A Game Without Rules

Have you ever wanted to play D&D so badly and it just didn’t work because everyone was busy? I don’t mean, like, busy in their lives in general, I mean, they are busy at that very moment that you want to be playing. So annoying! My desire to play this game has been borderline dysfunctional, and there have been times where all I wanted was to roleplay. There have been a few times where I have managed to do that at a moment’s notice, and they were tons of fun. All of these examples were played without any strict adherence to a particular set of rules, and involved no planning in advance.

Another time I got to play suddenly was over text. I randomly texted a friend that a small red dragon was swooping towards them and they had one round before it reached them. My friend, an avid gamer, responded with a funny answer, and I followed up appropriately. We played this way over the course of the day, and by the end of it he had amassed a ton of wealth but had made a lot of enemies. It was a great distraction throughout the day with little pressure to worry about what we wrote.

A third time I got to play was in a Facebook post! I posted a scenario involving a tavern that had caught fire, and a smoking dwarf yelling at people to run. This was the shortest game, but it was hilarious because it got a lot of responses from people who don’t usually play D&D, throwing in ideas and jokes; I responded to everyone. Though it only lasted for a couple scenes, the amount of responses and clever input was awesome.

In order to run these spur of the moment games, you need to consider a few things. First, don’t stress about anything you write; the consequences don’t matter, and people are just happy to be participating in a surprise diversion. Second, forget rules. Balance doesn’t matter, rolls don’t matter, not even probability matters; just keep the game moving. Finally, do things that are silly! This game style is not meant to be taken seriously, so change genre, or create weird spells, or reference pop culture or the latest news. People will stay engaged if they don’t know what to expect, and you’ll have tricked people into playing even more games, feeding your addiction to this beautiful hobby.

Related posts:

Board giving is a frequent conversation topic. Here are the three most common issues we address with new nonprofit organizations: People serving on a board should want to give money to their…

This little piece today is going to be a short one. It’s just a few minutes I used to assign cookies to some of my light sources to bring more realism to light casting. Take a look at what cookies…

If all stories have been told and there's only variance in their telling, what of gods then, who know all things? Future, past, present, swirled like honey around a silver spoon before stirring…