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Hey i had this idea recently about stories that were run by the players and no-prep GMs having to improve a lot. I Wanted to take it to a new level to give myself a challenge and also give the players a chance to drive the story in a somewhat random way where they create the clues and it is up to the GM to tie all of the clues together. Essentially the players can create a fact about a setting or clue that they are given. These facts are not intended for combat advantages. You can create one fact every few encounters with the exception of "clues" which the GM will decide how many facts you can assign to any given clue. Here is an example:
GM: *The GM Hands player 1 a blank map of korvosa* On the corpse of the Aristocrat you find a map of Korvosa and the surrounding area with multiple notes scribbled in the margin and points circled. You may each create one to two clues.
Player 1: "I've found a map of Korvosa, it seems to be old. at least 15 years, this district was demolished a long time ago"
Player 2: "What is this line extending out from the Academae?"
Player 3: "I Don't know but it probably has to do with this 'Count Whimble Daerik' its circled with a number 5468"
Player 4: Can i roll Knowledge Nobility on the Count?
GM: Sure
Player 4 rolls 18
GM: You have heard of the Daerik line but you don't recall a specific Whimble
Player 4: "I think i've heard of the Daerik family, they are a Andoran Nobility. Currently they employ a large fleet of textile traders."
Player 3: "There's also blood on the map, dried but not 15 years old"
After all of this the GM has to piece together the clues to form a somewhat comprehensive story. It would obviously require a roleplay heavy enviroment. The players and GM would have to be very knowledgeable about the Golarion. But i think it would be great fun as a GM and allow the players to put in lore from around the world that they want to see. Player 2 would like to learn more about the Academae while player 4 would like to know more about Andoran.
Has anyone done anything like this? And do you think it would work at all?
Sounds very dependant on players being skilled writers and actors, and I can't help but imagine players shaping the setting to fit their own desires as opposed to what is good for the whole.
I do some of this, though the game I'm running right now, most of the players aren't used to playing this way. What I did was prior to the session, I wrote up a question tailored to each character. I then had the player answer it and now I will incorporate those answers into the story.
For example, one character's backstory was that he had been a fence for a group of bandits. One day they betrayed him, murdered his family and left him for dead. He was now hunting them down.
The question on his card was "You saw one of the bandits, where was he? What is making you wait on going after him?"
The party had recently made an ally of a very wealthy noble and this player was doing some work for him, so he said he saw the bandit as one of the nobleman's guards. It created one roleplaying scene so far, but the party had some other business so it isn't resolved yet.
I find that the game Fiasco is both a really fun game, but it's also good for getting players out of their comfort zone of just reacting to things and actually pushing the story themselves. It's a GM-less game, designed to be played in a 2-4 hour session with zero prep. It does a good job of recreating something like a Cohen brothers movie, or the "heist gone wrong".
One of my favorite sessions was using the Bad Habits playset, where you play retired nuns who feud with each other.
Being creative is a skill, not a talent. You can practice and improve it. That game is one of my top recommendations to practice your roleplaying skills, without it being "practice", plus it's a ton of fun.
I think any good GM is on the lookout for little things their players put into action that they can use later to great irony or surprise.
But if you're really interested in an interactive RPG where all the players are forming the story, may I recommend De Profundis - Letters from the Abyss, from Cubicle Seven?
It was originally written as a guidebook for playing Eldritch horror via letters or emails. But the latest version has a section on getting together in a dark room with friends and a few props, and basically everybody ad libbing complicated clues which they then try to tie together.
You should look into Apocalypse World, or it's fantasy equivalent Dungeon World, because that is more or less exactly how that game is played. Although they take it a bit further.
I always wondered what Dungeon World would look like if run in the pf setting. You could consider doing that.
Mystic Empyrean may hold some interest for you. It's a system where there's actually no GM. I haven't had a real chance to look at it properly yet, but it seems interesting. Not sure how it would work in practice.
Fiasco is another system that does this. I quite love it.
I think the major difference is that Fiasco is intended for short runs and one-shot games, while Mystic Empyrean is meant to be a long running story.
Hollowpoint is a similar sort of game to Fiasco (works well for heist simulations etc, but tends to focus more on the players being ultra cool ultra violent agents rather than focusing on what can go wrong), can also work with no GM if you make a few slight modifications, which the creators actually went into in the rulebook.
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Fiasco is another system that does this. I quite love it.I think the major difference is that Fiasco is intended for short runs and one-shot games, while Mystic Empyrean is meant to be a long running story.
Hollowpoint is a similar sort of game to Fiasco (works well for heist simulations etc, but tends to focus more on the players being ultra cool ultra violent agents rather than focusing on what can go wrong), can also work with no GM if you make a few slight modifications, which the creators actually went into in the rulebook.
Hollowpoint you say. I'll make a note of that. I love a good heist game no matter the system.
Hollowpoint you say. I'll make a note of that. I love a good heist game no matter the system.Fiasco is another system that does this. I quite love it.I think the major difference is that Fiasco is intended for short runs and one-shot games, while Mystic Empyrean is meant to be a long running story.
Hollowpoint is a similar sort of game to Fiasco (works well for heist simulations etc, but tends to focus more on the players being ultra cool ultra violent agents rather than focusing on what can go wrong), can also work with no GM if you make a few slight modifications, which the creators actually went into in the rulebook.
Creators are a company called VSCA, they did another game called Diaspora which was a setting for Fate. Hollowpoint uses it's own system though. I'd been seeing it on the shelf at the FLGS for a while, eventually picked it up on a whim. Was pleasantly surprised by it.
