#12 Breaking the Rules

In my previous article I wanted to impress upon players and narrators that the rules of a RPG have to help the game. If they are not helpful they should not be there. Here we get into shaving off the unhelpful bits of rules.

My most successful role-playing group shares the belief: "less is more" when it comes to the rules. These are the "Soviets," if you have been keeping up with my blog. We've played several different games now, with different rules and we like to see open space on character sheets, and rule packets under 10 pages.

The key appeal for not having rules is freedom. If we have not already decided that A will cause B, then when A occurs we can decide what is best to follow. We are free because we don't have to abide by what is written, then we can adjust the game as we progress. There is obvious value to that.

But lets discuss when we decide to go against the rules, and not simply leave something open for later. A great breaking of the rules is Destiny. If you recall, I mentioned in Essay #7 that destined events are interruptions to normal game play. Destined events are not part of the normal rally of choice and consequence. Destined events may very well also be outside of the rules.

As with Luke Skywalker and his proton torpedoes. I don't really think a die roll is necessary when he makes his final shot at the death star. He chose to trust in the force, and that should be a reason to ignore the rules.

Thinking further on Destiny, I want to encourage players to think of ways that they can also break the rules. Sometimes in games I play, I see players looking over their character sheets and they don't see a relevant skill for what they want to do. I'm not a fan of players deciding they want to use such an such a skill. I would rather the role-playing be seamless. Player decides on an action and tries to find a way to make it work.

If you are a player go ahead and announce your intention of doing something. Whatever your skills, the cooperation between you, your teammates, and the GM can find a way to make it happen.

If you want to toss you crumpled piece of paper into the recycling bin you don't need to have a "throwing" skill. Simply saying that is what you want to do is enough notice to everyone there that you will use whatever talents your character has to achieve that end. You could had it off to your teammate for the alley-oop. You could mock "throw" it by holding our your hand and "running" the motion of the paper flying through the air. Or you could just use telekinesis.

This may seem like a dumb example, but I will remind you, that role-playing games are make believe. If you want to hold your hand out the car window and fly, lets figure out a way to make that happen.

Of course I'm not suggesting that a character can flap their arms around and fly. But just as much as we can dream of taking to the skies, a character can explore ways to get up up and away. No telekenisis required.

For players and GMs, please don't limit yourselves by what the books say. Reward the creativity of your fellow players and of the narration. 

It will make sure anything is possible.