Role Playing Games

[1MKnight]

I've played some pen & paper role playing games back some years ago and recently I've gotten the urge to try to find a group of brothers and set up a group. But, looking back, the games always tended to have either violence or some level of spiritism (or both). Anyone know of any good systems/books that don't have spiritism and that don't focus on killing? RPGs are fun, but the industry tends towards these two things. 

 

 

[Sylv]

I played Traveller many years ago. It's a science fiction based role playing game. Although characters can have ESP-capabilities, I don't believe it is a necessity for any character to have this. I don't recall it being violent, more skill and cunning, but it was many, many years ago. 

[1MKnight]

I just read about one that I think fit's my description: Mouse Guard.

 

You play a band of mice (mouskateers?) who protect the mouse territories. No magic, and it seems like there is only "comic" violence. The occasional dramatic duel, fighting off crows, but no death and killing. 

 

[EDIT: It is based off of this comic.]

 

If anyone is interested in a decent RPG, that may be worth looking into. 

Edited November 14, 2018 by 1MKnight

[ChocoBro]

Well I think generally you will find that the fights are a key element of the tension in these games. Then again I would argue fighting some random animal-type monsters isn't at all an issue, but it will be hard to build a suspenseful story-arc without any same-species opponents, like a villain with henchmen, a criminal, a conspiracy.

My issue with pen and papers is, like you said, they are either set in a morally debased dog-eat-dog, violent world like a Cyberpunk environment, or fantasy, which usually means heavily occult like D&D. When it comes to sci-fi, these often have elements where you could debate whether this has a scientific background or is occult, similar to superheros. I'm thinking of Deanna Troi from Star Trek TNG, who has empathic abilities that go beyond simply reading micro-expressions and body language.
 

When I was in 5th grade and we couldn't afford the books, we made up our own pen and paper game. Theoretically, it isn't hard to make your own pen and paper RPG with skill checks and a combat system you developed yourself or based on other games, the most important question is, what environment is it set in, what challenges are you going to offer the players (especially when it comes to combat) etc. I suppose it would be important to know each individual players red line. I suppose what I'm saying is that when you narrow it down to rangers, lions and bears, you could even play the D&D system in this realm with a clear conscience.

 

Also, keep in mind that, though this is a fun and social recreational activity, time is a huge factor. The more extensive you want the experience to be, the more time you will have to invest as a game-master and the more time your players will spend playing out even mundane activities like having an in-time evening meal together. If you succeed in making a great experience, your players may get hooked and will make the suggestion of making it a regular activity. As your world takes more and more shape, you as game-master will find your every day thoughts dwelling more and more on the in-time world, new challenges, fleshing out new characters and so on... so time is the main issue why I no longer play these games, maybe in the New World if we have them.

[Dages]

I wanted to create a pen and paper rpg set up in Paradise to create a story like the one we can find in our brothers novels.

 

It's difficult to set up the rules... 

[EccentricM]

I actually play Star Wars RPGs. You could say I was somewhat of a hardcore RPer.

[1MKnight]

On 11/24/2018 at 1:36 AM, Dages said:

I wanted to create a pen and paper rpg set up in Paradise to create a story like the one we can find in our brothers novels.

 

It's difficult to set up the rules... 

I've never read any of these novels. I have a hard time imagining what sort of tension  or story you could build in a perfect society with no conflict. Unless you know something about paradise that I don't xD 

[1MKnight]

On 11/19/2018 at 9:46 AM, ChocoBro said:

I suppose it would be important to know each individual players red line. I suppose what I'm saying is that when you narrow it down to rangers, lions and bears, you could even play the D&D system in this realm with a clear conscience.

We did actually play Pathfinder without any occult aspects before. But I'd just rather not even have it included as a possibility. 

 

On 11/19/2018 at 9:46 AM, ChocoBro said:

Well I think generally you will find that the fights are a key element of the tension in these games. ...  it will be hard to build a suspenseful story-arc without any same-species opponents, like a villain with henchmen, a criminal, a conspiracy.

Agreed. However, that game, Mouseguard, seems nice in that the conflict system doesn't focus on combat specifically. It is a fairly universal system, combat, arguments, debates, traveling success, racing, building, anything. I like that unlike most systems, they are not focused on combat because it's not innately built into the system. And I do believe that you can have a same-species conflict without physical violence (or at least very little), such as finding the conspirators and simply arresting them. 

 

On 11/19/2018 at 9:46 AM, ChocoBro said:

time is a huge factor. The more extensive you want the experience to be, the more time you will have to invest as a game-master and the more time your players will spend playing out even mundane activities like having an in-time evening meal together. If you succeed in making a great experience, your players may get hooked and will make the suggestion of making it a regular activity. As your world takes more and more shape, you as game-master will find your every day thoughts dwelling more and more on the in-time world, new challenges, fleshing out new characters and so on... so time is the main issue why I no longer play these games, maybe in the New World if we have them.

This is very true. Though I am not opposed to making some sort of gaming/get-together semi regular as one of my goals is to reconnect with old friends and to associate regularly with new ones. I do know myself enough to know that I can potentially obsess over something like this, so I'd have to play it by ear and see how it goes if I started. 

[Dages]

20 hours ago, 1MKnight said:

I've never read any of these novels. I have a hard time imagining what sort of tension  or story you could build in a perfect society with no conflict. Unless you know something about paradise that I don't xD 

Read them, they are great

[1MKnight]

2 hours ago, Dages said:

Read them, they are great

any recommended starting places?

[Dages]

1 hour ago, 1MKnight said:

any recommended starting places?

https://justseemetoo.blogspot.com/p/download-books.html

 

Enjoy these ! my favorites

[Nirex]

There's a system called FATE (the name is the only issue) that's an improved version of the Fudge system. It basically lets you apply RPG mechanics to anything. Books, shows, games you know of. Using the system it's easy to make your own story and it's more story driven than stat driven like most of the D20 systems.