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  • 16/04/2024 at 09:47 #197343
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster

    Do people still do rpgs using nothing but their imagination?
    So many games these days seem to have associated figures, and buildings, and terrain, and stuff, and…
    What happened to just imagining it all.

     

    #getoffmylawn

     

     

    16/04/2024 at 11:26 #197345
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    When called upon to run one I will tend not to bother with figures, perhaps a sketch map to give people a feel for place

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

    16/04/2024 at 12:14 #197347
    Avatar photoTony Hughes
    Participant

    Back in the days when D&D was a big thing many players would only play ‘official’ scenarios so it isn’t a new thing to avoid imagination.

     

    16/04/2024 at 12:27 #197348
    Avatar photoWhirlwind
    Participant

    Yes. That is the way  I play with the bairns. Occasionally I doodle a quick sketch or outline of something, that’s it.

    16/04/2024 at 13:36 #197351
    Avatar photoRussell Phillips
    Participant

    I never use miniatures in RPGs. I’m currently running one campaign and playing in another one, both of which are very much theatre of the mind. There are maps of the setting, and we occasionally use them to refer to where places are in relation to each other, but that’s it.

    In the campaign I’m running, the characters have come across a monster of a type that they’ll probably never meet again, and various NPCs that are unlikely to be seen again. I don’t want to buy and paint figures that will only get used once.

    Military history author
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    16/04/2024 at 13:43 #197352
    Avatar photoMike Headden
    Participant

    I use figures, maps, scenery, handouts, etc for RPGs and always have. I’ve been running tabletop RPG games since the mid-1970s so it’s far from a new idea.

    All, bar one, of the RPGs I’ve played in did the same.

    The one game where we were all using our imaginations it became rapidly apparent to me that we were not all imagining the same thing.

     

    There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

    16/04/2024 at 14:09 #197353
    Avatar photomadman
    Participant

    I try to keep it all theatre of the mind. I find as soon as miniatures come out it is a wargame and the role playing changes to roll playing.

     

    16/04/2024 at 15:19 #197357
    Avatar photoDarkest Star Games
    Participant

    There have been RPGs that I have run or played in where minis and stuff were used, mostly in D&D and Pathfinder where counting squares is important.  Usually it’s TotM style with maybe a pad of paper or dry-erase mat to sketch or doodle maps or rooms or what the facade of a building looks like.  Lately all of my RPG stuff has been over Discord (though occasionally a VTT like Forge or Roll20) so there really isn’t a good way to do any of that, all just words and laughter.

    "I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

    16/04/2024 at 16:09 #197362
    Avatar photoAndrew Beasley
    Participant

    Jake does not use figures at all face to face or over Discord and Alice uses figures all the time for their face to face games but a dry wipe sheet for the area IIRC.

    Wonder if it’s dependant on how combat orientated the game is?

     

    21/04/2024 at 12:52 #197531
    Avatar photogreg954
    Participant

    I remember years ago when I was a kid playing RPG with my Dad and Sister. Dad would narrate from a book (which was only a guide for the storyteller) and we rolled some dice to determine the outcome of battles. But that was all, the rest was filled in with our minds.

    When miniatures, scenery etc.. gets added I think then it’s easy to change the dynamics of the game. Take Dungeon Scum for example, it’s not a true mind of theatre game nor a true tactical experience. It aims to be somewhere in the middle. A fair amount of imagination is still required to fill in the blanks. So is it a case that less pure mind of theatre games are being played and more games like Dungeon Scum instead?

    21/04/2024 at 14:54 #197533
    Avatar photoMike Headden
    Participant
    Andrew Beasley wrote:

    Jake does not use figures at all face to face or over Discord and Alice uses figures all the time for their face to face games but a dry wipe sheet for the area IIRC. Wonder if it’s dependant on how combat orientated the game is?

    I’d say it is absolutely dependant on how combat oriented the game is.

    Things like D&D revolve around combat so exactly where everyone is matters. Your thief can’t be 25 metres away from the party checking a door for traps one moment and backstabbing the beastie that just walked through the door behind the rest of the party the next if there is to be any semblance of reality.

    Who’s sitting where round the conference table as you negotiate a treaty between the Klingons and the Vorlons, not so crucial.

    If the default conflict resolution mode is negotiation then Theatre of the Mind is fine.

    But if the ethos of the game is “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid” then I’d go for figures and scenery (even if it’s just a playmat and pens) every time.

     

     

    There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

    21/04/2024 at 16:54 #197539
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster
    Andrew Beasley wrote:

    Wonder if it’s dependant on how combat orientated the game is?

    I think maybe it is people orientated?
    I have played DnD (well AD&D as it was?) Star Wars, Heavy Gear, and many other RPGs that have a strong fighty aspect to them, as well as games not so much.
    None of us ever used any models or terrain we just said where we wanted to be in relation to the world and that was all we needed.

    ?

    21/04/2024 at 23:12 #197542
    Avatar photoAndrew Beasley
    Participant

    Apologies – should have been more clear (blush)

    By ‘game’ I meant the gestalt ‘game’ not a specific rule set so you could play a combat orientated D&D where I think figures help clarify LOS or an adventure orientated D&D game where description rules.

    I do think figures add to the game (bar from combat) just for the fun of collecting and painting them and I cannot remember any RPGs I’ve played where the dominated the game and normally they did not replace the descriptions of the rooms / positions but added to combat.

    Figures do add other problems though – LOS and cover can become a sticking point and even laser pointers are not a 100% fix – here the relaxed descriptions win (e.g. ‘I will hide behind that small bush’) even if your figure is twice the size of it on the table 🙂

     

    22/04/2024 at 12:01 #197554
    Avatar photoMike Headden
    Participant

    Every RPG I’ve played where we used figures and “scenery” – for whatever value of scenery was in use – also used a grid, hexes or squares, to regulate movement.

    Also, whether or not you could hide behind a bush in the games I’ve played was down to the DM/GM. It wasn’t,”I’ll hide behind that bush.” It was,”My character is looking around for cover, what do they see?”

    I know some (many?) games these days are collaborative but in my day the GM’s word was law and you were firmly in their world.

    “You play in the man’s game, you play by the man’s rules”

     

    There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

    22/04/2024 at 12:26 #197555
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster
    Mike Headden wrote:

    Also, whether or not you could hide behind a bush in the games I’ve played was down to the DM/GM. It wasn’t,”I’ll hide behind that bush.” It was,”My character is looking around for cover, what do they see?”

    See that is interesting to me, in the games we did, the bush would have been described/implied already by the GM.
    The scene would be set and the players would know what could be reasonably be expected to be there.
    So if you were on a highway maintained by road wardens between villages and you had fields on your left, the players would say I hide behind a bush or in a drainage ditch and the GM would be cool with that, as it seems fair that there would be some bush/ditch of some sort in the area travelled through.

    Also interesting to me is the I will hide vs my character will hide distinction.

    We played very much as one troupe rather than GM vs players (except of course for Paranoia!)
    We wanted to create great stories.

    Our regular group of about 5 also had 2 long term GMs as part of it, and when the 2 GMs were bouncing off one another in terms of character dialogue or describing scenes and actions it was on occasion just wonderful.

    This was in my day, which was about 30 years ago or so.

    YMMindeedV.

    It is interesting to see/read about how different people play for different reasons and in different styles.

    Since moving I have not done any RPGs as the local gamers are what I call roll players, in that they say ‘my character tries to bluff the guard and rolls an XX, what happens?’
    The GM then says ‘the guard rolls a XXX and your bluff fails’…

    This is not for me, which means I am missing out, whereas they are not.

    But you have to play in a way that you enjoy, or why play at all?

    😀

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