# RPG a Day 2026 - 26: Regret tags: #thoughts #thoughts/RPGaDay/2026 ![[RPG a Day 2026 (illo).jpg]] ![[Black Leaf, noooooooo!.png]] Regret is an interesting word. It's an emotional state that you can only achieve if two things have occurred: - You've actually done something. - You wish it had gone a different way. In TRPGs, every day is full of characters who *do* something, at least if the session has gone well. Characters see their world, they act on the world, they change the world, and thus they have accomplished something. Did they discover a haunted farmhouse full of the unquiet dead, who resisted being put to rest? Well, the 30 pounds of dynamite took care of that problem very quickly. Did they delve deep to destroy the nest of goblins that was growing within a dungeon, one spewing nightmares across the landscape and ravaging a small hunting village? Hopefully the loot was worth it. Did they pick up a load of triticale wheat on an agricultural world, thinking that they would make fat bank when they took it to the next industrial world over, which doesn't have a single piece of dirt left on the surface? I hope the market there is square and somebody didn't drop off 38 tons three hours before they got there. You may regret any or all of those things as a character.[^1] But in order to regret, you must have actually done something and be able to imagine that something could have gone a different way. There is a third element that is important for regret, and it's one that a lot of TRPGs seem to forget, and so do a lot of people GMing in traditionally architected games, though. Interestingly, I will say, more so now than historically. That's consequence. If there are no consequences, there is no occasion for regret. Of course, if there are no consequences, there is no occasion for pride. If nothing has really changed in the world as a result of your actions, whether it be because all you're doing is playing serialized one-shots and continuity makes no difference, or because you're playing a glorified board game and there is no persistence between events, then consequences don't matter. There are no consequences, and without consequences you can have neither pride nor regret. Why might you want regret in your games? Isn't regret a negative emotion, a feeling that one should avoid whenever possible? I'm going to say that's not the case. Instead, I'm going to suggest that emotional response and emotional attachment to the character and their actions are key elements that set tabletop role-playing games apart from every other form of personal entertainment. The power of continuity, the effect of there being an *actual fiction* that needs to be maintained, is a thing hard to find elsewhere. There are legacy board games in which the physical components of the game change as a result of actions you take within it. There are classic wargame campaigns where persistent troop training, experience, and death make a difference to what moves forward from session to session. Both of those are instructive. Because you are dealing with the consequences of your choices, those choices have context, they have meaning, and they matter. How many times have you left the table after a session and felt that while what you did may have been entertaining, it may have been fun, but it didn't really matter? You may have even enjoyed it. Nothing changed as a result. The world is still exactly as it was. There is no story except for the naked retelling of the events that occurred. Was that the feeling you really wanted to walk away from the table with? I don't think it is, even though for a lot of people they seem to think it might be. If you walk away from the table and are not thinking about "goddamn, I wonder what happens to these people next," then you're not having the most powerful experience that you can. What are you even doing there? What have you spent the last several hours of your life doing? Were you just rolling math rocks because throwing dice is fun? Were you just hanging out with your friends and needed something to fill the space between your witty comments? Did you just go because your boyfriend dragged you? If you are in a game and consequences don't matter, find another game. You may not even know that this is something that you want, but trust me, get out there and find one where what you do in the game matters. It's not just following someone else's script. You're not just sitting there putting plot points on a map in order to get from introduction A to rising tension B.[^2] There's nothing wrong with playing low-consequence games. I want to be clear, I am not deriding that as something that you should never do. Board games are great. Scenario-based wargames are great. I love them, I play them. I'm an enthusiast. You should be too. The issue is that without context, role-playing games are less than what they could be. I'm not saying you have to strive for more. I'm just saying that when you don't, I give you the Disappointed Daddy Look™© and shake my head. You are capable of doing better. I want more for you. Don't avoid regret. Create situations in which your characters can regret everything they've ever done. In order to do that, you need to make bold choices, take bold action, do bold things, then reflect on what you've done and how those actions have led to the inevitable consequences within the setting. When your characters can regret everything they've ever done, they can also be proud of everything they've ever done. Don't be afraid of continuity. It's the gateway to all the things you were told TRPG could be. Well, except for [[black-leaf-noooooo|the mind bondage spell]]. I can't do much about that. [^1]: Just so we're clear, I'm not suggesting you should feel bad about killing and burning out a nest of goblins. I'm saying that you should regret that there wasn't more loot to be had there. [^2]: **Save the Cat** is Blake Snyder's 2005 beat-sheet method; **The Hero's Journey** is Joseph Campbell's monomyth from *The Hero with a Thousand Faces*. Both impose structure onto the material from the outside rather than letting it reveal itself, and Hollywood's been running on the template ever since — past the point of repair, if you ask me. I've blamed the same formula for stunting the hobby in [[Day 10 - Origin|RPG A DAY 2025: Day 10 - Origin]].