Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Roleplaying experiences without a GM in Car Wars?

swordtart · 01-16-2019, 03:26 AM

If you are playing with another person then you only need a GM for secret motives/moves etc. You can probably jointly come up with negotiated outcomes and decide with a D6.

E.g. you have just killed the first bandit in a 6 bike pack attack. Discuss it between you and decide what the best, worst and most likely outcome could be. They have to be balanced. You might decide that the best outcome is that the rest of the bikers skedaddle (which begs the question why did they attack in the first place as no pack attack can reasonably expect zero casualties - maybe this one who died proposed the attack and no they don't feel compelled to follow through?). To balance this, the Worst outcome is that they all fight to the death (but this wouldn't be the norm as anyone this single-minded would likely be dead long before now, maybe the one who died was the gang leaders daughter and if they abandon the attack, the leader will likely kill them for abandoning her). The most likely outcome is somewhere in the middle e.g. that they will fight until it is clear they can't win and then break off.

You can either dice off on a D6 with 6 being best outcome, 1 being worst outcome and anything else being the most likely outcome.
OR
You can just agree to accept the most likely outcome.
OR
You can raise the stakes and dice off to try for the best outcome. If you do that however then there is an equal chance of the worst outcome occurring (i.e. 4-6 Best outcome, 1-3 worst outcome. If you choose this option you can't get the most likely option.

Part of a DMs job is to ensure that narrative doesn't suffer from bad luck. Bad luck that creates a good story is GOOD, Bad luck that kills the party and ends the story is BAD. In the campaigns I run I do allow players to negotiate better outcomes if it will improve the story.

e.g. "Does the Bandit kill me outright or will he put me up for ransom instead?" - "Hmmm, good question, make a good argument and I'll consider it".

You have to be careful however not to molly coddle the players and failure needs to have consequences, they just don't need to be digital.

If you think about it the purpose of Roleplaying is to create a story, writers create stories and they have no GM either ;)

01-16-2019, 03:26 AM	#12
swordtart Join Date: Jun 2008	Re: Roleplaying experiences without a GM in Car Wars? If you are playing with another person then you only need a GM for secret motives/moves etc. You can probably jointly come up with negotiated outcomes and decide with a D6. E.g. you have just killed the first bandit in a 6 bike pack attack. Discuss it between you and decide what the best, worst and most likely outcome could be. They have to be balanced. You might decide that the best outcome is that the rest of the bikers skedaddle (which begs the question why did they attack in the first place as no pack attack can reasonably expect zero casualties - maybe this one who died proposed the attack and no they don't feel compelled to follow through?). To balance this, the Worst outcome is that they all fight to the death (but this wouldn't be the norm as anyone this single-minded would likely be dead long before now, maybe the one who died was the gang leaders daughter and if they abandon the attack, the leader will likely kill them for abandoning her). The most likely outcome is somewhere in the middle e.g. that they will fight until it is clear they can't win and then break off. You can either dice off on a D6 with 6 being best outcome, 1 being worst outcome and anything else being the most likely outcome. OR You can just agree to accept the most likely outcome. OR You can raise the stakes and dice off to try for the best outcome. If you do that however then there is an equal chance of the worst outcome occurring (i.e. 4-6 Best outcome, 1-3 worst outcome. If you choose this option you can't get the most likely option. Part of a DMs job is to ensure that narrative doesn't suffer from bad luck. Bad luck that creates a good story is GOOD, Bad luck that kills the party and ends the story is BAD. In the campaigns I run I do allow players to negotiate better outcomes if it will improve the story. e.g. "Does the Bandit kill me outright or will he put me up for ransom instead?" - "Hmmm, good question, make a good argument and I'll consider it". You have to be careful however not to molly coddle the players and failure needs to have consequences, they just don't need to be digital. If you think about it the purpose of Roleplaying is to create a story, writers create stories and they have no GM either ;) Last edited by swordtart; 01-16-2019 at 03:36 AM.