Two people met in a dingy basement at a table covered in thick manuals, piles of maps drawn on graphing paper, and an assortment of dice of all colors and sizes. One was sharply dressed in a full three piece black suit complete with a somber grey tie, the other looked rather flirty in a frilled pink blouse and a skirt that barely made it down to the middle of the thigh. Jorick took care as he sat to make sure his skirt revealed nothing risque to his guest, then rifled through a pile of character sheets to find his notes to begin the interview.
Jorick: I'm here today to interview Elendra, someone I consider a friend and the person who got me into tabletop roleplaying as more than just a passing interest. Unsurprisingly, the subject of the day will be tabletop roleplaying. So, Elendra, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your history with tabletop games?
Elendra: Hey Jorick, it's great to be here. I've been doing tabletop games for about as long as I have been roleplaying on forums. I started with D&D and played with friends for a bit. But then I started getting sick and wasn't able to keep up with doing it. Then, a few years ago, I got back into it with more D&D, and then some White Wolf, and now even Apoc World hacks [Editor's Note: this is the community term for variants of the Apocalypse World tabletop system]. To the point of even writing some of my own, during down time, for fun.
Jorick: Ah, a varied history indeed. For those who are less familiar with the varieties of tabletop games that exist, could you briefly explain the basic differences between the various systems that you're familiar with?
Elendra: Well, I'd imagine that most systems that people are familiar with are D20 systems. You roll that D20 (a twenty sided die), and a 1 is awful, 20 is great, and there's all these other stuff you take into account as well. White Wolf had a D10 system that was 'success based'. A lot more dice are rolled, and based on the value of each die (instead of the total value) is how well you do. And Apoc World hacks (like Dungeon World) use 2D6 for their systems. Roll two different six sided dice, add their values, and a modifier, get your outcome, and go. I've grown more attached to both the D10 and 2D6 systems over D&D though.
Jorick: Would you suggest any of these systems in particular to someone who's new to tabletop roleplaying, or are they roughly equal in level of complexity and how much you need to learn before actually playing a game?
Elendra: Well, the Apoc World hacks tend to be very simple, easy to pick up, and are a lot of fun. Also that system and its alternate settings (and others still, granted) don't just give out XP for combat like others. I feel that by giving out XP for the narrative instead of battle, that they're doing something right. They'd be my primary suggestion. D&D, while not my cup of tea, has plenty of people who are willing to help due to its larger user base as far as I know. Whitewolf's stuff, from what I've seen, is a bit more complicated, but I love the D10 system the most of all that I've done still. In all cases, it's still not a whole lot of effort to learn them. A day hanging out with friends on or offline is plenty (more than enough, even) for those.
Jorick: Sounds reasonable enough to me, and I have to note that from personal experience that it seems like once you learn one system and pick up the basics of tabletop roleplaying, it's very easy to transition into another system. Let's change gears a bit though. Tabletop games were originally just that, games played on a table with people in real life, but you run these games online. Which do you prefer, real life or online tabletop games? Also, do you feel like anything is lost in translation from the real world tabletop to the virtual one?
Elendra: That's true, once you learn one, learning others isn't too difficult at all. Same basic ideas. Usually the most difficult part is the mechanics of making your character, and the rest is easy. As for which do I prefer? Either medium is fun, albeit in different ways. In real life, there's usually more of a financial investment, more need for physical dice, and purchasing party snacks and such. It's fun, I definitely love it. Online it's a bit more relaxed, less of an investment necessary to do it, and further you can do it with people from anywhere. In both cases, setting a time aside can be a bother, and in all roleplays, tabletop or not, players can sometimes be an issue. I've heard people say that the ones you get in person are better, but that's really not always the case. Lost in translation, though? That would depend on what manner you are using for your online game. There are a variety of voice and video chat services that can help you with more contact and communication, but there's nothing wrong with doing it by text, or over longer periods of time either. Honestly, I don't feel there's that much of a difference between a play by post RP and a tabletop RP when it comes down to the RP itself, most of the difference, to me, seems to come from the character creation end of things.
Jorick: I see what you mean about character creation, with all the stats and skills and whatnot atop the things you'd find in a standard forum roleplaying character sheet. Speaking of characters, I happen to know that you have a history of making some amusing ones that take advantage of the tabletop mechanics to do ridiculous things. Would you care to share any of your favorite tabletop characters you've made or players in tabletop games you've GMed have made? Or perhaps some of your favorite moments from some of the tabletop games you've been a part of?
Elendra: I would have to say that my favourite was a Dwarf I made for a D&D 4e campaign. He was very abusive of the stats given for character creation, and the lax nature of it in general. Without going to any ridiculous lengths to break the world in character, of course. He was just a very dedicated and celebrated hero of the Dwarves, so much that he became a legend more than a person. Heroic, self sacrifice type. Tank. Tank to the point of breaking all challenges thrown to him... and also was a religious type. Anyway, after by just trying to save the lives of all around him... thereby foiling the plot, his training in religion was what ultimately made the GM decide to have the gods kill all Dwarves ever instantly and end the RP. It's a long story. While it was a blast for me, it was in the wrong spirit of things. I look back fondly on that campaign series still, even though I was an admittedly bad player, as I did try to minmax and abuse the system for the strongest possible character... you shouldn't do that, guys. You shouldn't. Do what I say, not what I do, no matter how fun it is. Do not do this cool thing. Et cetera.
Jorick: Haha, well, it's commendable that you admit your wrongdoing at least. For those unaware of the terminology, minmaxing is a way of pulling shenanigans with character stats where you minimize unwanted things and maximize the things you want to be good at so you are very powerful, such as taking all possible points out of social skills and putting it them in melee combat skills to become overpowered in fights. Dealing with minmaxers is one annoyance that traditional roleplayers don't have to deal with, but can you think of any other issues native to tabletop roleplaying that prospective GMs might face? And, on the flip side, are there any parts of the package that make GMing a tabletop roleplay easier than running a traditional play-by-post roleplay?
Elendra: Actually, ignoring those who intentionally set about to game the system, I'd actually say that tabletop roleplays are more congruent with a balanced playing field of characters. Yes you can have an honour system with GM oversight in freeform roleplays, but it's harder to make an imbalanced character when you have to put effort into it. Granted, the flip side of that, is some people actually enjoy just gaming the system in and of itself too. Tabletop has the issues of trying to pull off that feeling of all be there, and involves a bit more of an investment from both the GM and players to make it work. On the other hand, limitations breed creativity, and more so than other roleplays, structured and tabletop roleplays have just that touch of creative limitation.
Jorick: That's an interesting way of looking at the limitations imposed by a structured system. Speaking of limitations, for I am the master of segues, the Tabletop Roleplay section of the forum seems somewhat limited, what with it having less total activity than even the newer Nation Roleplay section. Do you have any insight as to why the level of activity there is so unfortunately low, and do you have any suggestions for how it could be made more inviting to the various people of the Roleplayer Guild?
Elendra: I think the biggest issue is that some people are just uncomfortable with the idea of doing a Tabletop Roleplay online, let alone on a forum. In an effort to get my current RP off the ground, even though placing it in the Tabletop Roleplay section would be more accurate for what it is, I put it in the Advanced Section instead. Because more players go there, and it's the safer bet. I'm not the only one, but I won't name names or anything like that. It's going to be something that will take more time to grow, as people become more comfortable with the idea and it gains more interest. As far as I was aware, it's always been a smaller group of long term dedicated players (maybe not dedicated to the same RPs or anything, just tabletop roleplay), and while that seems to have been enough to push and get the subforum, it's not apparently enough to make it thriving. The only way I could see it being more inviting is fresh blood in it, or more RPs that kind of bridge the gap. Structured and mechanical RPs that aren't necessarily tabletop RPs.
Jorick: And here I expecting a simple answer like needing a dice roller built into the site. Well then, anything else you feel like saying before we wrap this up, maybe something I didn't bring up because I'm a terrible interviewer or perhaps a plug for anything tabletop-related that you're involved with currently?
Elendra: Fuck, dice roller. That's right. Despite my love of playing tabletop games, wherein I have to roll dice, I forget that the guild doesn't have dice. I'm currently just using dice IRL as the GM in my RP. Because I have a lot of dice, and it's fun to roll handfuls of them at a time. And, no, you've been great. Plug for things? Well... you know what? I'll be nice. ComradeZed has been making some Apoc World Hacks. He's been spending a lot of time on them, and I think people should go check them out and stuff. I don't have links to any of it, but you should contact him about them.
Elendra: ComradeZed may not still be his username. I hope it is. I can't properly plug otherwise. Jorick, just edit what I said and put in his proper name now instead, or something.
Jorick: Haha, no need for editing, his Guild name is Zed, formerly known as CommunistZed. You're thinking of his IRC name. I'll see about getting in touch with him about his tabletop things for the news, but either way I'm sure he'll appreciate your kind plugging of his work. [Editor's Note: Zed was contacted and did indeed appreciate the plug. None of his work is currently up and running at the time of this writing, but he estimates that he will likely have something going by the time this edition of the RPGN is posted.] Thanks for taking the time to do this interview and give the good people of the Roleplayer Guild a bit of insight into the world of tabletop roleplaying.
Elendra: Wait, that's what we were doing?
Jorick: Well yeah, what did you think was happening?
Elendra: Nothing. I'm going to go now.
Jorick: Oh, well that's anticlimactic. Bye!
Elendra: Hmmm, actually can I redo that last line?
Jorick: Sure, we'll just cut that last part out in post. Maybe.
Elendra: Sounds good. Erhm "what did you think was happening?", "nothing, just... mod... maybe." And then I leave and it's done.
Jorick: Alright then, I'm sure our editing crew can make that happen. Thanks for your time and patience, Elendra.
Elendra then followed through on the leaving and being done part of the plan, hoping it would look good after some Hollywood magic. Unfortunately, it was later discovered that the RPGN interview crew had run far over budget to fill the set with all of the tabletop game paraphernalia. Apologies and a slightly used set of Dungeons & Dragons manuals have been sent to Elendra to make up for this oversight.
How important is out of character communication to you? Is a roleplay's success directly related to how much the players talk to each other, or is such communication optional? Have you ever kept in contact with other players in a roleplay through IRC, Skype, or some other method outside of Roleplayer Guild itself, and if so how do you feel it helped or hindered the roleplay? Please feel free to post your answers in this thread!
Interest checks are often the first stage in recruiting players for an RP, and a really good one can net you a lot of applicants. These are some of the interest checks that caught our attention recently. Best of all, they're looking for players!
Roleplays on this list have already started (but may still be recruiting, please consult the GM) and also caught our attention; the hard work the GM and players put in to setting up the RP, writing their sheets and hashing out the details have paid off and now they're writing their in-character (IC) posts.
