You know, in the age of main character syndrome and the uprising of self-expression as a core artistic element, I find that even the most progressive designs of modern games don't allow players to truly go apeshit with their characters and accomodate to their ideas after the fact. Every game I've ever read, new and old, has players bring down their high concepts into a neat standardized template that makes them fit baseline mechanics. Even in games where you have no classes and only skills, or even freeform aspects that should make these character concepts possible, you are still constrained by what the designer allows you to create based on their own notion of what a player character should be, no matter how loose the constraints.
Are there any freeform-adjacent games that allow you to truly bring any character and any setting to the table without the mental gymnastics of homebrewing it into what you want? Are there any TRULY universal systems that help to mediate in a freeform narrative rather than shaping it?
 Shopping Cart Returner Shirt $21.68 |
 |
Shopping Cart Returner Shirt $21.68 |
Yeah, it's called text-based rpg's where you write fanfiction about your character that occasional interacts with other characters. But even those have some rules and restrictions applied to them because it's a fricking game and if there weren't any, you would simply write a novel.
fpbp
I play a samurai space princess and she's the greatest hero in the galaxy. Suck it, gays.
>you would simply write a novel
This is the only bad part of your post. Go have your own fun and stop talking shit about mine, binch.
You have complete freedom in World of Darkness, the only limitation is your brain. Which you don't have.
Become a system master in HERO/GURPS/M&M and tell them they can use as many points as needed to stay the concept in their head since you have a very good grasp in the mechanics to keep things from becoming unbalanced.
Unless you are playing with morons or random there is a high chance no one is going to make something stupidly broken.
It seems to me like you want to eat your cake and still have it.
If you want system that helps you shape the game, it will (inevitably) shape the game. Systems that don't influence the game are useless.
>Are there any TRULY universal systems that help to mediate in a freeform narrative rather than shaping it?
I don't think so, at least not systems in the traditional sense. I think you best best is simply talk with your players to get on the same page, and then run freeform improvisation or some rules lite thing.
The Window.
It took me less than a year to find a truly universal system once I got into the hobby.
>the uprising of self-expression as a core artistic element
All art is fundamentally self-expressive but it's also influenced by a number of aspects that change the final creative piece. Self-expression, self-reflection, or we could call it self-insertion for the sake of keeping things clear, has been much more prominent in recent times. People don't just want interesting stories, people want to partake in creative works in which they themselves feel represented and validated to their full extent, not just alluded to or partially reflected in the narrative.
So the transcendent is passe and right now it's all about malignant narcissism. Cool. Fantastic.
This is cuck mentality. You are meant to be roleplaying yourself acting as you would in real life over situations in a fantasy world.
That was nonsense mixed with shame tactics
>People don't just want interesting stories, people want to partake in creative works in which they themselves feel represented and validated to their full extent, not just alluded to or partially reflected in the narrative.
Did you go to college to learn that dogshit soulless bugman take?
I don't want this. I want interesting stories. Please stop trying to put boring mundane character drama in supernatural mystery shows. From has one good feature, it's an interesting mystery, but these fricking hack writers, these self indulgent and 'self expressive' yid writers, they cannot help but burying it under 4 hours of interracial romances and queer political soapboxing.
OK and why should other people be subjected to your self-indulgent drivel?
What a load of absolute homosexual wank
These homosexual images and discouse tell so much about you. Arent you ashamed of being such an egocentric man?
Yeah. That's what I said. If you don't have anything to contribute, frick off from the thread.
Where do you think you are?
moron.
Based moronic newbie
Yep, that's you.
Oh man you are in full (you) prostitute mode
>yes you are
New material please
Seethe 🙂
It's much much easier to be creative with a limited palette.
What would be the point? Anyway, people who talk about self-expression are gay. Real human beings simply express themselves.
This.
All characters in all systems I make, regardless of restrictions are mine. People that whine about character expression also tend to whine about character death.
>Are there any freeform-adjacent games that allow you to truly bring any character and any setting to the table without the mental gymnastics of homebrewing it into what you want?
Cortex Prime is pretty good for this, my experience is mostly using it for capeshit stuff (marvel heroic uses it as the basis) but it's very easy to translate to other weird freeform and high concept characters. For capeshit as an example it's the only system I've played where you can have street level characters and giant cosmic frickoff heroes in the same party together and it still "works" the same way in comics you see batman and Superman team up or Deadpool is suddenly fighting aliens.
Not him, but I like the dice steps as stats a lot. Haven't gotten to try it out myself but the only thing that I wasn't sure myself would be how quickly it's damage track mode would make the combat flow.
GURPS. The only limit is the CP allotment which your GM can just arbitrarily change to make your character possible.
Better question might be what it is you want to play and why you feel you can't do it with the systems you already know?
>why you feel you can't do it with the systems you already know?
You are making here a bold assumption OP knows any system at all.
It's only polite to assume good faith.
OP isn't going to reply to anyone in this thread. You new to tg or something?
>Every game I've ever read, new and old, has players bring down their high concepts into a neat standardized template that makes them fit baseline mechanics. Even in games where you have no classes and only skills, or even freeform aspects that should make these character concepts possible, you are still constrained by what the designer allows you to create based on their own notion of what a player character should be, no matter how loose the constraints.
Why is there no GURP 5.0?
Because you can't improve perfection.
I jest, of course. Steve Jackson hasn't been seen in years and is probably too busy figuring out how to make yet another autistic ruleset for vehicles with which to unleash madness upon the readers. Either that, or he lost hope in humanity and we're never getting a 5.0, which is only slightly worse.
Anon, this is why you have a GM instead of just a book. If something you think up doesn't fit in perfectly, just get with the gm and put your heads together to flesh something out that will work.
Shouldn't be too hard unless you're a complete brainlet.
You probably want something like OVA or the homebrew game that I'm working on, but will never post on /tg/
The closest thing I know of is The Velvet Book, but that's basically just for the persona design, which is only half of your PC (the other half being the human who has the persona).
Damn. Well, at least someone is working on something playable. More power to you, anon. You'll always be able to GM a table, even if you nvr share the system here.
Provide an example of the character you want to make.
Oh sweet summer child
This is a big part of why I play fatecore. As long as you ignore the boring pre-made stunts, you're basically creating character abilities entirely from scratch but with a decent framework. I try to keep things balanced with a list of hypothetical "standard" stunts I made to compare them to.
Fate system
In the age of self-expression you still complain as always instead of doing things.