Procedural Storytelling in Dungeons & Dragons

Abstract

Tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs)—like Dungeons & Dragons—are a fascinating design space. In an industry like ours, where product release cycles regularly stretch to the half-decade mark at the high end, and even at the low end rarely compress lower than 6 months, a tabletop role playing game can offer creators the opportunity to rapidly iterate on their creative output. More than that, our table offers us the opportunity to test and explore the very essence of the creative process itself. In the era of Twitch and Critical Role, when the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons is growing massively in popularity and profitability, if you haven’t begun exploring this fascinating tool, let me be the first to encourage you to do so. This chapter will explore some of the tabletop role playing games available to you and show examples for integrating procedural generation as a tool into your creator’s toolkit. Finally, we’ll tie it all together by discussing what the experience of creating content through a highly procedural, improv-heavy process can teach us about the nature of player stories, player engagement, and procedural generation’s goals, risks, and successes.