Role-Playing

[sinanju]

My wife, the lovely and talented snippy had some friends over this afternoon.  Among them were serenejournal, kightp and others.  I hung out with them for a while before taking off to attend another party given by a coworker.  At one point during the afternoon the topic of roleplaying came up.



kightp was relatively recently introduced to roleplaying and discovered that she liked it.  serenejournal said that she doesn't enjoy playing but enjoys being the Snack Wench when the "geeks" gather for their weekly game.  Snack Wenchery reportedly involves wearing revealing clothing, providing snacks, and sitting on the laps of the gamers.

My lovely and talented wife immediately announced that if she didn't enjoy gaming itself so much, she'd definitely enjoy being the Snack Wench.  She thought I'd enjoy having a Snack Wench around as well.  Which I would...if I were actually doing much gaming in meatspace.  Alas, that isn't the case.  We--meaning snippy and I--haven't done any real gaming in a very long while.  Our gaming group finally dissolved a year or so ago, and at that we hadn't done any real roleplaying for a long time before that.

I joined a local Champions game some months back, but that group only gets together once a month at best--and not always then.  The vagaries of work and family frequently make it difficult for all of us to get together.  And, to tell the truth, sometimes I just don't feel all that excited about playing.  It's not the group--the guys are fun to hang around with, I just...

I don't know what I just.  Maybe it's just that I'm getting my gaming fix online.  I'm theoretically playing in two online Champions games and one freeform LJ game.  One is still ongoing and has been for over a year now.  It's a one-on-one game by email between myself and the GM.  While it's based on Champions (the characters are designed using the rules and the GM adjudicates combat with the rules), from my end it's mostly just a collaborative story.  That would be the game in which I'm playing Hell's Angel, a superheroine strongly modeled on my wife.

The other Champions game is moribund.  Nothing is going on, and I strongly suspect it will fold completely in the not too distant future.  That would be, like, nearly the tenth online game I've joined that folded either before it actually got going or very shortly afterward.  I'm sure there are successful online Champions games, but I've yet to play in more than one.

I'm pretty sure that the Hell's Angel game has worked because it's one on one.  The GM is actually running four such games, all set in the same game city, but the players are each playing solo.  The PCs all know one another and are members of the same organization, but they don't interact except peripherally.  Which means that lack of activity--or different levels of activity--or the loss of a player doesn't throw the whole game out of whack.

But even that game pales in comparison to Crossing_Lostrp.  That game began in December of 2005 and is still going strong.  It's a freeform game.  It really is essentially a collaborative writing exercise; the players choose characters (mostly characters from fiction, though one or two are original characters) and then throw themselves into the game.  It's been a blast.  Quite a few players have come and gone, though a core of six or eight of us have been there from the beginning.  No character sheets, no rules system, just cooperative storytelling.

That may be why I've been enjoying it so much.  It's the interactivity of gaming, but it also allows me to enjoy writing.  I don't have to worry about rules or damage dice or any of that stuff.  If I have a nifty idea for an interaction with anothe player character, I can set it up with the player OOC and then we play it out in a thread.  If I want to throw a monkeywrench into the works, I email the GM outlining my evil plan, get the go-ahead and then horrify everyone with something awful.  (I take pride in the fact that I often get comments about how eeeeevil the NPCs I write can be.)

I miss face to face gaming.  And yet...online gaming is in many ways much easier.  Players can post whenever they're available.  No need to mesh schedules or arrange a meeting place.  And freeform gaming of the sort in Crossing_Lostrp is so much simpler than even "rules light" systems like Fudge.  As long as you okay any major plot ideas with the GM and cooperate with other players regarding what happens to their characters, you can do anything you want.  No skill rolls, no dice rolling, just do your best to write entertaining, amusing, funny, dramatic or horrifying scenes.

Comments

[fikgirl.livejournal.com]

I know where you're coming from with missing face-to-face gaming. My group dissolved when one member grew up five years ago and decided to become a Dad. From there it was contagious and we all became parents; with three kids under the age of three, gaming became impossible. (Our group consisted of B (father of one), N (father of one), L (father of two, older than three), BA (the kids' "aunt"), DH and myself (parents of one).)

I was nursing and trying to GM (yeah that worked out well), BA moved an hour north, L moved to FL. Now that all the kids are older and will pretty much distract themselves and annoy each other (instead of annoying us), it's just been a struggle to get a date and time that works for everyone.

So, I'm glad to have Crossing_Lostrp for my fix. (And hopefully New Dawn soon as well). I think you're right in that it serves the dual purpose of gaming and writing, it's interactive storytelling, but it still allows one to get into character.

(And you are the master at horrifying scenes. I must admit I'm looking forward to/fearful of what you will write in New Dawn.)

FTF gaming..

[seawasp]

... does have restrictions. So do the online ones. The problem with online games is that they are SOOOOOO BLOOOOODY SLOOOOOOOOW. They're great for interaction, to some extent, but gods help you if you want to do some action. You better HAVE arrangements for skill rolling then, or else your GM had better be one you trust implicitly. Without a GM and some rules, interactions of any competitive nature become contests of (A) Fan/Fact wankery on the level of Enterprise Versus Deathstar, and (B) who can write better.

I both run and play in FTF games. I also am running a PBEM -- and ran what may be the first-ever PBEM RPG in 1978. My wife is playing in several LJ-based RPGs now. I can see advantages in both. Doing a FTF game requires people who can get together regularly and who have compatible play styles -- something hard to manage at times.

Re: FTF gaming..

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's true. Online games move at a glacial pace. But that's one of the reasons I've been having so much fun with Crossing_Lostrp. We've had assaults, murders, suicides, torture--all kinds of action--take place.

It really is more of a collaborative story than a game. Kind of like the Wild Cards novels in that you have to okay your use of another person's character (other than minor conversational bits), but as long as both players are happy with the interactions, you can do whatever you like. Big plot events need to be run by the GM (Fikgirl, above) but if she's happy with them, you can do what you like.

Face-to-face gaming does have qualities you can't get in PBEM, but the right game (and the right participants) can make PBEM a whole lot of fun.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I think you should institute Snack Wenches for all your parties. Start with next Saturday. ;-)

(someotherguy says we could make some money renting Snack Wenches. *snrch*)