Troupe-style Roleplaying
I was kinda talking to David and Jodi about this on the car ride over to D's the other day. And figured it probably warranted a nerdy Pen'n'Paper Roleplaying (Katie's already rolling her eyes at me!) post. For quite sometime I've been in the groove of trying to play some really out there characters. (Yes, the traveling librarian!) But in the end the concept falls flat. They simply haven't led to any in-depth roleplay. And so I resort to the only kind of characters that can engage in roleplaying in most campaigns: "the Dissident". The player that picks the in-game fights to get some roleplay.
Most of the campaigns that I have been in in the last couple of years (and yes there has been a long 'downtime') the core of the game has been about stat development and not character development. Partially because of the type of campaigns being run, partially because of the system being played, and partially because not everyone's concept of what the game should be has 'gelled'. And so while having fun during the sessions, I feel like I treat game sessions as beer and nut type games. (Getting the most fun out of as little excitement as possible.)
I've really been looking for is something that goes back to the way Joe and I used to run games. We'd sit down for hours and work on the game, game world, magic, whatever. And then instead of being a participant in someone else's game it was really a co-operative storytelling session. He or I would include bits of the story when we were playing in the other persons game, and would help guide the story. Yes, Co-operative storytelling. Thinking about that led me back to a system that I played a couple of times in college but in which the campaign really never got off the ground for a lot of reasons: Ars Magicka. It is a sweet system. And it is built around the concept of Troupe-Style roleplaying.
What is Troupe-Style roleplaying? It starts as multiplaying, and picking which characters to run. And can go as far as Every player taking turns running a scenario for the same set of characters. The way Ars Magicka works is this: Each Player has a Magi (main Character) and each player also creates the magi's 'Companion' which is a secondary character. And then Grog's. (Think Star Trek, Red Shirts.) Players create their Magi and the Companion character, and then a couple of Grogs. The players then choose which of the other players Companion Characters they want to play, and everyone can just pick which ever Grog fits the current adventure. So everyone gets a Main Character, a Supporting Character and then extras to play. It gives diversity and allows players to play a large breadth of roles. ...
Most of the campaigns that I have been in in the last couple of years (and yes there has been a long 'downtime') the core of the game has been about stat development and not character development. Partially because of the type of campaigns being run, partially because of the system being played, and partially because not everyone's concept of what the game should be has 'gelled'. And so while having fun during the sessions, I feel like I treat game sessions as beer and nut type games. (Getting the most fun out of as little excitement as possible.)
I've really been looking for is something that goes back to the way Joe and I used to run games. We'd sit down for hours and work on the game, game world, magic, whatever. And then instead of being a participant in someone else's game it was really a co-operative storytelling session. He or I would include bits of the story when we were playing in the other persons game, and would help guide the story. Yes, Co-operative storytelling. Thinking about that led me back to a system that I played a couple of times in college but in which the campaign really never got off the ground for a lot of reasons: Ars Magicka. It is a sweet system. And it is built around the concept of Troupe-Style roleplaying.
What is Troupe-Style roleplaying? It starts as multiplaying, and picking which characters to run. And can go as far as Every player taking turns running a scenario for the same set of characters. The way Ars Magicka works is this: Each Player has a Magi (main Character) and each player also creates the magi's 'Companion' which is a secondary character. And then Grog's. (Think Star Trek, Red Shirts.) Players create their Magi and the Companion character, and then a couple of Grogs. The players then choose which of the other players Companion Characters they want to play, and everyone can just pick which ever Grog fits the current adventure. So everyone gets a Main Character, a Supporting Character and then extras to play. It gives diversity and allows players to play a large breadth of roles. ...