Story Effects of Spellcasting

Everything a character does, or can do, leads to questions in my mind. This, I think, is one of the things that makes me a good gamemaster. It’s also one of the things that makes me either a blessing or a curse as a player, because I ask gamemasters these questions, and roleplay my characters based on the answers (or lack thereof).

Let me give you an example. Say I have a character that can summon up a swarm of locusts. It has such-and-such range, does this many dice of damage, and so on. All the mechanics are there showing how it works. To me, that’s a starting point. I need to know more.

First, why locusts? Are they a common crop-destroying insect in this world? Why not fire ants, or grobsnuffle bugs, or whatever? If locusts aren’t the local pest of concern, would the spell instead conjure up cicadas, or fruit flies, or some other insect that has significance to the culture?

Second, building on the first, is there any sort of culture, customs, or mythology built up around locusts? Does the threat of a plague of them strike fear into the hearts of farmers, tax collectors, and kings? Is there some locust god that needs appeasing, and will my conjuring them break some sacred compact wherein the locust god doesn’t wipe out the crops in return for a virgin sacrifice?

Third, what about the ecological effect of summoning these locusts? Where did they come from? Did I just save some other village by ganking the plague they were beset with through space and time and dropping it here? Did I cause the locusts to come into existence, magically breeding or cloning them? Where do they go after the spell expires? I never liked that summoned critters simply go poof, like they’re tethered to some rubber band and snap back when the mana runs out? Okay, with one big critter I might buy it. With swarms of insects? Some are going to get left behind, unaccounted for. And they’ll breed. And they’ll grow into a new swarm that’s not under the control of the character. And they’ll cause new, uncontrolled havoc.

Stories, stories, stories. The law of unintended consequences abounds. I don’t like things neat, simple, linear. I like messes. They lead to conflict, and drama, and more stories. At the heart of the best roleplaying game adventures I’ve ever run or played in, and some of the best novels I’ve read or movies I’ve watched, is the cake walk adventure that goes horribly awry. Things go south in ways no one could have planned for. This is where the heroes’ mettle is tested, not in the well-rehearsed tactics of combat but in dealing with the little stuff that blows up in their faces and becomes new, bigger stuff.

Question everything. Find the story nugget in it, and exploit it. It’s fun.