RPG types

 This is a roleplaying community blog post. 

“Sit ye around our campfire 

and listen to tales 

of wisdom and adventure.” 

Intone the sacred words through languages un-numbered and generations un-counted, ever since the dawn of time.

A very recent phenomena has emerged of the so-called professional GamesMaster who charges money to provide people the experience of playing a role-playing game.  

It involves the skills of painstakingly preparing a ready-made adventure and necessarily alienating from the group anybody who uses their own imagination beyond the remit of that pre-ordained adventure path. 

For decades, GamesMasters as part of a group have provided their service for free in the same way that players have provided their service to the GamesMaster for free.

The objective is to have fun creating shared storytelling adventures. 

This traditional type of GamesMaster generally does not railroad players along a predestined route, but rather works with the players desires for the greater good of the story itself. It involves the skills of improvised storytelling.

With the advent of the Internet and online gaming groups, studies were done into specific types of role-players. 

Within White Wolf’s World of Darkness game is Vampire and Werewolf. It was discovered all vampire fans want to be the gamesmaster because vampires are all about control, and all werewolf fans all want to be the players because werewolves are all about the pack. 

Conclusion: Different games attract different mindsets. 

When we take this awareness back to the original 1974 version of D&D which spawned the industry, we recognise the same difference between early edition and later addition of the rules. Those playing by first and second edition want to be part of a group of friends collaboratively sharing wonderful storytelling. Those playing by later additions prefer to be led by the nose without having to think much beyond puzzle-solving and vanity-valuing.

 

Because: We the old-schoolers with traditional community values are putting friendship before commerce. 

The question: 

Is a professional, paid gamesmaster going to give you a better experience than somebody who is a gamesmaster but does not charge money for it or feel the need to describe themselves as a professional for doing it? 

And the answer is: 

50 long and experienced years of No. 

It’s not fun because I’m paying to be told what to do. It’s fun because collaborative imagination is about freedom. 

Roleplaying is about creating a safe-space to enjoy that freedom. If you have to pay for freedom it’s not freedom. If you have to imagine what you’re told to imagine by someone who has already imagined it for you, it’s not freedom. 

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