The Han Solo Theory and Your Campaign World

I’ve never been a fan of any of the Star Wars movies, both original trilogy and the prequels.

I know, I should turn in my nerd card right now*.

But a few unconnected events over the past few weeks have made me think about the Han Solo Theory and how it relates to custom campaigns.

Unconnected event the first: A friend of mine asked me some advice about a campaign world he was starting to make up.  I took a look at the half page blurb describing the world he had envisioned, and it read something like this:  “After the Light’s Fading War, the mountain dwelling norwits retreated into their caves, mining deep underground for iron and gems and gold.  Likewise, the fleet footed flangs returned to the forests of the realms, turning the otherwise normal glades into enchanted groves and woodlands.”

This went on and on, using a new name for each fantasy race in his world.  I asked him why he just didn’t call an elf an elf, and he sort of slinked back, hurt and offended.  “I’m so sick of elves and dwarves, everyone has the same elves and dwarves in every campaign, I just wanted to spice it up a bit.”

Unconnected event the second: I played a one shot game set in a custom world.  Rather than having any of the basic standbys of fantasy populations, there were six legged bugmen, lizardmen, birdmen, and some aquatic race.  Our group fought goblins, but they weren’t called goblins, but something else like wranxer for frenerders or something.

The races were described very quick, you don’t have a lot of time in one shots and we just wanted to move on to the combat stuff.  Later, I talked to one of the other players and the bugmen I had envisioned, humanoid standing on two feet, with four hands and a beetle pincer head, differed vastly from their mental imaging, an enlongated grasshopper type walking on four legs, with two arms and a sort of multifacted-eyed bee head.

Both of these cases are the different sides of a the same coin.  Gamers, especially long time gamers, get bored of the same old tropes in their game, and when given the chance to start fresh, really want to put their stamp on something.  But if they do not honor the Han Solo Theory, it really comes off as stupid ideas at worst that just muck with a perfectly fine idea for no gain, and forced implementation at best; a bunch of potentially good ideas wasted because they have no context in which to flourish and grow and simply choke on their own bukkake of creativity.

So then, just what is the Han Solo Theory?  It’s an idea of story telling created by the genius author and podcaster Patrick E. McLean.  One of his episodes of his podcast, The Seanachi, was simply titled The Han Solo Theory.  I highly suggest you take 7 minutes and listen to it now, but if you don’t, here’s a quick recap:

• A problem exists in any story, namely, bridging the mundane world we know and the fictional world where many of the basic rules of the universe are different
• A character that the viewers can impress themselves on can close that gap; a character who organically says what the viewer would say and think what the view would think.

McLean goes onto to suggest and prove that Han Solo is such a character of the Star Wars movies, the one guy who isn’t special, “a guy in debt like the rest of us and that drives a beater car”.

The old standbys of fantasy worlds are ingrained into our collective knowledge, and they help ground ourselves into a fantasy world.  A short stature mountain dwelling race called dwarves loves jewels and forging weapons.  A lithe, fey, forest dwelling race called elves are stuck up and have pointy ears.  Halflings, dragons, orcs, and half-elves are all part of an equation that perfectly computes in our minds.  If you want to start altering the balance of this formula, you need a Han Solo to guide you through the changes to the world.  A Han Solo aspect learns ICly as the players learn OOCly of a new wrinkle to your world.  A Han Solo aspect reacts ICly on the street corner when they see a rutix’s mandables move in greeting the same way the players react OOCly to their first run in with your world’s custom antman race.

The Han Solo can be an NPC if your world has a lot of unique elements to it.  The owner of their favorite tavern, their patron, even reflecting the name sake and be the captain of the party’s airship.  Someone, or a group of someones who can help fill in the blanks of your new world to the players.  Likewise, a player character run by a PC knowledgable of your custom elements can be the Han Solo as well.  Someone who’s never seen a rutix or even an invoker of Meloria can impart the IC status of the rest of the characters in the party as something extraordinary.  Something that can easily get lost in the countless games and the countless deeds of good (or evil) done by the players behind the characters.

Role playing is a creative endovour, one that draws and rewards some of the more creative folk of society.  There can be a desire to really put your stamp on the world, and that in itself is not a bad thing.  But it’s also a cooperative activity, and bringing others into your world without a road map is like navigating an asteroid field.  Without a Han Solo, odds are you’re going to crash.

*I am also not a fan of the Lord of the Rings books.  Boring literature at best.  I know, I lose a lot of nerd points…

So, what successes and failures have you had introducing custom elements into your games?  Have, or would have Han Solo-type aspects helped at all?