Writing a Galactica RPG?

[Hellscaretaker]

I been in a few online RPG where you dont use any dice what so every. The whole idea is for the players to send in posts to move the story along of course there is a gamemaster to do any results of actions that players try to do.

Doing this typical of game play is hard and you got have the time to do a post every night other wise the story stalls waiting for players to send in their storys

[OoohFrak]

I have no interest in so-called diceless roleplay. A better name for it would be "whoever yells loudest roleplay." The games become tests of wills, and the quieter, less-combative players get left on a curb.

I've been roleplaying for 25 years. There's a reason standard roleplaying systems sell millions of units, and diceless roleplaying sells almost nothing, and only has a few thousand online players. Standard roleplaying systems work. Diceless roleplaying systems do not.

[Ioraptor]

Diceless roleplaying has a strong following. Just witness the success of Minds Eye Theater, Host a Murder, Cthulhu and Amber Diceless RPG not to forget the hundreds of online text driven games.

That said, diceless gaming is not for everyone. I think it favors roleplaying at the expense of wargaming and balanced adversarial conflict in general.

I've been tinkering with a Mekton based nuBSG system. The anime-esque feel of the game mechanics lends itself well to the material.

[OoohFrak]

Ioraptor said:

Diceless roleplaying has a strong following. Just witness the success of Minds Eye Theater, Host a Murder, Cthulhu and Amber Diceless RPG not to forget the hundreds of online text driven games.

That said, diceless gaming is not for everyone. I think it favors roleplaying at the expense of wargaming and balanced adversarial conflict in general.

I've been tinkering with a Mekton based nuBSG system. The anime-esque feel of the game mechanics lends itself well to the material.

Diceless roleplay system have about 1/2 of 1% of the market for roleplaying games. Standard roleplaying systems have 99 1/2% of the market share.

When 99.5% of the people agree on a subject, they are rarely wrong. Amber hasn't even been in print in years.

You even admitted that diceless roleplaying system lack balance. That's the whole point of what I was saying. Who ever yells the loudest and has the most forceful personality is the one who dominates diceless game sessions.

[Ioraptor]

I sense you dislike diceless RPGs strongly Ooohfrak

I will take your statistical analysis under advisement, though I was unaware that anyone had done a proper survey. Personel experience informs me that in the 1990 to 2000 time period in Berkeley/Oakland CA area, diceless roleplaying (specifically MindsEye Theater) dominated game play in the twenty to thirty something age groups.

If you look at the staggering number of text driven RPGs online (basically story telling board messages) its pretty safe to say diceless RPGs have a strong following and a healthy future. The complaint about; "the strongest voice wins" only applies if the players have departed from the philosophy of cooperative storytelling and role play and become adversaries.
Thus changing the paradigm of the game.

Again, its all a matter of taste. If you prefer storytelling and role playing diceless RPGs are strong, if you prefer adversarial war gaming then diceless systems pretty much suck.

I'm looking forward to the day when someone comes up with a slick software that blends the two concepts online. Games like "Second Life" are closing in on this goal. Only I would like to see it done for a fantasy or science fiction environment.

[ViperTech]

THANK you Ioraptor... You have said what I've been trying to say in so many words far more eloquently.

I think a diceless BSG RP is perfectly fine. The show is character driven and the best way to drive characters is joint story telling. With such media as tv shows, books, and movies, the world is already created and universally agreed upon by the fans. If that balance is maintained then it doesn't become a "shouting match"...

[Lt Spenser]

First off... I am a total fan of dice-based RPGs. I play them almost to the exclusion of diceless.

But let me point out that using the numbers to advocate the merits of one system over another might not prove the point. Out of the total number of TV show viewers out there in the world... what percentage of that whole watches BSG? My guess is "substantially less then 1%" though no one here would dispute the quality of the show, I suspect.

I think with any game, dice-based or diceless, it's up to the GM to make it enjoyable, to sort of set the tone and keep players invested and on task, and resolve problems that may arise; not a factor of which system is used.

I've taken part in many diced-based RPGs that sucked eggs... and although it takes a bit more discipline on everyone's part to make a diceless environment "work", I think the benefits of such a system outweigh the potential for grief.

The GM's word is still law, and we're all ( reasonably ) intelligent and courteous people, right?

Right? ~laughs~


To sum up my position on some topics:

1. Dice-based -or- diceless is fine. It's the GM that carries the game, as well as the participation of the players... not the system.
2. No series characters as PCs