|
PnP gaming provides a widely varying type of gameplay depending primarily on three factors... the game guide (DM in dnd parlance), the players, and the Gaming World. Online PnP gaming is another variant (described above)... but since I don't do it I won't comment on it.
The game world and mechanics define the underpinnings of the gaming experience, what kind of world is it (sci-fi, fantasy, historical, post-apocyliptic, cyberpunk, etc...), this is tyically done with a number of books, some define the general setting (Adventures or settings guides), some the mechanics of game guiding (DM Guide), some the mechanics of gameplay (Players Guide).
In the last year I've Roll Played in four totally different environments... Ars Magica - a Fantasy/Semi-Historical universe that I both play and GG in, Shadowrun - a Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk/Fantasy hybrid, DnD - which everyone knows, and Eldrich Asskicking - a goofy tongue-in-cheek fantasy pnp equivelant of an action RPG.
The gameplay for each is fundamentally based on dice roles, but beyond that it's vastly different. DnD uses the old d20 system, Ars uses multiple d10's, Shadowrun and Eldrich use D6's. The success/failure mechanics are substantially different for each of the systems, and with SR, Ars, and Eldrich you have 'botch' potential, where certain rolls result in a botch that can have disasterous consequences.
Now all this stuff only serves to provide a skelaton, but the real flavor of the game is determined by the Game Guide (DM) and players. One of our Game Guides is highly experienced, gaming for decades in very experienced groups (one of his older groups writes guides). His games (he's our Ars Game Guide) tend to focus more on character development, setting up and managing our Covenant (our base of operations). Adventures are sometimes ad-hoc, sometimes structured, but always very fluid. He's able to easily adapt to the sometimes whimsical decisions of the members. His adventures are rarely combat centric... and often a full day of gaming will have no combat at all.
Our second Game Guide (Shadowrun) is very quest oriented. His games tend to have clearly defined beginnings and endings... with elements of the larger Campaign added in (much like a TV series). He's a lot more combat centric, which leads to things like me making my most recent character an anti-violence activist (which threw him for a loop). He's also young (20's) and new to GG'ing... so he's growing and learning as time goes on.
My GG style is more guided than the other Ars GG, and more adventure focused than development focused. I tend to throw a lot of curveballs at players and use humor a lot more than any of the other GG I play with (in my last adventure, a shape-changing Mage turns into a bear to attack my party... but when he chases the party into a cave he's done in by an amorous she-bear. One of the players (my son) has been cursed with a faerie helper that almost always messes up when he tries to help... his name is (predictably) Dobbie, the kids LOVED it).
I guess that brings the other big factor that affects the experience... the players. When we play games with the kids there is a lot of fun and humor that isn't present in the adult only games... but obviously some of the violence and adult themes are removed. The thing about pnp gaming is that uber-gaming isn't really how you have fun, it's a lot more about role playing - developing your characters quirks. Usually character flaws are more fun to play out than virtues. Like I said, my Shadowrun character is a mercinary with gobs of fighting experience who's turned over a new leaf and is now a pacifist. My Eldrich character is a Gay Vampire, and my Ars character is a very powerful Flambeau (Fire) Mage who has a disturbing tendancy to botch spells... which often results in death and destruction to my own party (I've already killed two PC's on accident).
You really do get out of pnp games what you put in... if you enjoy going into character and becoming someone else for a while you'll love gaming.
|