What Is Free-Form Roleplaying?

 

 

Free-form Roleplaying is much more like writing a story than running a game. It consists of the players writing stories based on the actions of their character, or characters, if you wish to have more than one. These stories can be as detailed as you like, so long as they don't violate the known facts about the game world, or the actions of another player.

The stories are written in segments, each segment ending when the player needs to know something about the world, or the actions of another player. The segment is ended with a request to the story's moderator (myself), or another player, for information. The questions are answered, and the story continues.

For example, say Carol is writing about her Investigator, Charisma. Her story involves Charisma seeking missing children in an old warehouse. Carol could describe what she sees when Charisma enters the warehouse, but would rather be surprised, so she ends her segment with "What does Charisma see when she breaks the lock and throws open the door?"

The moderator, who keeps track of everyone's story lines, can write back a description of the horrible sacrificial altar, which Charisma can then react to... or, the moderator can determine that someone else's character has gotten there first, and replies with "You see a dark man in a trenchcoat and hat, sneaking around with a gun..." and relay information to Chuck, who's character Charisma has just walked in on.

When in doubt, ask the Moderator what's up.

The stories start from a page of Story Seeds... hints and rumors floating around the town of New Hamelin. If you see a seed that you want to pursue, you e-mail the Moderator and tell him you want to take up that storyline. The Moderator then gives you some extra information about it, such as additional rumors and who else is working on it.

From there, you pursue the story as you wish... free to make up whatever stuff you want, so long as it doesn't contradict the genre, already established facts, or the actions of another player.

If there are questions about the world, the genre, established facts, or what happens when players collide, the Moderator is e-mailed, and he settles the questions.

That's it, in a nutshell, for the free-form roleplaying rules. As to how the story segments are disseminated, and how everyone gets all the information, that's on the "Join In" page.

How do I join in?
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