Play as Both Sides! – Benefits of Perspective

In most TTRPGs, and RPGs in general, we usually play from one point of view. Our characters pick a side: maybe they’re heroes, villains, rebels, rulers, or just simple adventurers. We see the world through their eyes, shaped by who they are, what they believe, and where they come from. It’s a tried-and-true way to tell stories, and a powerful, rewarding one. Players love to live through their characters’ emotions, follow their journey, and watch them grow.

But sometimes, the mind drifts. We start to wonder: What’s happening on the other side? What battles was Faramir fighting while Frodo moved toward Mordor? What was a regular day like for a cop while Leon Kennedy was blasting zombies across Raccoon City? What were the Stormcloaks thinking while the Dragonborn marched with the Empire? We want to know. We wonder. We imagine. We don’t just want to hear about it. We want to live it.

We want to make decisions as the other side. Struggle through their hardships, chase their hopes and dreams, and maybe even walk toward the same inevitable ending from a completely different path. Once you do that, once you let players step into both perspectives, it may change everything.

Yes, it adds complexity. It challenges players, GMs, and even designers. It’s not just about creating a mirror-image campaign. It’s about crafting two living stories, each with its own voice, goals, characters, gear, tensions, and truths. At first glance, it might feel like too much. One may feel that TTRPGs are already time-consuming enough. One might think, why double the workload?

The answer is, because it breathes life into the world. It changes the way players comprehend it, making it feel more real, more layered, more alive. Suddenly, the setting isn’t just a backdrop but a living organism. This approach also offers a deeper story, where the plot doesn’t lean on one side and paints another as an alien, an enemy or an obstacle. Instead, it lets players step into the shoes of the “other,” understand their fears, flaws, and dreams, and build a rich story from many angles. 

Two Perspectives, One Fear

That’s the vision behind the new Orfhal expansion for Svilland. We wanted to tell the story from two sides: Svillanders and Orfhalars. Two peoples with different traditions, goals, and cultures, but both haunted by the same fear buried deep in their bones: the coming of the Black Winter.

In Green Lights of the East, Queen Bergljöt Denildottir has been captured. The characters, unaware of the grand destiny ahead, follow the quest of Thorolf Runebearer, the founder of the Rune Keepers. Meanwhile, far across the world, in Orfhal, the Frostrider Tribe searches for their missing leader, Sargandur, in the unwelcoming cold and darkness of Orfhal.

Neither side knows the other exists. Still, every choice they make builds tension for the other. Their paths may clash, they may join forces, or something far more complex may unfold. It all depends on the players. When that final moment comes, when both sides must stand together or fall apart, it hits deeper, because the players know what each side has been through… They lived it.