Finding Reference Points for Page Turners

I knew that procedural storytelling had taken over pop culture but it wasn’t until I promised to find examples of character-driven dramatic narratives new enough to not have Humphrey Bogart in them that I realized just how true this is.

When running roleplaying games, we depend on fictional reference points to share assumptions about what’s going to happen next, how characters might speak and behave, what constitutes a satisfying conclusion, or just plain “what does this robot warrior look like?” Even when we’re not trying particularly to emulate a fictional model, references create a shorthand. In Page Turners, where we absolutely are trying to create an experience that reminds us of literary fiction or a single-protagonist personal drama, steeping ourselves in the sources helps us to make the choices that get us there.

There’s a reason why the first Page Turners scenario pastiches what is still one of the most studied novels in North American high school English classes.

Over the last decades, cultural fragmentation has made it difficult to name stories everyone knows, period, let alone stories of this particular sort. Reference points slip by with surprising speed. Generations of English profs have thrown up their hands in dismay as new cohorts of students show up not getting their TNG, X-Files, or Matrix analogies. Somewhere right now a valiant seminar leader has finally given up on The Simpsons and is trying to tie The Iceman Cometh to Vanderpump Rules.

Even the nerd properties that survive across generational lines are mostly procedural. It’s no surprise then that most roleplaying games center problem-solving too.

In 1975 the top movies at the US domestic box office included four predominantly personal stories: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Shampoo, Dog Day Afternoon, and the now forgotten disability melodrama The Other Side of the Mountain.

In 1980 the top ten includes a whopping seven primarily personal stories, from the comedies 9 to 5 and Stir Crazy to straight-up dramas Kramer vs. Kramer and Ordinary People.

Jump ahead to 1985 and you’ve got one, Cocoon, which is more about people than problem-solving, though it does end with a chase sequence.

1995 has one, the animated film Pocahontas.

2005’s top ten list included two character-driven films, both comedies: Wedding Crashers and Hitch. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory isn’t about problem-solving really but it’s more of a weird candy-coated dreamquest than a character piece you could replicate in Page Turners. Even if its Willy Wonka does have daddy issues.

A decade later the top ten box office list includes a drama about coping with war trauma, American Sniper, and two additional personal narratives, one animated, the other a live-action port from animation, Inside Out and Cinderella.

Last year the one big hit that wasn’t an adventure of some kind was the first part of Wicked. This year part two will likely join Lilo & Stitch and the mostly personal Sinners in the top ten.

In other words, you might want to chat a bit about drama and find common reference points as you and your player introduce yourselves to Page Turners. It might take a GM and player a while to think of interaction-based pieces they’ve both seen or read. Thinking only of tonally serious works will lead you astray, as most widely seen movies in this category these days are animated films or comedies, with a spattering of musicals.

Dramatic interactions haven’t vanished from pop culture. They’ve taken refuge in its unexpected corners. More people see the petitions, grants, rebuffs and unmet needs central to Hillfolk and Page Turners in the supposedly real but highly scripted form of reality TV docusoaps like the Real Housewives franchise or the aforementioned Vanderpump. Another place this dynamic drives the story is the Christmas-themed romance.

Maybe if we do a scenario book for Page Turners it should include an animated fairy tale, a seasonal romcom, and a docusoap. We promise not to do a musical that makes you sing.

Ballad Hunters has dibs on that.

Page Turners, the game of dramatic interaction for one player and one GM, enables you to create stories like your favorite character-driven novels and films. By Robin D. Laws, with scenarios by Ruth Tillman, Sarah “Sam” Saltiel, and Wade Rockett, it creates intense experiences of screwball comedy, robot civilization, vampire love, Austen-inspired wit and romance, and more. Coming soon from Pelgrane Press.