2) never ever rewrite your character sheet

[reverancepavane]

Here is a rather interesting idea. Speaking generally, the last thing in most RPG books is a character sheet. Character sheets are the thing that players most use to interface between the design of the game and actual play. Character sheets have ranged from beautiful and elegant to ugly and neigh-useless. The design of these play-tools should be pushed further, not just asthetically but also their relationship to the games they belong to. So they ran a competition to design a character sheet, and then gave the character sheets to various game designers to produce a game which used that character sheet. And speaking of good game design, fellow Cthulhu addicts might want to try Fear Itself. Written by Kennith Hite (modern occult game expert) and based on a gamesystem by Robin Laws (freelance game designer extraordinaire) it's a game system that's sure to please. And the artwork looks excellent. And for those who have missed it, Ken has just finished his scholarly overview of Lovecraft's fiction at princeofcairo. Well worth reading.

Comments

[quuux.livejournal.com]

heh neigh.

Nigh!

(accuracy over tact)

[reverancepavane.livejournal.com]

?

[maelorin]

is this where i fess up to oft playing without a character sheet?

the silly little numbers get in the way of role-play anyway.

i get a feel of my characters then just go with what they'd say or do, and their limitations and so forth shape the rest.

[reverancepavane.livejournal.com]

You are still creating a character sheet. It just may not be written down anywhere. What you are actually doing is avoiding a games system, which is an entirely different matter. Systemless and rules-lite systems are lots of fun, especially for one-off events where characters share a common knowledge framework. You are using the social contract that exists between all of the players of the game (including the [possibly nominal] gamemaster). The simplest of these run from "describe your character" onwards. Personally I prefer something along the lines of "who are you?; what are you? name 5 things you do betterthan anyone else; name 5 things you do worse than anyone else..." However the morer deviant your game is from the common conception, the harder this type of game is to run. And there needs to be some method of resolving "conflict" (even if that is just GM fiat). Personally I dislike diceless systems for long term play because they require a greater degree of trust than you find with most gamers. Personally I think the two most important parts of an RPG are the character-design system (which can be used to introducethe game universe to the player) and the resolution system (which should be simple and easily useable throughout the entire extent of the game).

[maelorin]

i'm often playing with others who are using a game system ... i guess i must prefer to to :P

but then, i do prefer to roleplay rather than ruleplay ...