Informal Campaigns

[Teapot Salty]

Hey guys. So me and a couple of friends where out in the forest one day, and I decided to try my hand at dming a informal campaign. It was really fun, without having to roll for anything and making up tons of stuff as I went along. I want to know, what do you guys feel about informal campaigns. Love em, hate em, never tried em or something else.

[Kol Korran]

I am unfamiliar with the term. What do you mean by "informal campaign"

[Thrudd]

In other words: playing make-believe as you run around out in the woods? I used to love doing that as a kid. Me and my friend from down the street would build forts out of branches and old pallets and run around with staves and spears we made ourselves and pretend we were fighting orcs, or ninjas, and searching for hidden treasure. Then I found the Basic D&D box in my parents' bookshelf and we never looked back.

[inexorabletruth]

Or he could be talking about FFRP (free-form role-play).

FFRP is a blast! If you have a great character concept, but lack the mechanics know-how, system capabilities or just don't want to be bothered with the crunch, FFRP allows you to just go with it.

I don't play much FFRP anymore, but when I did I always had a great time. It's just best to play with people you already know. And I don't know many people who are into it.

Coincidentally, we have an FFRP forum here on the playground.

[SiuiS]

Knowing when to adhere to rules and when to go freeform is an art form lost on many and one of the more useful tools in anyone's toolbox. Kudos!

[Driderman]

Free-form can be fun, but personally I prefer have some sort of resolution system that gives a certain degree of randomness.

[Slipperychicken]

If you love playing make-believe, more power to you. It's generally referred to as "free-form roleplaying", though.

[Red Fel]

I ran a free-form martial arts-style campaign once. My policy was simple:

1. Make it cool.
2. Describe only your actions, nobody else's.
3. Despite #1, don't god-mode.
4. See #1.

With a mature enough group of players, it worked out quite nicely, and was a refreshing distraction from our usual dice-oriented games.

If you're uncomfortable going 100% free-form, one option is simply to go mechanics-light. One way to do this is to have any contested action resolved through a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.* Another is to give each player a fixed number of chips or tokens that they can use to "bid" on any action; your "bid," plus your description, is measured against some arbitrary amount in the DM's mind, resulting in success or failure. Yet another option is to simply limit each player to one die roll per scene or encounter, which tells them generally how successful they are at that time.

* I usually play a variant version of the game, which I call Rock, Paper, Scissors, Red Fel. ProTip: Red Fel beats everything. And you are not Red Fel.

[Airk]

Free-form can be fun, but personally I prefer have some sort of resolution system that gives a certain degree of randomness.

I'm just going to leave this here. I think it firmly refutes the idea that dice are somehow necessary.

[Driderman]

I'm just going to leave this here. I think it firmly refutes the idea that dice are somehow necessary.

I didn't say anything about dice, just that I prefer my games to have some form of random resolution. Played a lot of fantasy where we simply used the Tarot deck from the Everway system to resolve situations, if we felt we needed it. Simply draw a card and try to interpret what it means to the situation at hand. I've played plenty of free-form and although fun, I know that I need some sort of system backbone for an RPG to really work for me, even if it's an exceedingly simple one.

[BootStrapTommy]

Due to choatic nature of our lives, almost all campaigns my pals run can be considered informal to one degree or another.

[Teapot Salty]

If you love playing make-believe, more power to you. It's generally referred to as "free-form roleplaying", though.

Good to know, thank you.

[The_Werebear]

Something like that is actually what got me started on DnD.

[Dawgmoah]

Hey guys. So me and a couple of friends where out in the forest one day, and I decided to try my hand at dming a informal campaign. It was really fun, without having to roll for anything and making up tons of stuff as I went along. I want to know, what do you guys feel about informal campaigns. Love em, hate em, never tried em or something else.

I find a lot of folks who I encounter gaming have no clue what life would be like without all of our technological toys. Well, with the exception of mainly military folks. After getting tired of me telling them that repeatedly my players decided we should all leave the big city behind and go hiking and camping. Call it free form play or whatever, it was entertaining and fun. Got to show people how moving in the woods wasn't so easy when trying to be silent, campfires can truly keep away unwanted animals but literally serve as a beacon for anything with intelligence.

And it got a lot of city boys and girls out into the wild and showed them even a glimpse of what their characters go through every night while out adventuring.

[valadil]

I did one like that once. I ran it for a couple friends. The idea was that we'd never plan or schedule the game. Instead it was what we did when we were driving somewhere, waiting for our movie to start, eating out, etc. It was a really good time and I'd recommend it to anyone, although I wouldn't have it be my only game.

[Jay R]

When I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was, "But all campaigns are informal. I've never required the players to wear tuxedos."

I've gotta stop reading old-fashioned books.

[Rosstin]

I honestly think that the theoretical "perfect" tabletop system would be one without a bunch of die-rolling. Just an uncomplicated set of deterministic "rules of the universe".

I've run games like this many times, where the players have certain tools at their disposal with which to achieve their objectives.

People often deride this as a "magical tea party", but I think of it as more of a "locks and keys" sort of logical puzzle. If you have a well-constructed world with good internal logic, you don't need dice and randomness to adjucate everything. Compare to a text adventure or adventure game where there are lots of puzzles, trials, and adventures but no random events.

Of course, that's a lot different from FFRP, because the DM needs to do extensive preparation to create a world with clear rules.

[SiuiS]

Something like that is actually what got me started on DnD.

I did something like that too. Only min was reversed; I'd always been interested in D&D because my good Christian parents told me not to like it. Come age six I find a monster manual in a used book store, and read it. I learned of a world based on those entries, a world where somewhere, probably in a bazaar (it's always bazaars in fantasy) someone was buying griffon eggs, and someone was selling hippogrif chicks. Right this moment, in a forgotten tunnel, a man with a sword was wondering if the distant orb was a balloon full of poison (he had seen those before) of a floating head with many eyes that sought to end human life with it's wicked sorceries. Behind him, his scholarly friend was deciphering a set of runes that might be lost text of an old civilization (such being the sort of thing you find on old treasure charts), or it might be the key phrase to set off a devious trap. And there in the corner was a mole with a starfhis nose, upset that neither of the two men was psychic.

And then I found choose your own adventure! I spent time as a fighter, a paladin, a werewolf, a thief, a wizard. And I was still watching power rangers and Godzilla, still playing Mario and megaman and still watched the old sonic the hedgehog cartoons. I had a fantastic inner life. It's only slowed down lately because walking alone and making the occasional dramatic sound effect is not something a grown lady is supposed to do.

I think 'never stop playing pretend' is going to be the greatest gift I give my children.

When I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was, "But all campaigns are informal. I've never required the players to wear tuxedos."

I've gotta stop reading old-fashioned books.

Alternately, run more formal games.

[QUOTE=Aster Azul;16951912]I honestly think that the theoretical "perfect" tabletop system would be one without a bunch of die-rolling. Just an uncomplicated set of deterministic "rules of the universe".[/wuote]

This is how world of darkness nominally works. Your stats are player fiat, and you basically use those components to tell your side of the story. Dice only roll when there's contention and both failing and succeeding would make a good story.

[Rosstin]

I have a number of friends who tell me about their mythical campaigns which seem to be wildly entertaining, set in World of Darkness. All kinds of craziness about navigating intense politics and brashly pissing people off. I've heard it goes in "scenes". They usually play online, though.

[Joe the Rat]

I've done it a couple of times. handy for when you don't want to lug books around, or play with ideas, or introduce people to the concept without mucking about with dice and mechanics. It also describes like half of the sessions on one of my current games (the Teluria campaign), because we can spend entire sessions talking and puzzling without rolling dice.
Also, there was that one time we played Amber.

When I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was, "But all campaigns are informal. I've never required the players to wear tuxedos."

I've gotta stop reading old-fashioned books.

Nah, go for it. Nothing classes up a game like white tie and opera gloves. Even Kobolds Ate My Baby.

Especially Kobolds Ate My Baby.

[Teapot Salty]

When I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was, "But all campaigns are informal. I've never required the players to wear tuxedos."

I've gotta stop reading old-fashioned books.

I don't know man, maybe I should start wearing tuxes to my games.

[Jay R]

Nah, go for it. Nothing classes up a game like white tie and opera gloves. Even Kobolds Ate My Baby.

Especially Kobolds Ate My Baby.

How vulgar.

At a formal gaming table, we play Kobolds Dined Upon My Baby.

[Red Fel]

How vulgar.

At a formal gaming table, we play Kobolds Dined Upon My Baby.

Pish-tosh. Plebians.

At our soirees de joues, we enjoy a pleasant pasttime of Diminuitive Reptilianfolk Made a Repast of My Darling Child.

While smoking our cigarillos and enjoying a fine snifter of brandy.

Bully.

[Jay R]

Pish-tosh. Plebians.

At our soirees de joues, we enjoy a pleasant pasttime of Diminutive Reptilianfolk Made a Repast of My Darling Child While Smoking Cigarillos and Enjoying a Fine Snifter of Brandy.

Fixed that for you.

[Slipperychicken]

This is simply marvellous. I wish to learn the ways of posh gentlemanly roleplay, and I dare say we could make a right good thread of it.

[Red Fel]

This is simply marvellous. I wish to learn the ways of posh gentlemanly roleplay, and I dare say we could make a right good thread of it.

Quite so! Do be a sport and have us a thready, would you, old chap?

[Slipperychicken]

Quite so! Do be a sport and have us a thready, would you, old chap?

Yes, it has been quite some time since I've woven a thread of my own. I'll see to it on the morrow, though I'm afraid I'll be out hunting numbers most of the day. Should any of you fine chums grow weary of waiting for myself, you have my fullest blessing and permission to kick off the thread without me.