**Previous Chapter: [[1d. Adversaries]]** <hr> As discussed in [[1a. Stories]], TTRPGs are a system for adjudicating collaborative stories. However, stories are fractal: each story contains smaller sub-stories. For example, consider the top-level story of *Little Red Riding Hood*: > A little girl delivers food for her grandmother's house, but is devoured by a wolf that ate and disguised itself as her grandmother. As the wolf sleeps, a hunter arrives and frees them. All four characters—the girl, her grandmother, the wolf, and the hunter—might dispute how this story is told. As discussed in [[1b. Stakes]], their efforts to change the story become a **game**; by winning the game, a character changes the story. In addition, this top-level story contains a smaller story with smaller stakes, which we've already discussed: > The wolf deceived the girl into picking flowers for her grandmother, giving him a chance to sneak away and reach her grandmother's house first. If disputed by the wolf and the girl, this "sub-story" becomes a "subgame" within the larger game. The wolf and girl must then compete through gameplay to determine how the sub-story is told. The vast majority of TTRPG stories can be reduced to a small set of repeating subgames: * **The Fight,** in which one character aims to incapacitate or kill another. * **The Flight**, in which one character aims to escape another. * **The Sneak**, in which one character aims to avoid another's notice. * **The Talk**, in which one character aims to change another's mind. * **The Search**, in which one character aims to find something hidden. * **The Deduction**, in which one character aims to deduce a conclusion. * **The Move**, in which one character aims to move to a different location. We can call these recurring subgames "minigames," because each instance of a particular subgame—such as the Fight or the Sneak—follows identical rules to all other instances of that subgame. As a result, we can model all games as a series of familiar minigames that obey familiar rules. <hr> **Next Chapter: [[1f. Nesting]]**