Role Playing Guide

For people sort of new to structured (pen-and-paper style) RP events, here's a quick guide for both players and the GM (game master).

Game Master (GM)
- The GM hosts the event, and has several roles:
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• Creates and narrates the general story and events.
  
• Controls any non-player characters (NPCs).
  
• Determines and describes the outcomes/effects of all players' actions (this is never to be done by the players).
  

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- There is typically only one GM per event. It's possible to have more than one, but can be difficult, so as a general rule I would recommend just having one GM.
- The GM's own player character, if they play one, should be played as any other character, following the same rules of the Players. The GM should be careful to split the roles, by avoiding giving their player character any information or advantage that the GM role has that could influence the decision making of the other players.
- While it's good to have a general storyline and sequence of events planned out, the players will ultimately write the details through their choices and actions, and the GM should always allow for and adapt to whatever actions players decide they want to try to do, as long as it seems theoretically possible for the character to attempt it.
- The NPC enemies can be made to be powerful, but should be grounded within the game world's general rules and limits, and should generally always be potentially defeatable by the players.

Players
- Players always decide and describe their own character's actions (this is never to be done by the GM).
- Players should generally word their actions as attempts, since the outcome is never decided by the player. Predicating an action with something like "(Character) tries to..." is a good rule of thumb here.
- Players always decide what their character says, and saying something generally doesn't need to be predicated by a try/attempt verb.
- Players are encouraged to be creative in their actions, but should keep them grounded within the game world's general rules and limits. For example, having a Guild Wars Elementalist be able to heal wounds and conjure elemental golems would be reasonable, but having them fly around shooting laser beams out of their eyes normally wouldn't be.

Combat Sequence
- Combat generally follows two phases, the Players' phase and the GM's phase.
- During the Players' phase, each player will input one action to attempt.
- During the GM's phase, the general outcome(s) of all actions will be narrated. This doesn't necessarily have to address each player's specific action individually, you might just describe the general damage that was done to a group of enemies from the players' combined attacks for instance.
- During the GM's phase, the NPCs will also make their actions, similar to how the players do. The players will have the chance to respond/react to the NPCs' actions in their next Players' phase with their own actions.