Most people I know never want to be a GM. There seems to be a kind of informal etiquette, even when someone who is “due” to GM is forced to run a game without anyone else agreeing to do so. It’s actually kind of depressing… So in my non-player days (because I’m a sucker) I often wonder if there’s a way that the traditional style of RPGs (pencils, character sheets, dice, books of rules) that they have become accustomed to can be adapted to work without a GM. I came up with a couple of solutions, which were:
Randomize the plot on the fly.
This worked well if the game met 2 of these 4 criteria: it was simple with its encounter types, had fewer than 4 players, was low level, or used mostly wobbly undead. He made a magnificent game of Savage Worlds zombies, but the preparation process definitely requires imagination, and probably requires an advanced course in statistics.
The text for this will become available once you figure out how to generate the map effectively as the game progresses. The Zombie game consists of 6 pages of typed tables detailing the content of each possible area, the probability of finding a set of resources, the probability of behaviors for each type of monster and for randomly spawning NPCs and their behaviors, the rules for spawning randomizing buildings and their degree of repair, randomly determining dead ends, and a system to track in-game time using adventure and modifiers for each table based on player actions.
* Pros: Absolutely no GM required, Quick and easy to play, FULLY REUSABLE
* Cons: Limited circumstances in which the system is practical, Completely too complicated to set up, Outliers occur and break action, End product is disproportionately small compared to the work involved
* Points: Almost all Roll-Playing, for better or worse. Also, it will probably drive those trying to create it crazy.
Give each participant 2 roles and toggle the secondary role on each participant.
The main role, for all participants, is still the player character, but the secondary roles are Adjudicator, Storyteller, and GMPC. When the participant acts as adjudicator, he is responsible for determining the difficulty of an action when it is provided by the storyteller, and for hiding that difficulty from the storyteller and the players. The Storyteller is responsible for devising the action of the story.
When the participant is the narrator, they also control all NPC actions and temporarily relinquish control of their player character to another participant. The player whose secondary role is the GMPC is responsible for playing the character of the narrator when he is moving the action of the story and controlling the NPCs. These roles are rotated multiple times during the game as the Storyteller dictates.
* Advantages: I don’t know. I haven’t tested it yet, but it’s a cool hypothesis. I think the “pro” here is that it doesn’t require any real alteration to the pre-existing gameplay, but instead compartmentalizes the role of the GM.
* Cons: None provided by me.
* Points: The Participants would have to agree on a general concept of the story before starting the game.
It would certainly require experienced, comfortable, cooperative players. People who like each other and want to role-play will probably find this fun. Kind of an homage to Lord Byron’s board game, whose name I can’t remember, but it was supposedly the game where Mary Wollstonecraft came up with the beginning of Frankenstein. If anyone can remember what it’s called, it would save me a trip to see the worst poetry teacher in the world… Please?