How Would You Reinvent Roleplaying?

[punkorange]

Someone's been reading my business plan ...

j/k in all seriousness though, my brother and I have been looking into doing exactly this sort of thing.
Obviously targetting only gamers is a bad business model, but we're hammering out some way to create a fun "medieval pub" restaurant that also has room to accomodate gamers.

We were thinking something of the same thing. Except it was to be a game store with a D&D pub feel to it for the gaming area. Pizza and Drinks is a good idea, but not a problem as we can sell 20oz bottles of drinks, and pizza is delivered in every town with a pizza place pretty much. Maybe we could start a franchise

 

[Darkness]

I think I'd get rid of the table all together.

Right, I don't use a table. My players get the couch, I have a chair and a laptop.

Spoiler

The laptop has a table, though.

 

[NewLifeForm]

The Revolution with be rolled on 2D6!



Having worked in the game industry a little as a freelance writer, artist, at a retail gaming store and in PR and marketing, there are a few things I would do based solely on my experience (which is way less them the real pros)...

1) More and Better Graphics and Illustrations. In my mind I see a completely different look and feel to rulebooks and sourcebooks. I imagine them more like art books and "Art of the Movie" books with stats. It would be expensive I know, but it would wow the customer in a way that books these days just don't do.

2) As already mentioned, up the advertising budget. More and more wide spread ad campaigns are needed to gain the wider audience that some game companies seem to think will magically appear.

3) Good press. D&D, and as a by-product RPGs in general, have suffered (and perhaps been a assisted a bit) by bad press from the 80s. While we all know RPGs promote a number of useful skills, including creative problem solving and social interaction, most people still think it's somewhere between a violent computer game and a cult

4) More and better merchandising and cross marketing. Comics (that don't suck), T-Shirts, Toys, Video Games, whatever it takes. Check out ThinkGeek and it's plethora of products with gaming related slogans and phrases. I was at a number of Anime conventions where many of the attendees were wearing these types of t-shirts. Gamers wear them and it serves as a form of free advertising. Non-gamers laugh at a shirt or are confused by it and ask what it's about. Bingo! You've introduced gaming, in a fashion (pun intended), to a non-gamer.

I'm sure there are other things I could think of but my mind is cloudy right now. I'll try to think of some more when my mental weather clears.

NewLifeForm
"Mostly Harmless"

 

[Desdichado]

For years now -- since the mid-80s, at least, I've thought it might be fun to play a game in which the players actually didn't have character sheets (although the GM would) or know their stats -- just a pretty good idea of what they were good at, what they were marginal at, and what they sucked at. GM would make all dice rolls too. The hope was that this would be a more immersive experience, with the players putting the metagame out of their heads, and concentrate on what's really happening in the way that their characters would.

I don't know if today I'd do that or not, though, to be honest with you. And I doubt it would really reinvent roleplaying. Honestly, I don't want to reinvent roleplaying -- I kinda like it the way it is, for the most part.

 

[The_Magician]

I think some people here didn't get what the dude was asking. How I understood it, he is not asking how to chang the industry, nor is he talking about the rules. He is talking about the experience of roleplaying. Gathering your friends, sit around the table, write down characters sheets, roll dice, place miniatures in combat map, eat junk food, etc etc etc.

I think Dragonlace 5th Age tried doing that when they added cards to the game, but that's like adding a slice of lemon to your Pepsi. A rotten lemon, in my opinion, since i didn't like DL5th age.

The only way I see things changing is through the use of technology. Hopefully in my life time, we will be all wearing VR glasses and walking in the adventure created by the DM. =P

Here is a thought, though: collective hypnosis! DM hypnotise the players and things move on from there.

Other than that, you can try some outdoor environments, like DMing in the woods, or in a cave, or in a farm, etc etc.

It's hard to change the experience, though. It will still be a bunch of people in a collective imaginative process... at least until those roleplaying VR glasses hit the market! =P

 

[Catavarie]

Well I'd need a Goat, some Duct Tape, a Clothes hanger, and a holo-deck form Star Trek, Runt eh game in the Holo-deck, and you don't wanna know that other stuff is for

 

[Insight]

I think that Sholari was thinking more about ways to change the roleplaying hobby itself, rather than rule changes to 3.5 D&D.

The main issue I have is the extreme asymmetry between the time investment on the DM's side and on the players' side. IMO, this is the main cause of such aberrations as heavy railroading, pet NPCs, incoherent plots, etc. I'd like some sort of paradigm shift which moved part of the duty to make everyone have fun and the work that is needed for it from the DM to the players. I don't know what could do that, though.

I have to echo Zappo here. As someone who has primarily been a GM during my 20+ years of gaming, I find that the disparity between time investment to be a problem. Sure, GMs could spend less time in preparation in a number of ways, but I think the real issue is what can players do more to help the game? Be more prepared, with updated character sheets, etc., but what else can players do to offload some of the GM's work?

 

[Crothian]

but what else can players do to offload some of the GM's work?

Know the rules
show up on time
be ready and willing to role play
don't get sidetracked
pay attention during the sessions

 

[diaglo]

Know the rules
show up on time
be ready and willing to role play
don't get sidetracked
pay attention during the sessions

pester the heck outta the referee ahead of time. about rules/mechanics they don't know or may try to use.

wear depends so the bathroom isn't needed

ply the referee with bribes and/or phat lewt

 

[maddman75]

I have to echo Zappo here. As someone who has primarily been a GM during my 20+ years of gaming, I find that the disparity between time investment to be a problem. Sure, GMs could spend less time in preparation in a number of ways, but I think the real issue is what can players do more to help the game? Be more prepared, with updated character sheets, etc., but what else can players do to offload some of the GM's work?

The game has to support it, but there are rules that allow players to take a bit of the control, such as using a Drama Point for a Plot Twist in Buffy, or Adventure!'s Dramatic Editing. In Buffy, players can spend points (not unlike Action Points in d20 Modern) to insert something or to have something happen, subject to DM veto of course.

Apart from that players could take a much more active role in determining the plots for their characters. Rather than ask the DM for a homeland, they could detail the people, places, and culture of the area their character comes from and add it to the world. Or design their character's nemisis. And be certain to add lots of plot hooks for the DM to take advantage of. And in general be willing to express their own desires on the game setting and pursuing their characters own goals and ambitions rather than just doing 'tonight's adventure'.