Wolfspider
Explorer
Well, my girlfriend Abby (whom I've been dating for a little over a month) came over this weekend, and we decided to play a little D&D. She's played a couple times before, and is really into fantasy literature, but she's not that familiar with the game. Based on the description she gave me of the type of character she wanted to play, I whipped her up a character real quick and got out an old Dungeon Magazine and some dice, ready to introduce her to a world of exciting adventure.
When I dumped my dice on the table, she looked at them curiously. She picked up the d4 and played with it absently, smiling strangely. Then she surprised the heck out of me by saying, "You know, I've never really liked dice that much. Why should a good story be hampered by something as random as dice. Let's just put them away. They make me nervous." After sitting there for a moment witless and drooling, I finally did what she said, and returned my dice to their little bag, where they stayed forgotten the rest of the weekend.
What a great time we had! We played for something like five hours on Friday, and another five on Saturday. It was some of the best role-playing and storytelling I've ever been involved in. And I became less of a Dungeon Master and more of a participant. We both started suggesting things that would happen to the characters, and I became less of a narrator and more of an actor, speaking in 1st person and such (something I've always enjoyed but that my players were mostly uncomfortable with).
Our gaming/storytelling continued until one romantic scene involving the meeting between her character and the elven swashbuckler she was betrothed to as a child. She looked into my eyes, I looked into hers, and then...ahem...well....anyway....
So, what do you think? Have you ever participated in such a completely diceless kind of play? I mean, after a while statistics even became forgotten. I'm thinking of finding another type of gaming system altogether--or perhaps dropping system completely in favor of pure description.
Of course, I can't imagine how I would do this kind of thing with a group. I'm not even sure if my players would go for such an approach. It's not that they aren't good role-players and mature people, but I'm not sure how I would handle task resolution and such a large group. While playing with Abby, there were only a few combats, which went something like this:
"I take out my bow and shoot the quickling as it runs by."
"Even though you're an expert shot with the bow, the evil fairy moves much too quickly, and your arrow thunks into the tree right behind it."
Abby gets a shocked look on her face. "Hmmm. Well, since the quickling didn't know I was there, the sound of the arrow striking the tree surprises it. It stops for a minute, trying to find out where the arrow came from, and that's when I take aim again and finally shoot it, knocking it unconscious with my sleep arrow."
"Normally fairies are not affected by sleep magics, but the mere force of the arrow is strong enough to daze it long enough for your companions to subdue it. Kerymeth throws himself on top of the fierce little fey before it can recover his senses."
Thoughts?
When I dumped my dice on the table, she looked at them curiously. She picked up the d4 and played with it absently, smiling strangely. Then she surprised the heck out of me by saying, "You know, I've never really liked dice that much. Why should a good story be hampered by something as random as dice. Let's just put them away. They make me nervous." After sitting there for a moment witless and drooling, I finally did what she said, and returned my dice to their little bag, where they stayed forgotten the rest of the weekend.
What a great time we had! We played for something like five hours on Friday, and another five on Saturday. It was some of the best role-playing and storytelling I've ever been involved in. And I became less of a Dungeon Master and more of a participant. We both started suggesting things that would happen to the characters, and I became less of a narrator and more of an actor, speaking in 1st person and such (something I've always enjoyed but that my players were mostly uncomfortable with).
Our gaming/storytelling continued until one romantic scene involving the meeting between her character and the elven swashbuckler she was betrothed to as a child. She looked into my eyes, I looked into hers, and then...ahem...well....anyway....
So, what do you think? Have you ever participated in such a completely diceless kind of play? I mean, after a while statistics even became forgotten. I'm thinking of finding another type of gaming system altogether--or perhaps dropping system completely in favor of pure description.
Of course, I can't imagine how I would do this kind of thing with a group. I'm not even sure if my players would go for such an approach. It's not that they aren't good role-players and mature people, but I'm not sure how I would handle task resolution and such a large group. While playing with Abby, there were only a few combats, which went something like this:
"I take out my bow and shoot the quickling as it runs by."
"Even though you're an expert shot with the bow, the evil fairy moves much too quickly, and your arrow thunks into the tree right behind it."
Abby gets a shocked look on her face. "Hmmm. Well, since the quickling didn't know I was there, the sound of the arrow striking the tree surprises it. It stops for a minute, trying to find out where the arrow came from, and that's when I take aim again and finally shoot it, knocking it unconscious with my sleep arrow."
"Normally fairies are not affected by sleep magics, but the mere force of the arrow is strong enough to daze it long enough for your companions to subdue it. Kerymeth throws himself on top of the fierce little fey before it can recover his senses."
Thoughts?
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