PbP Freeform Roleplaying

[Zero_Point]

This is something that has interested me for a while now, but I don't really know how one would pull it off. I like the idea of roleplaying without the limitations of a structured system, but at the same time I don't know how one would handle conflict or challenges in such a game.

Can anyone help me understand how a freeform game would work in a PbP medium? Is there some sort of system for it?

[Faily]

It could work for a kind of small sandboxy game.

However, I'd say that they key to approaching freeform is to have players who are mature, trust eachother/know eachother and are able to communicate well with eachouther Out of Character. Simply because if you are going to freeform it, conflicts and confrontations can (most likely) only be decided by the players being able to take read of the situation and agree to what is the most likely outcome based on their characters.

[5a Violista]

Coincidentally, there's a post in the freeform roleplaying sub-forum that answers part of your question: here, under most of the spoilers, and here, under the "additional information" spoiler, then "why we fight" sub-spoiler. Obviously, how it's done varies from group to group. Some groups (such as the one linked) don't allow any control over others' characters, only over NPCs and your own characters. Other groups give whoever is posting control over every single character in the scene. Other ones give control over your own character with the narrative license to write what happens to other peoples' characters, up to a point.

In general, the rule is the roleplayers decide beforehand the rules and level of control everyone has. Frequently, there's the unstated assumption that nobody should unnecessarily power up their character just to 'win'. I've also noticed that people who enjoy it more tend to have goals other than just 'winning' – if that's even a thing in freeform roleplaying – such as telling/finding out the story of a character, simply having fun with other players, having their character lose the combat in the most entertaining way possible, or making both players' characters seem awesome at the end of the combat.

Basically, conflict and challenges aren't the purpose of the roleplaying, but instead are vehicles to communicate ideas and are usually treated as cooperative instead of competitive. (Because, really, it's a lot easier to type "Your attack misses" or "My character becomes immune to whatever your character just did" or "My character suddenly gains powers at the rate of a Shonen main character" than it is to write out a cool action scene.)


Also:
Faily is right that the key to approaching it is to have players who can trust each other and can communicate well out of character.

[Zero_Point]

Thank you. This has been informative. I may have to give this a try in the near future.