Unhelpful

If you think the primary difference between traditional pen and paper RPGs and MRPGs has anything to do with computers, think again.

The primary difference, of course, is the players - and not just the amount of them.

Those of you who learned RPGs from the words of Gary Gygax (or his contemporaries), think back. Remember the first campaign you played with players who actually knew the game? If you were lucky, this happened the first time you played, otherwise you may have just futzed through the rules before playing in a “normal” campaign.

You were playing with real people. They knew who you were, and at least some of them knew where you lived. They gave you a brief overveiw of the rules, probably as they talked you through creating a character.

They explained to you why you couldn’t start with a level 10 character in their fledgling campaign. They talked you through the concept of having to make decisions about your character’s stats. They made it clear that fudging dice rolls wasn’t cool with them. They showed you, by example, what role-playing was.

You couldn’t play a chaotic evil half-drow-elf multi-class assassin/paladin/magic-user/cleric with 18/00 strength, 19 intelligence, and 18 dexterity in their campagin… The Dungeon Master had his own world for you to adventure in, and “drow elves” didn’t exist in it. He was flexible alignment with but not completely dismissive of the issue as he’d have to be for that particular combination. He didn’t give experience points out like candy, which would be required to actually attain any level with such an absurd array of concurrent classes. He followed the most “player-friendly” method of character stat dice rolling in the manuals, but even so, you weren’t going to get stats like those. Besides, he didn’t allow anything over 18 in any skill for any reason, with the exception of Strength, which he maxxed at 18/50.

Perhaps just as importantly, you were playing with other people who had characters of their own. Your “super character” wouldn’t have fit in with any of the goals of the characters in your party, and your character would have either been at odds with theirs all the time, or you would have had to play it in a ridiculously out-of-character fashion.

You decided to play the dwarven cleric instead. Not because the DM was a hard-ass, or because your fellow players were whiners. You played it because you were being taught how to play this game in a way that was compatible with the group.

You had a mentor.

Your mentor explained why certain actions weren’t allowed, helped you through the more unusual rules, and helped you figure out how the group played. Maybe they expected you (and everyone else) to bring $5 to cover pizza halfway through the game session. They might have had house rules that weren’t covered in the manuals. They let you get a feel for how the DM wanted you to declare your character’s actions, and what you could expect from him in return.

In MRPGs, it’s possible to purchase a game, have no idea about any of its in-game or out-of-game social structures, have no concept of the standards that are expected of you, and play.

You don’t automatically have someone looking over your shoulder for the first couple weeks to explain to you why a certain character creation choice might unnecessarily weaken your character later on. You don’t have a group of your peers whom you must deal with after the session by default. You don’t really have any accountability at all beyond not getting caught doing something that is blatantly in violation of the game’s license or usage agreement.

What’s worse, finding the wrong mentor in an MRPG can be worse for you and the game than not having one at all. What if the “community standards” of your group of peers thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to do anything as long as you don’t get caught? What if you end up playing with people who actively thrive on causing grief to other players? What if your “community” binds together simply on the basis that you all hate “role-playing” despite none of you ever having actually tried it?

There are new groups that will be joining us in the greater MRPG community. MRPGs that are based on science fiction will bring in new crowds. MRPGs based on successful film franchises are on their way, and have installed fan bases. MRPGs for the console markets are in development. MRPGs designed for the strategy and action gamer are inevitable.

Looking at these new groups in dismay and retreating to our “safe” cliques full of people who always agree with us is the best way we can ensure that none of our “community values” will ever rub off on them. And they will out-number us, no matter who you think of as “us”.

Looking at them as new gamers in need of mentors is one of the best ways to raise the bar of MRPG community behavior. Giving in to the lowest common denominator is our other alternative, and that’s none too appealing.

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