1 of 1

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 3

more imagination than in a dice game to succeed in a task.

Although many concepts from diceless games have been ported into dice RPGs, diceless games remain among the most imaginative and high-intuition requiring games ever written. The concepts developed for these games delve into virtually forcing players to think on their feet and have their characters act as quickly. Alternatively, a great deal more typically goes into generating a new character for a diceless game than what you'll find in nearly any dice RPG, simply because background, history, descriptions of the character, etc., are used more to help build and solidify the story. Again, however, dice RPGs and diceless RPGs are only different, neither being better than the other; just because one plays a dice RPG does not mean they are any less imaginative than diceless players, and diceless players may be looking for more in the way of a story being told to them than actually participating.

Diceless role-playing games have never been popular, although there have been several, such as Amber, with marvelous backgrounds, histories and settings. Interesting story lines abound as much, if not more so, in diceless games, and many GMs could learn from them for their own dice games.

THE TROUBLE WITH META-GAMING
It might be a good idea at this point to introduce you to the concept of meta-gaming, as it affects diceless games more than dice RPGs. In an earlier article in this series I pointed out that my core group and I played several games at the same time, simply trading off the job of GamesMaster periodically. I also explained that many of us possessed copies of the game books, which made the job of the GM for that weekend easier so better game-play, and more fun, could ensue while reducing the necessity of the GM to control every aspect of the game mechanics. Unfortunately, this can also have a bad side effect, and is something the GM and the players truly need to worry about.

The concept revolves around meta-gaming, which is using extra-character personal knowledge to influence how a character acts, or trying to inform another player's character about information they may have, but may not readily recall. The entire idea of disallowing the use of meta-knowledge is to keep the game properly balanced, as well as helping the GM to maintain their sanity. It could be considered as similar to The Prime Directive from Star Trek fame, where influencing or interfering with another player's knowledge, or trying to tip

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Role-playing: Diceless RPGs and Meta-Gaming?
We want to hear your view. Write now!