W.A.R.S. panel at Malta Comic Con 2014: Role playing games provide players with a way to engage in cooperative story telling
W.A.R.S. President Heathcliff Bonnici and member Christianne Briffa presented “Talk: The Thrill of an Alternate World” at Malta Comic Con 2014. A primer on role-playing games and what they are, the two gave a description of how and what people role play while also providing helpful hints for first-time gamers and Game Masters (GMs).
Role-playing games use social, storytelling and game aspects to create an experience that is wide open for players. Computer games, movies and other forms of entertainment generally have less leeway when it comes to decisions made within the system.
“Real people are more unpredictable,” says Briffa. “Real people are harder to pin down.”
While computer games may offer four or five choices for talking, table top role playing games offer an almost unlimited number of choices.
Role playing games are cooperative storytelling. The best games come from players and GMs working together to create a cohesive story. These types of games help people to build their creativity, use their imagination, are socially involving and relatively inexpensive while being socially immersive.
“A couple of sheets of paper is enough,” says Briffa.
All anyone really needs to role play is:
“It’s a pen. It’s a paper. Your imagination – that’s the biggest and best prop you can have,” says Bonnici. The game models are there for structure to help people create stories, so “if you don’t like a rule, change it.”
The games should be about the people who are making up the story. That means that there are some character archetypes that are good for fiction but are difficult to use in role-playing.
According to Briffa and Bonnici, a good character should have these qualities:
“It’s a group effort, so your character needs to be useful,” says Bonnici.
As for long term goals, being rich is usually not a great goal. Many campaigns end with characters having a lot of money.
“If you’re rich, why not retire?” asks Bonnici.
GMs need to be conversant in the world that the group is building. Because GMs provide the scene and the outline for the story, it is important that they are able to be flexible in the story being told. Bonnici says that it is perfectly acceptable to be flexible because most of the time, the players have no idea what you are thinking.
W.A.R.S. is a non-profit group designed to get people together to play games. The group is headquartered at 13 Lion Street in Floriana and welcomes new players.
Other articles on role playing:
What I learned from Dungeons and Dragons:
Role-playing games use social, storytelling and game aspects to create an experience that is wide open for players. Computer games, movies and other forms of entertainment generally have less leeway when it comes to decisions made within the system.
“Real people are more unpredictable,” says Briffa. “Real people are harder to pin down.”
While computer games may offer four or five choices for talking, table top role playing games offer an almost unlimited number of choices.
Role playing games are cooperative storytelling. The best games come from players and GMs working together to create a cohesive story. These types of games help people to build their creativity, use their imagination, are socially involving and relatively inexpensive while being socially immersive.
“A couple of sheets of paper is enough,” says Briffa.
All anyone really needs to role play is:
- A story
- A group of friends
- Time to play together
“It’s a pen. It’s a paper. Your imagination – that’s the biggest and best prop you can have,” says Bonnici. The game models are there for structure to help people create stories, so “if you don’t like a rule, change it.”
The games should be about the people who are making up the story. That means that there are some character archetypes that are good for fiction but are difficult to use in role-playing.
According to Briffa and Bonnici, a good character should have these qualities:
- Must work for a group
- Must be motivated to join the group
- Must be fun for the person and the group
- Must fit the campaign
- Should have long term goals
- The player must be able to play the character. (If the character is evil, but the player cannot play evil, it won’t work.)
“It’s a group effort, so your character needs to be useful,” says Bonnici.
As for long term goals, being rich is usually not a great goal. Many campaigns end with characters having a lot of money.
“If you’re rich, why not retire?” asks Bonnici.
GMs need to be conversant in the world that the group is building. Because GMs provide the scene and the outline for the story, it is important that they are able to be flexible in the story being told. Bonnici says that it is perfectly acceptable to be flexible because most of the time, the players have no idea what you are thinking.
W.A.R.S. is a non-profit group designed to get people together to play games. The group is headquartered at 13 Lion Street in Floriana and welcomes new players.
Other articles on role playing:
What I learned from Dungeons and Dragons: