Seven Paths to Systemless Roleplay Tales from the Rocket House It kind of seemed wrong to call them ugh

the alliteration worked better. Seven Rules for Systemless Roleplay, even tho

Before I start, let me say that rules and mechanics are great, and I always use them for campaign/chronicle play. I usually even use them for one-shots (though, to be fair, a lot of the one-shots I run are partially used to test new rules). This is part of the reason a common language system (see Tales from the Rocket Ho use columns 1-4) can be helpful: to allow for an easy transition between campaig ns and one-shots among a given group of players. That said, there have been a lot of times when I ve enjoyed playing with neither d ice nor a mechanical system in place. It started years ago with a Streetfighter: the RPG (from White Wolf) one-shot game I was GM-ng. I had an idea for a story that had an action-movie scale to it not too deep or complex, but certainly foll owing the basic pattern of rising action and resolution. I also knew that, given the time available, we d only be able to get through a couple of scenes when usin g the standard mechanics (I d played the game enough to know how long a fight took , and how much it felt like a strategy game, rather than an RPG). I had three pl ayers, and we all trusted each other, so I declared that we d do this systemless. It worked very well; we got through the story in a satisfying way, and everyone had fun. So I stored the idea away for later use. During my undergraduate years, I used this a lot, in part because of time constr aints, and in part because it was fun. Whenever I went home and gamed with my fr iends from high school, we often played systemlessly (I know that s not a word), b ecause if we spent half of our time setting things up with the system and rollin g up or point-costing characters, we wouldn t have enough time to finish the game satisfactorily. At Tulane, I did this one time when everyone sort of wanted to roleplay, but we didn t have a quorum available for our regularly scheduled campaign. It was a rela tively new experience for that group of players, but they were, of course, great , and it turned out well. In that scenario, I had two pages of notes I d written l ong before: one page for the players, containing the basic parameters of the sce nario and brief descriptions of four characters, corresponding each to one of th e four classical elements. The GM s page had more about the scenario, and similarl y brief descriptions of the bad guys. Again, it went off without a hitch, and ev eryone had fun. Over time, I learned a lot about what works and what doesn t for diceless, systeml ess play. For the sake of clarity and flair, I ve distilled that into my Seven Path s for Systemless Roleplay. Path One: Fine but Few First, you have to have a small, close-knit group. Three players plus the GM is the most I ever did, and I d be pretty nervous about adding many more than that. T he GM will have no dice nor mechanics to lean on, so he needs to be able to keep the players and characters in mind at all times. Everybody has to trust everybo dy else. No exceptions, period. This will not work without trust. It helps if yo u re already friends and have already gamed together, but however the trust is est ablished, it must be there. Path Two: The Heart of the Story The PCs must be the stars of the drama. Though the GM needs to have story elemen ts available to push the pace, the PC s have to be the stars. This is their story

this must be their story, or they will not have fun. It is all too easy in a sys temless game for the GM to tell a story and leave the players with supporting or m inor roles. This must be avoided at all costs. Any mentor NPCs must be weaker than the PC s, or otherwise unable to do what must be done. At no point should the PCs be watching two NPC s doing something, unless the PCs mission at that point is sur veillance (and even then, keep it to a minimum). This really is a narrative style of gaming, and is essentially set up like a mov ie. I ve never run a campaign systemless, and I don t know that I could. In my exper ience, it works better with a definite beginning, end, and middle, done up in a relatively short amount of time, and narrated in real-time. Path Three: Every One a Special Snowflake The player characters must be distinctive. The GM needs to be able to easily kee p them separate from each other in his head. Thus, the four elements were good ho oks on which to hang characters. The familiar Street Fighter 2 characters were, t oo. In one game, the characters were roughly based on the players themselves, as if they d been turned into vampires. We knew each other s personalities well, and e ach PC got slightly different vampire powers (agility/strength, incredible tough ness, speed/claws) in addition to the basic physical upgrades and weaknesses. Th e more differences, the better appearance, abilities, personality . . . draw the m all larger than life. You don t have much time to get this across, and subtlety may not work. Path Four: The Path of Partial Success Players hate to whiff, and while it s acceptable (but annoying) if the dice mandate it, whiffing (having their actions completely fail) should not happen in a systeml ess game unless they are facing something so incredibly beyond them that they ha ve to find another way around (for example, they try to kill the 50-foot tall Sp hinx with a sword instead of riddling it). The players actions should always have some impact, but you can t let them instantly solve the problem, because that mak es the game boring. As GM, you should take into account the various approaches to characters here. I had one player who loved to have his characters invent odd gadgets, such as hom e made silencers, propane-powered flame maces (to use against vampires) and so o n. The key is to have them work, and do so in a flashy/cool way, but not have th em work so well that they, by themselves, overwhelm the opposition. Perhaps the PC could fight his way into a superior position first, and then activate the fla me mace, which could be the final blow against a major opponent. But just firing u p the mace at the start would give the enemy time to come up with a counter plan , and thus, it would only be a partial success. It would give an advantage, but not an overwhelming one. Sometimes you have to rig situations so that partial success is possible. If facin g an enemy in combat, it s better to have an enemy and her entourage, so the PCs at tacks can take out the henchmen, disarm or wound the enemy, gain positional adva ntage, etc. There should be a buildup to victory. Further, the players should ha ve to think at least a little to win cleanly. The Rule of Partial Success applies to the enemies as well if they whiff, the players will not see them as credible, and the tension and enjoyment of the game will be reduced. Path Five: It s Just a Flesh Wound Related to The Path of Partial Success is this: the important characters should be able to absorb some damage in combat, if there is to be much combat at all. Whe ther this is wuxia-style mortality handwaving ( it s just a flesh wound ), vampiric re generation, or Highlander-style immortality, if there is to be significant fight

ing in the game, you ll need to make sure none of the important characters are fra gile. Path Six: Alacrity! Celerity! Rapidity! The pace must be fast! Things should happen to the player characters that force the players to make decisions and take action. In a systemless game, you really do have to say Ninjas jump in through the windows! if the PC s sit there wondering w hat to do for more than a minute or two. It helps if they have an NPC guide (who , of course, cannot be as cool or powerful as they are, because this kind of thi ng could really lead to the GM telling a story and the players sitting there, an noyed) who can nudge them in the right direction when things get slow. Path Seven: The Rule of Cool, and Then Some

The Rule of Cool really applies in systemless gaming. As GM, don t be afraid to kill important NPCs, if it increases the power of the scene (but don t torture your pl ayers this isn t a great medium for dark angst), but first and foremost, set thing s up so the players get to be the cool ones. Encourage over-the-top descriptions by creating situations in which those descriptions can naturally occur. For exa mple, facing a vampire lord and having to jump over the side of a building to es cape her wrath, after throwing homemade napalm in her face to distract her. Each player described his landing differently the quick one with the claws grabbed a t the side of the building, slowing his descent. The agile one hit a parked car in a breakfall tumble, bouncing off and landing on his feet. The car crumpled, a nd its alarm shook the night. The ultra-tough one just said boom and went right th rough the concrete, then crawled out of the huge hole he d made, unhurt. Final Thoughts The longer I live, the more I find that the more restraints are written into a g ame system (whether to restrain players during character creation through scarci ty of character power, or to restrain players and GM from abusing the rules duri ng play), the more the players push against those restraints, creating more, rat her than less problems. By removing all such restraints and relying on open comm unication (as I ve done in the Subjective Character Creation Process I talked abou t in columns five and eight), a sense of trust can be established or strengthene d among the players and GM. Plus, a systemless one-shot can make for a fun and memorable gaming experience. What have you got to lose?