The conventions and techniques of gaming (brainstorm)

[jmucchiello]

There was a section in one of the Naked Guns movies where the main character walked around the sets wall while all the other went through the set's door. I laughed out loud because nothing was said of it. It was a straight sight gag which had no attention drawn to it.

Probably because it was also in every episode of Police Squad, on which the Naked Gun movies are based.

It's Gary Shandling's Show had a lot of broken 4th wall bits. Including getting on a golf cart to move the characters between sets on the soundstage. (I always liked how Gary would be talking at the show intro and he say something to the audiance like, "Well, you listen to opening theme music and I'll get back to you in 43 seconds.")

 

[Particle_Man]

There is a game called Mythic that has a logical system of responding to yes/no questions with die rolls, as well as a generic random events table, that is meant to be able to simulate a GM-less roleplaying experience (it can also work with GM's). I have never tried it, though.

Oh, and there was a French movie that was a Rape Revenge film (woman gets raped, boyfriend takes bloody revenge, etc.) but it was filmed backwards, giving a strange emotional dynamic (from horror to the peace before the rape).

 

[Evilhalfling]

I helped run a game that used approximate d20 rules, for a superhero game.
we had three tables with three DMs and tried for 15 people. The game broke many conventions. Two tables were teams of superheros, one independent, one government sponsered. The main dynamic was that each person was supreme when they used a power, but each time they did they lost all memories. (simulated by the player getting up and moving to the middle table) a chuthluesqu insane asleum. When you left the middle table you moved to the opposite superhero table, to replace someone else. The game was a blast, and hysterically funny. We ran it once for practice and once at gencon.

 

[nopantsyet]

I dunno. It's tough. I always try to break a convention or two in each campaign, but you can't go too far before the game becomes unrecognizable. If that's what you're going for, that's fine, but most people aren't.

I think the biggest convention I have wanted to break but haven't got up the courage is this:

The players determine their character's abilities and advance them out-of-game according to in-game accomplishments.

Which is just an abstract way of saying PCs earn XP and playsers pick which classes, skills, feats etc. they gain. What I have been trying to devise for several years is a way to advance the PCs in-game the way people advance in real life: practice and training. Most adventurers wouldn't go for training for the very reason they're adventurers: they don't want to sit around studying for months at a time. So PC would gain class levels, feats, skills etc. based on what actions they take in-game. So a player could form a concept to be a fighter, but if they always sneak around they're going to end up more like a rogue.

I haven't thought about this idea for a few months, but having just picked up the PDF Buy the Numbers, I think this idea might be more viable going that route rather than the standard levels approach. After each session or adventure, instead of giving out XP, the DM gives out new abilities. A player who took lots of damage gets another hit die, a character who cast spells a lot gets another spellcasting level, etc. Skill points for skills attempted and so on and so forth.

But I still don't know if I could ever get players to buy into it. Maybe for a short or intermittent campaign where they don't feel as much attachment to the characters. I dunno.

 

[FireLance]

One way of "breaking the fourth wall" without actually doing so is for the players to be spirits controlling the characters, who may or may not know they are being controlled by an external force. In Eberron, this can be accomplished by having quori controlling various empty vessels. This allows in-game conversation like, "Why do I always have to play the fighter? Can't I play the wizard for once?"

 

[Micah]

Boxed text:

You see a flat tan floor marked off in a five foot grid beneath your feet. Beyond it's boundaries and hovering above you are the faces of some truly colossal individuals. And they are quite scary. . . .

 

[Aeric]

I had an idea a while back to run a campaign where the characters started off at 20th level and lost XP every session. The idea was that there was something wrong with Time itself, and the PCs had to figure out a way to fix it before they ceased to exist.

Another idea I had was to run cutscenes where the players would read for various NPCs in the scene. The PCs would get action points or a similar non-XP reward for good roleplaying in these scenes.

Having a co-GM whose sole purpose is to roleplay NPCs can be fun, too.

 

[Amal Shukup]

Some more fun TV evamples - Good ol' Joss Whedon:

"Once More with Feeling" - Heh, I don't see that happening at an RPG table anytime soon Unless you got the best bard players in the world...

"Hush" - NO talking. Just find other ways to communicate. Happens inside Silence spells all the time, but one could extend the effect to last an entire session and get some interesting pantomime going on.

"Halloween" - Gang is transformed into their costumes - not just physically, but mentally as well.

Angel's "Smile Time" - the vamp is turned into a muppet. Laughed my behind clean off. Couldn't sit for a week waiting for it to grow back.

Could actually poach the idea for a game: have the characters transform into - or have their spirits transferred to - constructs. No law says they have to be medium-sized humanoid constructs... "Whaddya mean I'm a 5 inch long animated clockwork turtle'?"​

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On another note:

I played in a game where the DM provided our normal characters with an 'oracular vision': To effect this, for one session we 'became' our enemies, set an ambush and attacked and killed our normal characters. Brutally. That group all typically plays neutral good and chaotic good sorts - all noble and heroic. For this session we were all flavors of evil. I was disturbed by just how 'into it' the players got.

("Hey DM? We don't NEED this village for anything later do we?" "Er, I guess not." "Right, we sacrifice the town. All of them. Then we animate as many zombies as we can as footsoldiers." "Er, what?" "We worship dark deities, right? Says so right here on the character sheet you gave us...")​

Yah. Anyway,The ambush plan we developed was then used by the DM against our regular characters - but of course, forearmed with the particulars, our party was victorious and averted the mass sacrifice. Nobly and heroically (whew - back to normal!)

Interesting way to experience some radically different character types. Plus it was interesting to fight the 'same' battle twice from divergent perspectives. Also allowed us to effectively fight enemies that would normally have kicked our butts.

A'Mal

 

[mmadsen]

I played in a game where the DM provided our normal characters with an 'oracular vision': To effect this, for one session we 'became' our enemies, set an ambush and attacked and killed our normal characters. Brutally.
[...]
Yah. Anyway,The ambush plan we developed was then used by the DM against our regular characters - but of course, forearmed with the particulars, our party was victorious and averted the mass sacrifice.

Oh, I am so finding a way to use that one!

 

[Afrodyte]

That's the problem. I'd love to hear any suggestions on how to deal with it.

My guess would be to shift the focus from goal-oriented adventures and more toward the relationships between characters. What would become important is not what they do butwhy they do it. Of course, you'll need a group of players who would not only enjoy this, but be able to work with it in an interesting way. To make this work out to said group's advantage, it's likely that the DM will have to relinquish a bit of control over the characters. Instead of the DM determining how and why the characters interact, the players do so. If possible, the DM may also wish to give players a bit more narrative control, allowing them to create and describe particular locations and NPCs important to their characters.