Focus on the vibes, not the rules
In RPGs, you should focus on vibes and setting, here's why.
Greetings fellow warlocks!
After many studies in my wizard tower, I have deciphered the alchemical code of having a great time with RPGs: it’s the setting. It’s the vibes.
And here’s why!
In this letter:
🎲Why Settings and Vibes matter more than rules
✨RPGs made great by their vibes
🎲How to Worldbuild with “Vibes-first” approach
VIBES
Lately, you may have noticed that our world has been going through terrible worldbuilding moments.
True wizards and witches like us however, know the joy of seeking refuge in imaginary worlds born from our imagination, and from the imagination of great authors of worlds.
In such spirit, I delved into various games lately, and I have been loving them a lot. Mainly Electrum Archive, by Emiel Boven, and Shadowdark by Arcane Library/Kelsey Dionne.
While I was reading them I realized a thing: the reason I was falling in love with both games, wasn’t necessarily the great rules both authors have written.
Make no mistake, Shadowdark is really good rules wise, probably my favorite of its genre, at the moment.
However, thanks to Electrum Archive, I realized that the things that really made me say “these games are really good” are the setting, the art, the story.
Or, to put it simply with a modern term, THE VIBES.
VIBES ALWAYS COME FIRST
By reading Electrum Archive (in a very good Italian edition by Nigredo Press), I realized the game is around 68 pages long, and only 26 are rules. The rest of them are pages of lore, splendid artworks and random tables for your games in Orn, the original setting of Electrum Archive.
I was immediately captured by this world.
The clothes of its inhabitants, the strange structures, the way magic worked.
All of that made me say “damn, I really would like to play in this world”.
And that’s the strength of building some really good vibes.
This game has around 42 pages of setting, I would recommend this even if you wanted to play in the Orn setting but with another game system.
See? That is another benefit! No one can stop you from using a good setting in different games.
HOW TO USE “VIBES-FIRST” APPROACH WHEN WORLDBUILDING
So how do you use the “VIBES-first” approach when you are building a world?
When I wrote some of the lore for HELLGREEN, I used some of these tips and prompts.
Take some inspirations:
Grab some books, tv shows, video games, and comics that inspire you. They don’t have to be of the same genre. Have them near you when you write, if you can: you’ll want to check them out now and then, for getting in the mood.Don’t feel restrained by genre:
Most of us RPG players enjoy a good fantasy or sci-fi setting. However, don’t feel restrained. You can invent, mix and match all sorts of ideas when making settings.
You can also experiment with adding new stuff to classics!Build a moodboard:
Similar to the first tip, you can add some photos to a pinterest board (or a physical one!) about all things that inspired you to write this setting, ranging from artworks to historical and cultural references!Do not worry about rules.
If you need more, you’ll find a way to make more. Don’t get demoralized if your preferred game doesn’t feature firearms and you just built a noir setting in 1920s. Improvise! Aren’t guns just glorified crossbows?! No? Okay.What type of stories do you want to tell with this setting?
Do you want some lighthearted adventures about discovery, or some noir investigations? This may help you to narrow down references you could use; maybe, if you are writing a noir setting, going to your bookstore in the noir section may spark some ideas.Are there some vaguely similar settings to your setting? This may help both you and your players (or publishers, if you intend to write a story). Saying “it’s a noir setting, but set in an eastern europe-inspired fantasy like The Witcher books” really paints a picture! Writing this down also helps you narrow the idea when writing.
For Hellgreen, my pitch was “It’s like the videogame S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but in a setting similar to the Vietnam War era.”
I think this list can be expanded, and I will do so when I’ll write my next game/setting using the “Vibes-first” approach.
Until then folks, go build some vibes-worlds!
i just got here in your series of articles and i will reserve a time to properly read it because it's exact the premises that i think that makes me like a rpg! hope to apply this to my game design as well
A great example of vibes trumping rules comes from Dragon Quest. In terms of gameplay, it lacked many of the details and systems of the games that came before it, but its graphics, music, and presentation raised the bar for RPG video games.