How Would You Reinvent Roleplaying?

[azmodean]

I definitely agree with many of the suggestions presented, I'd love for my characters to flesh out their "home towns" which I could then use as a springboard for an adventure or two. Also I have my share of players who need to be hand-held through most of the game. It would sure take a load off they buckled down and learned the rules.

For in-game help my two favorite ideas are co-DMs and player rolling. Co-DMing is self-explanatory, and player rolling is an optional rule in UA. In short, the players roll everything that isn't a secret. So in combat a player makes an attack roll against an enemy and a defense roll when they are themselves attacked, same goes for spellcasting.

A bit more off-the wall is Capes! which I am really interested in playing. (not DMing, there is no DM, read the overview on the site)

 

[Tewligan]

More hot chicks, less fat nerds.

 

[Munin]

A few months ago Dragon had an article on collective world building. If you're looking to offload some dm work onto your players, I suggest you look for that one.

It works especially well for any character who hails from a foreign land or who is a part of a organization within the world. And as mentioned before, it really helps the players to get into their characters.

 

[Desdichado]

Hey Joshua, I actually did what you're suggesting (no stats, no chatacter sheets) starting in 1992 with 2e and currently still doing it with the same campaign in 3.5. It doesn't reinvent roleplaying, but it does make the game much less of a numbers and powergmaing exercise, and more about roleplaying and character development. It did wonders to cure two rampant powergamers of their obsession, and the players became much more invested in the campaign and viewed the NPCs and the world not as metagame concepts to manipulate, but as more complex and realistic entities.

I remember that you'd done that; I didn't know you still do.

I guess it depends on the group -- I see the need much less than I did in junior high when the idea first occured to me. I've got a great group that plays really well without such drastic measures.

 

[Desdichado]

More hot chicks, less fat nerds.

Hear, hear!

 

[Insight]

But there really isn't anything the players can do to help the DM out. Asking questions creates more work for the DM as he has to answer them. Players are responsible for their characters and that's it. Unless you want to somhow place more responsibility on the players I don't see how they can prep more and help the DM.

There is SO much more players can do than they typically do in most campaigns. People have already suggested getting more involved in the plot, working on areas of the campaign setting (if it's a homebrew and the GM doesn't mind), doing research (if it's a modern/historical type game), fleshing out their character goals, and more.

And yeah, since we're talking about the entire RPG paradigm, what's wrong with changing how much responsibility falls on the GM's shoulders versus the players? Don't the players have collectively more time on their hands than does the GM (one person)?

 

[Orryn Emrys]

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.

Strangely, this is precisely what my group is doing this evening. I've tried it once before, wtih a co-DM who handled the dice and a lot of statistical stuff, and it was loads of fun. One player even told me that, after learning the stats for the character he'd been playing, he wouldn't have tried some of the maneuvers that he did during the game... it really added to the experience.

Now I use a laptop with DMGenie to run my games, and it's perfectly capable of handling the combats, skill rolls, saves and pretty much everything else involving the dice. So I had the players each write up a few paragraphs describing their character concepts, post 'em on our private messageboards, and I've written up the characters for them. They won't even know their ability scores, just a general idea what they are capable of... you know, as if they were limited to the knowledge the actual character has concerning his/her capabilities.

I think it'll be fun and challenging, but I don't think I'd want to do it long term. I'm pretty happy with our roleplaying experience as it stands, and I have a great group that puts a lot of effort into characterization. Still... I may be surprised....

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I can envision an alternate universe where roleplaying didn't originate from wargaming roots. It wouldn't be about trying to "simulate" anything, except perhaps the dramatic give-and-take of a good movie, TV show, or novel.

Mechanics wouldn't be about how much you could lift or how fast you could run, but about the kinds of things that you note in a character description from fiction. A player could choose any attributes they liked, and each would be equally useful in dramatic terms. That is, Alcoholic 15 could have as much importance within the story as Strong 15.

There's games out there now like this, such as FATE and HeroQuest. I think it'd be interesting, though, to see how things would have developed if crunch and simulation had not been high on the list in the original RPGs' design goals.

 

[Darkness]

More hot chicks, less fat nerds.

Less fat nerds (i.e,. thinner ones), fewer fat nerds, or both?

 

[Westgate Polks]

Improving the Roleplaying Experience (part 1)

--------------------------- snipped from topic thread -----------------------------
Overall, roleplaying is a great experience, but I can't help but think it could somehow be better.

If you could reinvent roleplaying as we know it today what would you do? What are your frustrations with the current roleplaying process and how would you change them? Where are the major gaps in roleplaying as an industry and hobby?
--------------------------- end snippet ------------------------------------------


I see three primary components to the RolePlaying Experience (RPE): character assumption, sensory immersion, and experiential actualization. The first deals primarily with the feel of being someone else, the second deals with somewhere else, and the third deals primarily with doing something else. Making either more complete or more enjoyable (while avoiding things to increase real-world discomfort) will enhance the RPE.

There are two types of improvements that can occur: improvements affecting game systems (i.e. rules, supplements, settings, etc.) and improvements affecting personal involvement (i.e. furniture, gaming halls, etc.). Obviously both type of improvements are possible and would enhance the RPE.

This suggests six specific enhancements: game systems enhancements that improve character assumption, game systems enhancements that improve sensory immersion, game systems enhancements that improve experiential actualization, personal involvement enhancements that improve character assumption, personal involvement enhancements that improve sensory immersion, and personal involvement enhancements that improve experiential actualization.