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Confict
Goals in a game are never easy to achieve. As players struggle toward the goal, conflict arises. Game conflict provides both opportunity for narrative events and a narrative context that frames the obstacles a player must overcome. Players in a game of Thunderstorm must overcome the obstacle of failing to roll a 1 in order to stave off the approaching storm. In the rhythm-action console game Um Jammer Lammy, players must overcome the obstacles of challenging rhythmic structures and hair-raising slapstick adventures to make sure Lammy makes it to her rock-n-roll gig on time. Overcoming conflict in a game is one way narrative events advance. Because conflict presumes a struggle between opposing forces, in a game there should always be some element that works against player success, an element that acts to try and ensure the failure of the player. This role is often taken by a villain character, a competing player or team, or may be embodied in the game system as a whole. From a narrative perspective, this element motivates and contextualizes player action. It does not make much narrative sense to knock down rows of colored blocks if the behavior of those blocks has no connection to your presence in the game world. Once you identify those colored blocks as a force field designed by the forces of evil to stop your advance through the universe, you are much more motivated to enter into a conflict with them. Your action becomes meaningful within the narrative frame of the game. In traditional storytelling, the internal conflict of a character often shapes the kinds of experiences encountered by the audience. Internal conflict reveals a character's vulnerability, which is usually exploited by those who wish to see the character fail. Lex Luthor knows Superman is vulnerable to kryptonite and in love with Lois Lane. The trick to using game conflict as a narrative game design tool is to tie it closely to the formal game structure itself.
In the strategy board game Settlers of Catan, the narrative premise is that the players are competing to colonize a small island, establishing their own networks of roads, settlements, and resources. Players can trade resources with each other, and conflict quickly arises out of the tension between diplomacy and self-interest. Every trade you complete helps you, but it also helps the opponent with whom you traded. If you drive too hard a bargain, no one will trade with you, which means you won't be able to acquire the resources you need to prosper: You need a Brick resource to build that next stretch of road and connect your settlements, but the only player willing to trade with you is about to win—what action do you take? In Settlers of Catan, narrative conflict, social conflict, and strategic conflict are tightly intertwined. As you make strategic decisions, you are building social relationships, which themselves have narrative implications for the emerging story of the game. The conflict of a game infuses every moment of its play.To maximize the narrative play in your game, you must pay close attention to how the conflict in your game is narrativized. When game conflict provides a narrative context for action, your players will help you tell your game's story, infusing their own actions with narrative meaning. Even in a relatively abstract game like Settlers of Catan, the conflict provides a narrative space where players can flesh out the game's story and take on narrative roles. In our own experience with the game, slang terms such as "Mountain King," "Road Baron," and "General" emerged to describe play strategies focused on controlling mountain resources, building long roads, and constructing a large army. This is transformative narrative play: a game conflict enriched by a narrative level of meaning that emerges from the social, strategic, and representational structures of the game. We are not saying that players engage with Settlers of Catan in order to role-play fictional characters. But narrative play is clearly part of the game's appeal. Without its narrative framework, designed to function in concert with the game conflict, Settlers of Catan would feel like an exercise in number shuffling.
