Pencil-and-Paper RPGs - Anyone here play them?

[elwing]

I'dd say my best session was with a great GM, without rules, dice or even a premade RPG. it was just inspired by a novel the GM had read some time before...

 

[Fzero]

I sort of get it a bit more now [i think] ... from jeffs summary mainly but which is as others are saying.


essentially, you are at the mercy of the GM, but you make sure you have a 'fair' GM who wants to have a fun game too ..... resulting in a good game.


If the GM is a dick with his power, the players will sack him and so no point abusing your power as a GM


freestyle gaming, kinda

 

[Prometheus]

^ That's pretty much the gist of it. And done over the internet, it becomes more like collaborative writing, instead.

 

[Znirk]

To someone who hasn't ever played, it seems quite complex ... how do you win for example ... how do you know the GM isnt just bending the game in -x-players- favour?

In most cases these are games you don't play to win. Players cooperate, trying to succeed as a group. (Paranoia would be a counterexample here -- characters have a common goal on the face of it, but spend most of their time sabotaging one another. Of course the players still have the common goal of enjoying their characters' backstabbery.)


The GM can play favourites, but this usually simply takes the shape of rewarding players who play 'well', whatever that means in the context of the specific game and group. It's pointless to do this in secret, since it's meant to be a gentle encouragement to the other players to shape up.

No real rules per se, or even a story to adhere to ........ it's all down to the GM to make up, maybe even as he/she/heshe goes along?

Oh man ... "no rules"? Different systems vary a lot in terms of rules volume, but you can go to very simulationist extremes. Of course each group will find the level of rule-basedness versus story-priority they're comfortable with -- as with every (non-computerised) game, players can always agree to change or not to use a rule they don't like.


Story to adhere to ... varies again. A very confident and experienced GM may take the game into the direction of improv theatre and really make everything up as required; but most GMs prepare. They have a story to tell, and players will broadly cooperate in taking the story where the GM needs it to go, simply because the current storyline tends to be the most interesting thing available to them in the game world. A GM may have made up their own plot, but you can also buy ready-mades, the system-specific ones of which are often published by the companies who also make the rulebooks.

Not like Monopoly then where you have the inside cover of the box including rules to back you up

True, but only because most rulesets would need a REALLY HUGE box cover to fit into. Roleplayers have rule books. Of course, arguing about rules gets in the way of the collaborative storytelling and is officially Not Fun, so people who overdo it may find themselves getting punished by fate (i.e. the GM).

 

[Fzero]

nicely explained, i get it.


I like that idea that a true master GM will take it in an improv direction making up the story for players to live out from scratch.


I appreciate the telly program 'Whos Line Is It Anyway' which is an improv thing.


To do this as a GM for a game that others will play and better still ... enjoy ... must require quite a creative mind eh


imagination wins