Telling Stories Around The Campfire

Make lore building an in-game pastime that creates meaning and builds player and character relationships.

As a player you’ve experienced it, as a DM or GM you may have done it: the Session 1 Lore Dump. It spans the world. It weaves the threads of political history—manipulation, intrigue, wars, and trade disputes. It uncovers the secrets of millennia magical research. It details the intervention—or not—of the gods. It’s epic, it’s deep, it’s subtle.

It’s standing between your players and fun.

All lore is personal

Global lore separates our roleplaying setting from our day to day reality and gives our imaginations room to roam. To be meaningful, lore also has to be part of the day to day lives of the player characters and non-player characters that inhabit the world. Deep lore that exists in the notes and mind of the GM doesn’t contribute to player enjoyment.

Even in our mundane world, our lore and history impacts our daily lives. The stories and symbols are all around us—on our money and flags, in our entertainment, in the lessons we teach children, and in the holy days and holidays we do or don’t observe.

That’s why a Lore Dump is so ineffective. It’s disconnected from the individual experiences of the characters and isn't part of their day-to-day lives.

Telling stories

Telling stories is how we connect with one another and how we pass on our lore. We sit around a campfire or a table. We tell one another the stories of our days, the stories of our lives, and the stories of our world as we experience it. Our lore.

Role playing games are stories we tell one another sitting around a table (or over a livestream). But maybe because we’re sitting around a table telling one another stories and creating lore as we play, we neglect the natural opportunities to do the same in game.

So think about how this simple thing that we do—as people—throughout our lives can bring richness to our games. Carve out these times around a campfire or in the ships’ mess, when the characters would be telling one another stories and actually do it in game. There’s as many ways to do this as there are stories in your world.

Break Up The Session One Lore Dump

Rich worlds make for rich games, but a big Session 1 Lore Dump is too much. You want to set the tone and convey the depth of the world you’ve created, but your players don’t want to sit and listen to the GM read their intro for 15 minutes, even if it is great and subtle and foreshadows the final conflict. It's too long and too much to remember. They want to play.

Instead of a session one lore dump, when your characters gather around a hearth or campfire or in their quarters give them one small piece of the larger lore. Connect it to what happened today or a children’s fairy tale from their past.

“You’re sitting around the cooking fire, watching the sunset through the trees and listening to the sounds of the forest and the river while Rhanion keeps watch. It brings to mind the stories of the great elven kingdom of Goldenwood from long ago…”

Free Up NPCs

Sometimes NPCs might need to or want to explain things to your characters. But usually it doesn’t make sense. Neither a busy shopkeep, nor Queen Tylarian of the Great Dorian Empire have the time or inclination to explain history to a bunch of adventurers who haven’t bathed in weeks. Save everyone the trouble by moving that exposition off stage. It actually gives NPCs more depth and draws attention to aspects of their character that bring them to life.

“I’m not your tutor! If you don’t know these stories they can be found at the Library or in any children’s’ storybook. Good day.”

Use Books and Artifacts

Speaking of books, once NPCs freed up from monologuing and tutoring, open up the world a little bit and introduce meaningful repositories of knowledge. Books, scrolls, or encrypted memory cards obtained from scribes or libraries or forbidden markets can become important items to obtain and protect. Consider where symbols and stores live in the real word: in songs, engraved on coins, on posters, inscribed on pillars, printed on clothing, saved in museums. Characters don’t need a lore dump right in the library or in the middle of role playing to explain “your character would know…” Sending them hunting to make copies, take pictures, or retrieve a text for study later makes it more interesting and still gives players the information.

“Now that you’re in a safe place, away from suspicious ears and prying eyes, you call up the text on your HUD…”

Give It To The Bard

If there is a bard (or equivalent) in the party who likes to perform, this is a great chance to draw out an often underplayed aspect of the class: the entertainer. It’s hard to imagine a party of adventurers in a fantasy setting travelling with a bard not requesting a song at dinner. It’s hard to imagine a showboat bard not forcing one on them if they didn’t. If your player is willing, have them regale the characters with stories of old, which could be improvised or provided.

“Orender the Bold, bard of a thousand songs, do you have any stories suitable for this occasion?”

Get Different Perspectives

There are at least two sides to every story. When players have uncovered or created a piece of history, take the opportunity to add depth by getting a contrasting perspective from other characters. If you heard the Empire’s side of the story, what do the history books in the neighboring kingdoms say? What do the characters’ whose land was decimated think? For events in the distant past or that characters were not directly involved in, do they believe the stories? Who do they think was right?

“Lady Beltherian, the elves tell a much different version of that tale. Would you share it with us?”

End Sessions with Story Beats and Character Building

Pacing sessions and finding breakpoints is like riding the currents of the sea, even for experienced GMs. Players always find something curious to do, whether it’s the hour of role play looking for magical items in the bazaar or the combat encounter the characters manage to completely bypass. Bedding down for an uneasy sleep in the dungeon, reaching the inn or getting back to headquarters is a natural breakpoint for a session, but it doesn’t build any tension or do anything fun for the game.

Lots of GMs try to solve this problem by raising the stakes with a cliffhanger or a portent right before ending the session—a knock at the door, an alarming noise, a visitor with a message. That’s hard to keep up every session. Take a few minutes to add connective tissue for the players and the characters.

When the characters reach headquarters just as the session would end, instead of just wrapping there, encourage a few minutes of role playing. A mini celebration, or mourning, or denouement by the characters—not by you—is a great cinematic end to a session and doesn’t require an investment on your part.

“You’re back. Everyone survived. You have the unobtanium in hand but the thieves and the fence got away. How does Detective Yi feel about that?”

Good Night

Story obviously matters to players of tabletop roleplaying games. They could be literally anywhere else. It's a lot of work to learn and play these games. Respect, reward, and encourage their interest in story and the lore that sets the game apart from life by investing in it and giving players opportunities to do the same.

You’re sitting around a table creating a story together, do the same within the game.