Any interest in a GMless game?

Hello!

I've had the itch to run a game again, but this time I'd like to do something a bit different than helm the GM screen. Instead, I'd like to try a text-heavy GMless game. I have some ideas for specific games, but first I'd like to see if there's anyone out there that would like to give this a try.

This would be the kind of thing that looks like a journaling game, but with multiple participants.

Any takers?

I've been trying to figure how out GMless would work, so this is definitely something I'd try

I'm up for it if there's some explanation sure.

A GMless game is more of an effort in collaborative storytelling than a game. You have to make sure you're goals are aligned and you just kind of explore the situation and see where it takes you. When your goals (what you expect of the game) are at cross purposes you end up a tale about a prince who's trapped in a dungeon and the flying golden monkey from hell who's going to rescue him. Wait what???

I concur with Emberskyes its basically Free Form Collaborative Storytelling are you planning on writing a book?

I'm interested (of course, haha), and would love to explore how this would work. I know that we spoke about it online, so you have some ideas on how to do it.

As always, if the interest develops, take me last as I am in so many games already it's unfair to give a spot to me when others are less fortunate in their games.

Spoilers for people not done with early DBZ...

Spoilers for people not done with early DBZ...

I have never played or watched DBZ that was a Wizard of Oz reference. It actually took me about 5 minutes to puzzle out what DBZ was.

You also have to be prepared for the fact that none of the characters are truly yours... they're every ones and you have to be respectful of that. If DeJoker establishes that John is a good church going lad who wouldn't hurt a fly, Remnant having John walk into the local liquor store guns a blazing to steal a flat of Coors Lite for the rager he's throwing that weekend would be out of character.

My apologies, spoiler Goku as an adult and dad... *puts hands over face and rubs temples*

The first part of what you've said with the second kinda conflict to me when you put it like that so I'd agree and disagree with it.

I'd argue that I agree it won't make sense to say have John on Wednesday evening (Bible group study) be calm and rational and be talking about assisting with a house rebuilding project in the community after a family lost theirs in a fire,nothing out of the ordinary happens, to Thursday after dusk (robbery and binge drinking) since he's bored. I'd imagine that kind of switch wouldn't happen since it's out of context of the norm for the character for me on how he's been set up.

Out of character kinda seems like a sticky concept since it indirectly implies how the character is defined.

I'd disagree if say enough unfortunate events and tragedies (cliche or just random things that slowly chip away at him) happened long term his faith might be tested or it might even break, due to trauma taking a toll on them, I could see a path where that kind of downward spiral is possible if it has a place in the story. That said maybe the events leave him to just secretly buy alcohol (doesn't want the church to know or doesn't want anyone to know) and drink at home in the dark by himself. It'd really be a group riffing off what makes sense for characters to do or not do in a situation.

If there's a possibility for redemption to exist there's a possibility to fall just as far as a character can climb back up unless the agreement as a whole of the group is only 'these kind of events' happen to characters.

It sounds more like possibilities of injecting situations and information through story so what any character is defined isn't an absolute in a vacuum since it's collaborative so what is and isn't out of character seems to be a group pulse decision to find out together through the story versus one person establishing a character and they have final say on how anything affects or doesn't effect the character no?

Sidestepping the, is this part of a book writing plan mention, I think a project like this would only work with the RIGHT people. You have to have a crew that is understanding of each other's interests and is willing to go with the flow when it's the time to do so, and know when it's okay to not go with the flow, because everyone else will change the flow to match.

Other than administering rules, the GM, to a degree, directs the course of the game- they give you the idea (sometimes specific, sometimes vague) of where you need to go and what you need to do. So absent of such a compass, you have to rely on the players to decide where and why, then agree to all take the same first step.

You'd need to imagine this as a ship with four oarsmen each with a potentially different agenda. Unless people agree on something, you're not going anywhere. It's entirely possible and an opportunity to have a lot of fun... but again... you'd need to have the right people with the right mindset that it's not all about them, until the moment when everyone else agrees that it actually is all about them, at least for now.

Definitely agree that you need to have aligned goals. Of course characters can shift over time. If not, where would be the fun? But the people involved need to have a shared understanding of who characters are, what story they want to tell, what the expected behavior for posts is (how much can one person move the story forward without others' input? Can one person on their own decide that someone gets hurt, killed or wins the lottery or do those have to be group decisions?)

If you do get a good game like this working, it's awesome, though

Before this thread degenerates, I own a few GMless games. It's not some kooky homebrew idea I have. We'd be playing something published.

Since it's not very common to see people set these kinds of games up on GP, it wasn't clear to me if anyone would be interested in even trying it out. I'm happy to see some people are up for it. The game played is going to be up to the group though. For what I had in mind, the games function differently but often rely on prompts that the players have to address. There is a tie that binds everyone together.

And no, I'm not planning on using this for a book. I just felt like the dialogue-heavy nature of some GMless games would, in theory, be a natural fit for play-by-post. That's all. Pure science and experimentation.

Lots and lots of people play this way -- and yes, it can be fraught with all the issues raised above, but it can also work really well with the right people and some guidelines and boundaries in place. I've also seen the addition of a light-handed GM / facilitator / moderator work well, and additionally suggest that there are extremely light systems out there that work great at injecting mystery and uncertainty into a scene and story. If anyone's interested, I can break down how you could use The Die of Fate, lightweight but juicy PbtA mechanics, or lift in the sweet little action resolution from either Quest or Tiny Dungeon.

You could also look at Noir World - I'm not sure it was ever finished properly, and if you weren't doing noir some things might have to be tweaked, but it's designed to run with no set GM, each player sort of leads a scene, but doesn't have full control over it.

Thank you for the suggestions Harrigan and Falcolnloft. I have some ideas already, but I'll definitely keep these in mind.

Falconloft, are you referring to Noirlandia? I have it and have considered running it here. It's GMless and looks pretty intriguing.

Fiasco might be another fun option. It's GM-less and tons of fun. You might also look at Lovecraftesque if you end up with a group who like cosmic horror.

Bipolar 🤔 or possessed by the hell monkey 🐒
Maybe he is an evil cultist with a secret life … that happens
Perfectly in character 😂

Noir World also exists and is GMless

Awesome! I have that one, too, but hadn't read it yet. Fiasco, Noirlandia, and Noir World all seem very much to be peas in a pod—featuring normal people who get in over their heads.