In the world of digital games, there's often a final goal of completing everything the game offers. On a modern gaming platforms, you'll probably even receive a “trophy” or “badge” for doing this, and we’ve previous discussed bringing these kinds of achievements into our tabletop worlds. Certainly, one might feel a sense of accomplishment from having reached platinum status in Spider-Man or a feeling of regret when you just can’t finish everything in a GTA game and need to move on. Personally, I’ve been in both these scenarios, and still may re-play San Andreas yet again and finally make it to 100%. Generally, though, this is a situation that can leave you with feeling either very satisfied or with a sense of longing and missed opportunity. Both ends of the spectrum, and all points in between, can be seen in tabletop gaming as well. How can we identify different forms of completionism at our tabletops and how can we tackle them as a team?Quarrelsome Questing
Your tabletop game probably has a number of story threads going on, even if you don’t realize it. They may be the game's main story, the backstories of each of the characters, side-stories of any given number of NPCs or just regular side-quests. Many of these we’ve talked about in previous posts. It's only natural for players and GMs alike to want to see each of these threads through to their end. It isn’t just about the sense of accomplishment you feel, either, like we get with digital games. While we can grow attached to digital characters and story lines, this attachment tends to run even deeper within our tabletop realms. We connect more as we put aspects of ourselves into our characters and interact directly with the plotlines and people of our worlds. That spectrum between feelings of accomplishment or longing becomes all the more powerful and intense when we have our personal hands in the stories. That attachment is a major reason that we need narrative closure for these characters.
It doesn’t have to be part of your character’s story, or even another large story or quest within the game. It can just be a hallway or corridor in an Imperial Star Destroyer or simple abandoned castle. What's down there? Could it be important equipment? Vital information? What if it has a room filled with treasure? "Bad Guys" that might be at our backs in a few moments? An important NPC that needs our help? Or just a dead end that we can tick off our lists? This type of completionism might also be called the "Dreaded Fear of Missing Out." This is something a bit easier to combat in digital games. Even"open world" games have limits on where we can go and what we can do. With tabletop roleplaying games though, these barriers are essentially gone, or at least limited only by what we create collaboratively. What can we do about all of this quarrelsome questing?
Collaborative Completionism
With digital games, we don’t really have the option of collaboration. We can only look to ourselves to determine if a game is okay to be left unfinished or if there's that longing need to accomplish everything available. It may be easier to let go in these situations, since you're (relatively) less personally invested and, if you’re anything like us here at Never Say Dice, have a large backlog to move on to. When it comes to our tabletops, though, we can use collaboration to our advantage. We can help each other to determine if a door is best left closed or a chest unopened. That communication is key when it comes to combating both the fear of missing out and the lingering story thread. Knowing what's important to both the players around the table and the GM will let us focus on what the group and individuals want the most. Then you can work together to come up with the ideal solutions.
The biggest thing to avoid is derailing the main narrative. There are ways to address this, though. Lingering story threads can be revisited and completed in future storylines, either by the players themselves, or as news/references in the next campaign. You might also consider the possibility of completing these stories and threads in side missions or flashbacks. If only half your party is interested in wrapping up one part of the adventure, there's no reason you need to drag the others along. Hold an extra session or give those players/characters a week off. You might also consider the "Where Are They Now end credits narrative" approach. Allow your players a chance to provide how they think lingering storylines might resolve and then provide a brief summary. While this solution isn’t perfect, it can provide that closure everyone is looking for.
Completionism can be a frustrating thing to deal with. It doesn’t matter if it's an unresolved story thread or the fear of missing out on what's in the box. The most important thing, as with perhaps all tabletop gaming issues, is communicating with everyone involved. Try to find that healthy balance between the need to finish everything in a satisfying way and the group’s overall enjoyment. While there are likely many other ways to find solutions to the issues here, we’ll (willingly) leave this post a little incomplete and offer a chance for you to share and provide your own ideas. Until next week, enjoy your tables and move on to the next when you feel ready.
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