Unexpected line of thought after reading this entry and some discussion with the blog writer who made that entry. It got me thinking in retrospect along with the left turn agenda as well as I look back in my high school game which I GM'd back then.
To put it simply, this is to elaborate on the usual model of RPing as opposed to the more free-form or sandlot type of gaming.
The usual style goes like: Crawl through the adventure locale, kill encounters and take its stuff, cash in xp/advancement point/etc paycheck and call it a session done. The variation on this would analogized to a by-the-rails format of gaming, a concept I borrowed from by-the-rail shooter games like most light gun arcade games go. The limitation in the above-mentioned example is that, the grind or process of accruing the wealth and advancement points would be a tedious time consuming affair. It sets goals but more of a selfish variety in regarding to personal advancement as well as wealth and materials advancement.
The free-form or sandlot game would be considered for the experienced GM and a decently seasoned group of players in his handling. The free-form or sandlot game is where the need to do the usual grind process is eliminated and the focus or priority is more to smoother game handling and role-playing aspects. Given that its free-form or likened to a sandlot style of gaming with the likes of the GTA videogame series, Mercenaries games or the Fallout series especially. This format is giving the players complete autonomy to do what they want in the game setting and nothing is heavily forced onto them. The experienced GM is a must to handle it since story elements would just be triggered and other details would be enabled on the fly. Pre-made stuff would be the order of the day to cover all the bases in case the players desire a certain encounter or action to be met by opposition. It also eliminates the matter of origins and other stumbling blocks of coming of age and such because you have unlocked all the potentials and possibilities that the player's imagination would conceive of. This frees up the doldrums of grinding away and having to deal with beyond/over the horizon goals of getting to that level of character advancement while the pacing is slow in handling due to a number of things. Its also a trust issue for the GM and the players to commit in an unspoken agreement to make the story go smoothly without giving each other grief.
With a synergy of GM and players going with the common goal of having fun, the results speak for themselves in terms of memorable storytelling since the tedium of a traditional dungeon/building crawl of a game is rendered nil or minimized. Its all in the story and character development which makes me very enjoyable in the long run.
Its all a matter of fiddling with system switches and dials to crank up maximum fun with the system. Texture of game system would also be a deciding factor in making such an endeavor fly and roam. I say this because sandlot games would have a moderate to minimum level of crunchiness because a overly crunchy game system would bog things down due to the GM processing done. A rules-light with a eye to cinematic gaming would be key in making this happen.
GMs can be agoraphiles in the context of this topic because we always have this affinity for freedom that makes possible our imaginations to roam and explore. That's it for now on this entry. Happy gaming!
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