Google's Simple Games and Rule Variants - Dark City Roleplaying

Are your RPG sessions getting a tad stale? Here's an interesting way to add some variety, and keep PCs from always playing the same type of character.

What you need:

• Everything you normally need to play the RPG of your choice

Setup:

Have everyone create characters, bearing in mind that it is unlikely anyone will end up playing the character they create very often. You may wish to create some extra characters as well.

Play:

Run an RPG campaign as you normally would, however, before every session, the GM should take everyone's character sheet, shuffle them, and redistribute them at random. Each player must play the character received, trying to stay in character, for the duration of the session.

Variants:

Depending on how sadistic your group is, you may wish to use one or both of these variations.

• Brain Swapping: Each PC maintains the memories and personality of whichever character it is they first created no matter which character sheet they have in a given session.
• Gaggle of Freaks: Have each PC create their characters with the goal of bringing misery to whoever plays them. This works best under a system where extra character creation points may be awarded for taking on negative traits. An example of how a typical session my start using this rule:
  "OK, you wake up. You can't see too well out of your single eye because your monocle is on the table next to you. As you can see from the dirty piece of shatter glass on the floor of your leanto you ARE at least the most beautiful girl in the world despite the peg leg and the hook hand. Oh, and your insatiable desires for head cheese and a rich husband are both quite unsatisfied. Also, your pet badger is hungry."

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