Alternatives to narrative

[stepnix]

One of my favorite mecha writers shared [this discussion]https://magicalstage.moe/2026/03/17/how-we-got-into-plot-and-how-to-get-out/] of the possibilities that open when we don't let The Plot be the main focus of our experience with a work, and included some further commentary:

I think that if anything this understates its case. Plot must be less essential to animation than image, because you can have animation without plot but you can't have animation without image. In the same way, plot must be less essential to literature than words, because you can have literature without plot but you can't have literature without words.

Many have adopted 'story' as a way to discuss everything—with their horizons for everything narrowing to exclude anything without a story. Everything is 'media', and all instances of media have a story, which we can apparently assess for its characterisation and its pacing. Heaven forbid we might ever wonder whether a brushstroke is well-placed or a metaphor well-chosen.

...which brought to mind for me some discussions that challenge the notion of tabletop role-playing games as (definitionally) a kind of storytelling. The logic is coherent for me: story is formed by giving order and meaning to events, in a lot of TTRPG play that order and meaning is something visible only in hindsight, not consciously shaped or pursued. Anecdotally: I took an oral storytelling class for a few months in the hopes of improving my GMing skills. It didn't help nearly as much as I had expected.

Unfortunately this decoupling of "storytelling" from "ttrpgs" brings to mind flashbacks of the old "storygames aren't real rpgs" flame wars, and remains pretty popular among the bitter losers of said wars. More reputable defenders of the distinction include Jay Dragon, Unboxed Cereal (I suggest reading "art" in this post as "narrative"), and... was this also a C. Thi Nguyen thing? if i make myself check i won't finish this post. sorry.

You can see my pinned post, you can see that I'm fascinated and compelled by games that do ask for meaning and order to be consciously shaped during play. But I find it helpful to remember that this is not an essential quality of TTRPGs; among other things, it gives me a better appreciation for the games that do contain it.