Quotes #3 - Players: Get Involved!

"A player’s best trait is motivation. You have to be a self-starter in this game. No one is going to write an “adventure” for you, so get off your chair and make something happen! If you want to be a hero, get out there and find an evil to stop. If your goal is survival, actively pursue making yourself safer. If you don’t know what you want your character to do, at least do your Character Class’ job - something will eventually come up. Becoming actively involved in the Game World only increases your enjoyment of the game.

In SBRPG, players design Character Classes to be part of the Game World. Well designed Character Classes always have something to do, and are closely linked to the conflicts and Factions in the Sandbox. There are no generic roaming “adventurers” in SBRPG’s Game Worlds, as everyone is involved with the action. The Genre (Setting, Theme, and Mood) helps further define and focus what is going on, and keeps players from feeling they are “left out” of the action.

In traditional roleplaying games, the players are entertained by the referee’s premade story - just like the audience for a movie. Pre-written adventures are the “script,” and a cast of NPCs waits to deliver their lines as part of the referee’s carefully created plot. Adventures play like a typical fantasy movie: battles happen on cue, the evil dragon is slain, the princess is rescued, and the credits roll.

In SBRPG, the players write the story, and help create the Game World - as it is played “live.” The players become the characters in the movie, and nobody knows where the action will go next, not even the referee. The storytelling systems in the game create an unpredictable element, immediately used by the referee to answer the question: “what happens next?

The action in SBRPG is unpredictable: battles rage between Factions on their own, a player allies with the crafty dragon, the princess escapes and has to survive on her own, and the movie never ends. There is no script."

This is from Chapter 3 again, and explains the role of players in the game. It is quite different from your traditional RPG, because most of the game world is made up on the spot, by the players around the table, during play, live. How does that work?

Let's say your turn comes up to play, and you are a private eye researching a case. You know nothing about the world, other that maybe you are in New York City in the 1950's. What now? Well, you tell the referee, "I have a contact I know, down at the local bar." You create the contact, the bar, and the details. Bonus points if you write the notes for the referee. Bang, it's added to the game world.

What's the balance? Well, once something is added to the game world, it's fair game by the referee, other players, or anyone else in the group to modify. It becomes a piece on the sandbox controlled by everyone. There is no "these are my things" in the game, it is all owned, created, and shared communally by the group. After a while, when the world is set, most NPCs, factions, and locations revert to the referee's control once things are established and running.

It can be a challenge to referee, but extremely rewarding. As a referee, it is extremely fun to see what players come up with; and as a player, it is addictive fun helping create the world you are playing in. All the groups we played with 'got it' and worked together, rolled with the punches, and built cool things together.

"No game like it," Remarked one player.

I agree.