Why I like P&P so much...

P&P is the generic term I apply to Pen & Paper roleplaying games.  Like Dungeons & Dragons et al.  For the record - and perhaps because it will provide you with some kind of vague insight into my character - I cut my RPG teeth on D&D.  I started roleplaying at the tender age of 10, with Basic Dungeons & Dragons.  Subsequently I played Expert D&D, AD&D to second edition.  And then in no particular order: MERP, Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Dark Space, Call of Cthulhu, Shadow Run, Paranoia, Toon, Cyberspace, and a bunch of others I can no longer quite remember.

But for me, P&P is all about the narrative, the atmosphere, the story, the freedom you provide the players to do (or attempt) whatever they wish.  Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

And it is for those reasons that I now use my own game system.  It is very loosely based on Rolemaster, just because IMHO RM delivers the most encompassing, and in my experience flexible system across multiple genres.  (I have never played GURPS).

Anyway, my gamesystem bears little resemblance to RM these days, I still use a few basic RM tables, but I have essentially distilled RM's (and its genre variants) 1000s of pages into a handful of tables (predominantly combat orientated).

More importantly what I have done is created a world (to focus purely on my Fantasy exploits) with a history that now covers six Ages.  A change in Age being a significant event which shifts the world in a new direction.

My, that was a long and largely unnecessary introduction to this: Why I like P&P so much...

No other form of entertainment provides such a collaboration between auteur and audience.

P&P sessions have provided me (and hopefully my players) with some of the most memorable scenes and experiences ever.  I can look back and recall numerous instances of high adventure, tension, humour, excitement and disaster that have been delivered by P&P which easily rate among the best books I've read, films I've scene, video games I've played, etc.  And made all the more potent because I was either playing in those games, or (more typically) was GMing them.

One of the things I hope to achieve with this blog is to give you some insight into the techniques I employ to deliver those moments.  Some of which will be by illustrating specific elements I have used (like the Oneironaut pendant).  And some will be by discussing what I have learnt form other games, what works well, what doesn't work so well.  And much of it will be at a meta level of game design.  i.e. no specific events, or elements, but general 'best practices'.

Though one should always bear in mind:  no matter how grandiose I might sound from time to time, the one over-riding caveat to all this is that it is very much IMHO.