Hello! Any Advice?

Hey, there!

To be honest, I haven't participated in a Roleplay Game in quite some time... I used to be a sort of GM for a small community of writers and story-lovers, and was responsible for designing worlds, setting up character forms, creating new threads for different planets or locations, etc. I'd like to do some casual roleplay again, but here's my problem: we never used a skill system or levels or rulebooks. Of course there were some base rules that I or other GMs established, a fandom (i.e. Star Wars/LotR) or setting (medieval fantasy, etc.) was chosen, and I'd often take inspiration from a film or book series for the world. People were often thrown together and forced to improvise with minimal direction. Character sheets were limited to backstories, weaknesses, strengths, and goals - with no numbers.

It was all very freeform.

When I started searching for a community to dive back into roleplay, I realized that the majority of sites require knowledge of pre-established rulebooks. Unfortunately, I'm dealing with some health challenges, and also not very mathematically inclined. I'm concerned that I won't be able to learn enough (what with brain fog and fatigue) to be able to really enjoy the game; I'd hate to inconvenience anyone.

What's the best option here? Should I try to get my hands on a rulebook? Or is this something that can be learned as one goes? Will I be an incredible burden to (and potentially kicked out of) any roleplay I join? Is there some other platform that might better suit my needs as a player and GM?

My other thought was to design a systemless custom game, possibly in a pre-established world (i.e. Star Wars) so that everybody, myself included, has at least some concept of power levels between characters and likely outcomes.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll be joining any games here or not, but I just wanted to say hello and see if you had any friendly advice!

Thanks in advance, and happy gaming!

Saga

Welcome, Saga! I think that you'll find that play-by-post is a very forgiving mode of play for those who don't have massive amounts of time to devote to learning rule sets. Since everything is asynchronous, you can take time to look up rules between turns, or just ask the others in your game how something works.

There are a number of systems that don't have a massive amount of rules that might fit what you're looking for pretty well. I tend to go towards games with more rules, so I'll leave specific suggestions to others :)

That is true! Very good point.
I believe those are referred to as "rules-lite" roleplays, yes? Thank you so much for the reply, Naatkinson!

As a GM and player IRL and also both in PbP, I think I can safely say that in PbP it's much easier to get by with minimal knowledge of the rules. But, as is the case in both real life and PbP games, a lack of imagination will kill both types of games.

So you may very well find a good community here, Saga -- folks tend to be very patient and simply enjoy the opportunity to play. Many here simply can't find a consistent group to play with in person and so this fills that void. For others, they simply prefer the written word and asychronous style of play.

Welcome, Saga.

Please note I'm by no means trying to shoo you away with what I'm about to say, just maybe trying to help you become more aware of options. But there are lots of diceless roleplay communities out there, especially for something like Star Wars (or Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, or probably any popular IP).

That said, custom systems and even experimental gaming approaches are very popular here, and I bet you could find an audience for what you want to do.

Hello and welcome!

Welcome, Saga. I've never experienced freeform rp, at least not since I was a kid and we just 'played' stuff, which might be similar in execution, if not sophistication.

I will also add that with many systems, the GM will call for a roll and simply adjudicate it. There's generally not a great deal of math involved (although there can be with certain systems). With the games I have run, I try not to rely too much on the dice, but rather allow for good roleplay/storytelling to rule the day. But it may depend if you're playing more of a combat-heavy game vs. a roleplay-heavy game. Both exist at this site.

System Resource Documents, or SRD's, are also a great source of options if you don't have rulebooks, e.g.,

* Pathfinder SRD (for Pathfinder)
* Hypertext d20 SRD (for D&D 3.5e and 5e and Pathfinder)

Other systems might have their own resources, but those are two I'm familiar with.

Sounds to me like you want to play the Star Wars system by Fantasy Flight Games, or Genesys, also by Fantasy Flight. They both have the same dice mechanics, and this site has a rolling mechanic for it.

It's a wonderfully liberal game system that encourages the players to be creative narratively. I've played in many games over the years in these systems, and I love it. Genesys is great for creating your own world. There's very little math involved, and prep time for mechanics is minimal once you understand the concepts. I'm new-ish to pbp, but if you want help understanding how these systems work let me know!

Welcome!

Welcome! You will find most folk here both forgiving and encouraging and there are often games for newbies. Plus lots of people are interested in trying something new...so always feel free to float an idea in the Games Tavern (such as what you wrote above).

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and welcoming words! I'll definitely be looking into all of the options listed above.
I'm definitely of the latter! I've never experienced a tabletop role play, and frankly that's not an option for me due to health concerns at the moment, so while it sounds like fun it's also out of reach.
I appreciate the heads-up! I did a day's worth of research, and it kept leading me back to this site, so I figured this was at least a good place to start and talk to more experienced roleplayers.
I'll definitely have to think about it.
I'm hoping for something between the two, leaning more toward roleplay-heavy... I'll keep an eye out!
Thanks for your thoughts! I've heard good things about Star Wars FFG, and I'll be looking into Genesys more seriously now. If I have trouble understanding something, I'll definitely let you know! I appreciate the offer!
THANK YOU so much for those links, that will be so helpful in making a decision.

And thank you all for the welcome to this site!

Saga

Welcome Saga. This is incredible community and we welcome newcomers to the hobby! Keep an eye on the Games Tavern for new games popping up.

There are several games out there, many of them free or cheap, which can be rules-lite and newbie (or in your case mathematically challenged) friendly. I have made a thread here listing many of those RPGs, as well as many other resources.