In pick-up RP, I pretty much never use rolls. Rolls slow things down and.. honestly, I don't like just 'roll to see if success'. Fighting another player, it takes nothing into account, it's just a coin toss. Doing anything else in pick-up RP, it's pretty pointless. If I roll badly to find where the villain hideout is... that doesn't make our little scene more interesting. So, I tend towards freeform in pick-up RP!
However. In fights between players, I hate when it becomes logic-boxing, which Verad brought up earlier. It's powergaming except there's no system to game, so there's just this morass of words that says 'every approach is covered because I've thought of all of them' and that's also not fun. Luckily, this is rarely a problem for me because my character is flighty, sees no shame in running away and is very good at it. So I can end those RPs pretty easy and go do something else.
But.. What would drive people to try to cover everything? Why might some people frown at randomness?
People hate when their characters get harmed in a way they didn't plan. This is a pretty big constant across lotsa people! Sure, it's sometimes quite unreasonable and can stifle character growth... but I wouldn't jump to saying it's because everyone's a poor sport. No, this frequently has more to do with the inherent problems of a Group of people doing scenes together.
People naturally want to play together, but everyone writes in different genres. I'm over here writing The Adventures of Tintin, but my friend who also wants to be a part of things is writing Sin City. My end goal is that there'll be a wild tale to tell at the end, but players will generally come out just fine and ready for the next episode. My friend, let's call her Silbra, she wants things to be dark and grueling. She wants characters to overcome horrors, to amass scars from close calls, and generally have bad things that happen have a real effect on the characters!
Neither of us are wrong. They're both good ways to write, they're just quite different and not particularly compatible. But we're friends, and we want to RP together with all our other friends!
So how do we reconcile this? Rules. When it comes to big group events, it's very hard to get through them without rules of some kind! Rules like "Wait til everyone else has posted before you post again" are common. Sometimes there are disclaimers when someone's going to host one, like "Characters might be hurt in such a way/severity". And rules very easily give way to a roll system! Maybe a simple one, maybe a full tabletop system! I'll get back to that in a bit.
Arbitration is the biggest problem in group RP events. Someone has to run it, someone has to be the one who says what's going on, someone has to make sure it's fun for everyone and not just That One Guy.
But just.. needing to have someone arbitrating is rough.
- They run the story, but generally don't get to play their own character
- They need to know what the players' characters are good at, to properly understand how to give them fun. Which preeetty much amounts to character sheets if it's a group where you don't intimately know everyone.
- Or you could distribute information on the kinds of things foes will do, and have everyone play and narrate trials and foes at the same time! But that requires a VERY good connection and trust between everyone. Which is rare!
I think I've started rambling. Uuuh. Whatever point I was aiming at, I don't know.
However. In fights between players, I hate when it becomes logic-boxing, which Verad brought up earlier. It's powergaming except there's no system to game, so there's just this morass of words that says 'every approach is covered because I've thought of all of them' and that's also not fun. Luckily, this is rarely a problem for me because my character is flighty, sees no shame in running away and is very good at it. So I can end those RPs pretty easy and go do something else.
But.. What would drive people to try to cover everything? Why might some people frown at randomness?
People hate when their characters get harmed in a way they didn't plan. This is a pretty big constant across lotsa people! Sure, it's sometimes quite unreasonable and can stifle character growth... but I wouldn't jump to saying it's because everyone's a poor sport. No, this frequently has more to do with the inherent problems of a Group of people doing scenes together.
People naturally want to play together, but everyone writes in different genres. I'm over here writing The Adventures of Tintin, but my friend who also wants to be a part of things is writing Sin City. My end goal is that there'll be a wild tale to tell at the end, but players will generally come out just fine and ready for the next episode. My friend, let's call her Silbra, she wants things to be dark and grueling. She wants characters to overcome horrors, to amass scars from close calls, and generally have bad things that happen have a real effect on the characters!
Neither of us are wrong. They're both good ways to write, they're just quite different and not particularly compatible. But we're friends, and we want to RP together with all our other friends!
So how do we reconcile this? Rules. When it comes to big group events, it's very hard to get through them without rules of some kind! Rules like "Wait til everyone else has posted before you post again" are common. Sometimes there are disclaimers when someone's going to host one, like "Characters might be hurt in such a way/severity". And rules very easily give way to a roll system! Maybe a simple one, maybe a full tabletop system! I'll get back to that in a bit.
Arbitration is the biggest problem in group RP events. Someone has to run it, someone has to be the one who says what's going on, someone has to make sure it's fun for everyone and not just That One Guy.
But just.. needing to have someone arbitrating is rough.
- They run the story, but generally don't get to play their own character
- They need to know what the players' characters are good at, to properly understand how to give them fun. Which preeetty much amounts to character sheets if it's a group where you don't intimately know everyone.
- Or you could distribute information on the kinds of things foes will do, and have everyone play and narrate trials and foes at the same time! But that requires a VERY good connection and trust between everyone. Which is rare!
I think I've started rambling. Uuuh. Whatever point I was aiming at, I don't know.
![[Image: DzyoF5Q.png]](http://i.imgur.com/DzyoF5Q.png)
