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Point Me to Some Storytelling RPGs?

Camelot

Adventurer
What are some RPGs (tabletop, computer, collectable cards, board, or otherwise) that focus on creating a story? Specifically, what mechanics do they use to achieve this? I'm curious about game design, and hoping to maybe get me feet wet in something new.

My D&D games often devolve into (or just start out as) monotonous number crunching, despite my efforts to get the others to roleplay and give their characters complex goals besides "get treasure, kill enemies." I'm interested in seeing how other games not only inherently discourage just number crunching, but encourage storybuilding using the game's rules.
 
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Tarek

Explorer
All of them and none of them?

The most story-oriented is probably Amber Diceless Roleplaying, which simply minimizes the mechanics of the characters and removes the randomness of the dice, thus forcing the players to be more descriptive and imaginative during play. It depends heavily on there being strong, driven characters who are goal-oriented, and a referee who can work all that into an engaging storyline. Character conflict is quite common, as a result, but doesn't always have to be a "versus" sort of thing.

Generally, RPGs focus on the mechanics to allow random elements and task resolution into the game, but leave the story and background and most everything else where it belongs: in the hands of the game master/referee/storyteller and the players.
 

kitsune9

Adventurer
As Tarek said, Amber Diceless is a strong rpg. Other rpgs are where the narrative is controlled by the players and not the GM. There games as such that are listed on the website over The Forge (sorry don't know the link, but I think some of the other posters can help here).

Also, if you want to avoid the "kill things and take their stuff" type of rpgs, you'll need to play games where that is not factored into the design at all or actually maybe considered to work against the players for doing such actions. Of course, the only fantasy games I play are these, but I know that there are a ton of other fantasy games where this is heavily discouraged.

Now, if you still want to play D&D, you'll have to houserule the mechanics that provide reward.

For example, you identified two elements about the game that you didn't like 1) getting treasure and 2) killing enemies. First off, remove all the reward conditions for doing so. For example, you don't reward player characters for killing (or even defeating their enemies). You also have to remove the implied rewards too (kill everything, beat the adventure). So in this case, you'll need to design your adventures where wasting everything actually does more harm than good. For example, killing the thugs that kidnapped the princess, the PC's find out they buried her alive and now that they are dead, well, oooopsss....

For the second thing, getting treasure. This is harder, because D&D is built that the balance of power for characters is also through the amount of equipment they possess, so the mechanics of collecting the +5 sword, +4 belt of strength, +2 ring of protection, etc. is part of the game or else fighting that dragon at the party's CR is not only difficult, but probably impossible. You'll have to devise mechanics that supplements these bonuses either through feats, stackable spells, talents, or some other abilities so that you can do away with having to reward the players this (assuming of course, you want them to be able to fight such monsters to begin with). Lastly, there is the thing about that if you don't even want the player characters to be chasing after gold pieces, then you'll need to change the economy to more of a bartering system and have any kind of coinage quite rare. Or you can use some resource mechanic in which to acquire goods and services is a DC against a player character's wealth score / skill / feat / etc.

The next thing is to get your players on board with the change of the mechanics. If your players support this, they will go for it; otherwise, if you try to hammer it into their heads, they are likely to rebel given their expectations of the game versus your expectations. For example, if the goal of your players is to just kill things and take their stuff, you're going to have an incredibly hard time to drive that point across even after altering the mechanics of reward.

For me, this or any similar approach wouldn't work with my players. They love the whole trope of blasting every baddie they come across and looting their smoldering corpse. I think I fall within this camp as a player too, but I could see myself playing in this kind of campaign too if the occasion arose.

Anyways, good luck on finding your game or making the changes to your current game!
 

Mark Hope

Adventurer
Primetime Adventures. Had the best experiences ever with this game when it comes to building a shared story through gameplay. Really fantastic. Primetime is about running a game as if it were a TV show or movie, and it really works. It's very light on the stats, very fast in the gameplay (doesn't even need dice if you don't want to) and promotes the creation of a fantastic story on the fly by all the players. Also, it's not expensive - just one small book. I'd definitely recommend checking it out.
 

steenan

Adventurer
It may be too extreme if you only played D&D before, but I suggest you try Polaris.
It is strongly focused on story creation and the whole system supports it. Mechanics is focused on ritualized negotiation, with a die roll used only if other approaches fail. There is no tactics, no optimization - only choices and prices that heroes have to pay. There is no GM, but the distribution of narrative authority is detailed in the rules.

Another game I played and IMO it fits your requirements is Dogs in the Vineyard. This one is more typical, with a GM and players, dice rolls etc., but it is also centered on choices. Each action taken during a conflict is strongly tied to fiction (in-game events); deciding what is the right thing to do, how far one is going to go to reach their goal, what may be accepted and what must be stopped no matter what - it is often more important than just winning or losing.

There are several other games that, from what I heard and read about them may be a good way to go - but as I didn't play them yet, I cannot comment on how well they do based on my experience. Anyway, trying Sorcerer and Bliss Stage is probably worth it.
 

Mark Hope

Adventurer
Yeah, Sorcerer is another good choice with a focused approach. If you use its Sorcerer and Sword supplement, it runs fantasy games pretty well also. Also heard good things about Dogs in the Vineyard - read it but haven't played it. It looks interesting and retains an intriguing degree of crunch through its dice system, from what I can tell.
 

Heathen72

Explorer
Tabletop RPG: Burning Wheel has a character creation and advancement system geared towards storytelling.
Card Game - Once upon a time - great storytelling game, where the cards represent archetypal faerie tale elements that need to be incorporated into the narrative.
Computer games: Heavy Rain is the best example that springs to mind. For something more fantasy based - Dragon Age.
 

JeffB

Legend
HEROQUEST/HERO WARS

Now in a generic version for all types of settings.

LINK

Scroll down a bit for more info/previews, downloads etc.
 

Piratecat

Sesquipedalian
It's pretty much impossible for me to say enough good things about the Fiasco rpg. The PDF is $10; buy it, play it, and laugh your butt off. It's basically constrained storytelling, and it's brilliant.
 

abhorsen950

First Post
If you do want a heavily story based, I second the shout for diceless, it is the way I play myself and because there are no stats, combat is never the main point of the game, because you don't have a stat to rely on, I used to know a website that gave advice for diceless roleplaying but I changed computers and lost the link.

Best of the luck if you start this way, I love it.

Steve
 

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