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Worlds of Design: “Old School” in RPGs and other Games – Part 1 Failure and Story
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7770161" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Assuming that a RPG involves <em>a party</em> which, like the ship of Theseus, has an existence that transcends the relationships of its individual components, is already making a big assumption.</p><p></p><p>I once ran a Rolemaster campaign that lasted 8 years. When the campaign started there were 4 players and hence 4 PCs. When the campaign finished there were 6 or so players, one or two of whom was playing a NPC sidekick resulting in 8 or so PCs. None of the players was the same as at the start. One of the sidekicks was a starting PC.</p><p></p><p>At various points on the way through the composition of the group fluctuated as people travelled, returned from studies abroad, etc, and brought in old PCs or created new ones.</p><p></p><p>There was no enduring "party". There were enduring characters, and enduring relationships between them; and obviously in the real world there was an enduring group most of whose members knew most of the rest and had played together at some time or other.</p><p></p><p>Here's another way to the same conclusion: in a RPG of the conventional sort, only individuals declare actions, and other than the GM they declare them for PCs (be they main PCs or sidekicks etc). In the absence of railroading, the resolution of these action declarations is what yields story.</p><p></p><p>The only RPG I know of where actions are declared for <em>the party</em> is classic D&D played with a caller. And in that style of play the party has no longevity beyond the individual dungeon raid (as per Gygax's advice on the closing page of his PHB before the appendices).</p><p></p><p><strong>TL;DR</strong>: a real life group can play a campaign; and characters can figure in stories; but I don't know what this "party" is supposed to be that is part of the fiction but different from the characters.</p><p></p><p>Also tagging [MENTION=1282]darkbard[/MENTION] as he was (briefly) part of this discussion.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7770161, member: 42582"] Assuming that a RPG involves [I]a party[/I] which, like the ship of Theseus, has an existence that transcends the relationships of its individual components, is already making a big assumption. I once ran a Rolemaster campaign that lasted 8 years. When the campaign started there were 4 players and hence 4 PCs. When the campaign finished there were 6 or so players, one or two of whom was playing a NPC sidekick resulting in 8 or so PCs. None of the players was the same as at the start. One of the sidekicks was a starting PC. At various points on the way through the composition of the group fluctuated as people travelled, returned from studies abroad, etc, and brought in old PCs or created new ones. There was no enduring "party". There were enduring characters, and enduring relationships between them; and obviously in the real world there was an enduring group most of whose members knew most of the rest and had played together at some time or other. Here's another way to the same conclusion: in a RPG of the conventional sort, only individuals declare actions, and other than the GM they declare them for PCs (be they main PCs or sidekicks etc). In the absence of railroading, the resolution of these action declarations is what yields story. The only RPG I know of where actions are declared for [I]the party[/I] is classic D&D played with a caller. And in that style of play the party has no longevity beyond the individual dungeon raid (as per Gygax's advice on the closing page of his PHB before the appendices). [B]TL;DR[/B]: a real life group can play a campaign; and characters can figure in stories; but I don't know what this "party" is supposed to be that is part of the fiction but different from the characters. Also tagging [MENTION=1282]darkbard[/MENTION] as he was (briefly) part of this discussion. [/QUOTE]
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