2007.09.03
Roleplaying without a GM
My first memory of doing anything remotely like roleplaying was playing games like “dress up” and “house” as a fairly young child. This type of play was fun because it wasn’t directed at all, though that was also part of the problem – since nobody was acting as a steward, we never stuck with it for more than an hour or two at a time.
The animated television series Rugrats provides a very good glimpse into why kids play these sorts of games. In particular, Rugrats does an excellent job of juxtaposing the world that exists in the imaginations of the characters with reality. Cardboard boxes, mops, and drop sheets take on very different lives in the imaginary world of Tommy Pickles and his toddler friends. This imaginary world is where all the truly interesting stuff happens, and the kids spend a lot of their time adventuring in this imaginary world. What I find quite intriguing about this is that even though Tommy is the leader of the group, and his vision drives most of the imagined world, he’s also an active participant on the side of the adventurers. He’s not controlling the challenges the characters have to overcome in the same way as we would normally associate with someone taking on the role of the Game Master (GM).
Fast forwarding to my early teenage years, my next brush with roleplaying came via the now long out of print board game HeroQuest. HeroQuest requires one player to act as the Game Master, and the other players play the roles of adventuring heroes. In a way, HeroQuest is one of the predecessors of modern games like Descent: Journeys in the Dark.
One thing always bothered me about HeroQuest, though. One person had to be the GM, and so there was no surprise when a trap was sprung. Perhaps the GM would giggle with glee at the misfortune of the adventurers, but HeroQuest was definitely balanced in favour of the adventurers, so the GM was bound to lose eventually. Don’t get me wrong; being the GM in a roleplaying game has its own rewards and brings a different sense of enjoyment than being a player does, but for some reason I find that less interesting.
As an older teenager and continuing into my university career, a group of friends and I used to occasionally organize murder mysteries, using one of the many pre-packaged kits you can buy (like How to Host a Murder, An Evening of Murder, and others). I always really enjoyed these games, for a few reasons:
- The settings and characters, because they were pre-defined, made it easy for everyone to get into their role, get a costume together, etc. And yes, we usually did these in costume.
- While the games told you what you were supposed to say in general terms, you could decide exactly how the facts should be brought to light, and how your character will act / react while you do it.
- It was easy enough to plan a meal to go along with the game, and I like dinner parties almost as much as I like board games.
But one of the key reasons I enjoyed the murder mystery style games is that it was almost always possible to host and participate in the evening as a character still not know the solution until everyone else did. We even played a few games where (surprisingly) the murderers themselves didn’t know they were the guilty parties until the solution was revealed at the end. Similar to the kids in Rugrats, there’s no GM for this sort of thing in the traditional sense, which is something I find highly appealing.
Another large part of the appeal of this type of game is that I can spend my time planning the logistics of the evening (who is coming, when, what are we eating, etc.) and not have to worry about also planning the story, the characters, and everything else. Developing scenarios for roleplaying is a very time-consuming activity, and the older I get, the less time I find I have for that sort of thing.
Games like Descent do appeal to me, but I’m not sure I want to invest the money required especially given that someone still has to be the GM, even if the work of building the scenario is already done. Maybe I should once again plan some murder mystery evenings instead.
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