while navigating player schedules and maintaining player interest over an extended time of weeks, months, or even years.
When my current gaming group first got together 15 years ago, we accidentally stumbled into an anthology-format playstyle by creating a multi-GM campaign. We all created player-characters, but three of us also took on the role of GM for the same campaign. Each GM developed their own on-going plot, with villains and big events specific to the progression of their part of the story. Every few sessions, the narrative would reach a natural pause, and the following session a different GM would run things with an adventure/encounter significant to their plot. We somehow managed not to spoil the surprises for each other while still finding ways to reference and connect our individual arcs as the campaign progressed. The campaign lasted a few years, and felt truly epic by the end.
While my gaming group hasn’t quite replicated the multi-GM/single-campaign format again, I often encourage my players to take a shot at GMing encounters or even full adventures that are relevant to their characters’ personal storylines. Anthology-style stories make this so much easier by providing one-shot, quick play experiences that are loosely connected, making it easier to insert other stories and develop an overarching narrative as you play. Switching stories allows GMs to rotate with less interruption to a campaign and gives the forever-GMs of a group to take a break between story arcs, thereby increasing the diversity of stories and play experiences at the table.
TTRPG anthologies are a source of inspiration whenever I GM a game. When I first started playing TTRPGs in the 90s, I loved Dungeon Magazine, the Star Wars Adventures Journal, and the Children of the Night series. Recent favorites of mine include Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel and the Uncaged series. In my own game design, I’ve tried to implement the anthology format in a few of my products:
My VanRichten’s Case Files series of Ravenloft books is directly inspired by the AD&D 2nd edition Children of the Night anthologies, offering up multiple adventures themed around a single type of monster.
I was a contributor to Captain N’Ghathrod’s Tall Tales of Distant Stars, a collection of Wildspace systems, each with a story arc to base adventures off of for the Spelljammer setting of D&D.
Strixhaven: Fantastical Field Studies is my first collaborative project as Lead Designer, and is an anthology of magical-school classroom encounters. The concept of the book came from wanting the schools in the setting to feel like they each had their own stories developing alongside the official campaign.
G.E.M.S. - A Game of Heists has the Gemstone mechanic that gives each scenario a unique feel by establishing a location and history for the selected treasure, determining how to set up the game, and changing some of the rules for the heist.
As I continue on my game design journey, I continue to be inspired by the creativity found in anthologies, and am always looking for new ways to integrate multiple GMs and stories into the basic structure and mechanics of a game.
What are some of your favorite anthologies in Television, Books, or Games? Share them in the comments!
Quick Reviews
The Fall Fright Express by TTRPG Kids
Designed for all-ages, the Fall Fright Express is perfect for kids and families during the Halloween season. This modular adventure contains 36 fall/spooky themed encounters set aboard a magical train whose individual cars contain unique environments and characters. The game contains print-n-play cards that allow you to randomly draw encounters and physically layout the train. This makes it easy to play without a GM or even solo, although it also contains a Storyteller’s guide that includes additional information and secrets for each encounter should you choose to play with a GM. The modular structure and system-agnostic writing also makes this a great collection of encounters that you can easily drop into any other game without the structure of the train-based adventure.
Let the Games Begin by Ava’s Adventures
This collection of over 60 minigames, encounters, and magical items are a great addition to any storytelling game set in a festival, carnival, bar, or other celebration. The book divides the games by ideal settings to use them. Highlights include Goblin Games, which are fun activities that can be used to add some whimsy to monster or fey encounters; Street Games that feel like celebrations and cultural traditions; and Tournament Games that can be played with large groups and include ranking and elimination procedures. There are also puzzles and movement games to add variety to dungeons, and a collection of mazes with beautiful full color maps that can be printed or used in virtual tabletops. The book concludes with a collection of items that can be used as tools or prizes for the encounters and NPCs from various rival teams to emphasize the competitive nature of the games. There is a lot of content here to pick and choose from, all of which can easily be included in any roleplaying game.
Death of the Author by Blinking Birch Games
The game is divided into 5 chapters, with the first four being made up of a string of scenes wherein the “character” wrestles with the “author” for control of the narrative. The character is given a limited set of abilities that can be used to change a prompt, either by altering a word or phrase, or flipping the card and switching to a different prompt. These abilities are part of what make Death of the Author unique, as it gives the player more agency than other journaling games—a perfectly thematic mechanic for a game about a character trying to control their story. The game concludes with a direct confrontation between character and author, with the character determining the ending. There are Duet (2-player) rules included with one player as character and the other as author. Given the constant action-reaction structure of the game, this feels like a more satisfying way to play the game.
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