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This question inspired by Veriax's Let's Play of Oblivion.

His LP involves a remarkably high level of role playing while travelling around the CRPG of Oblivion. I believe that a well-recorded LP of a table-top RPG could provide similar levels of entertainment, even if executed by entirely one person.

What systems would produce the most interesting recordings in a solitare (I act as GM and all the players) format?

Objectives:

  • Entertaining System that has fun and interesting elements, but not too crunchy.
  • Absurd, Entertaining, or Vibrant setting (Best if all three)
  • The ability to generate procedural or unexpected obstacles without anticipating them in advance
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3 Answers 3

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After listening to a few minutes of the Oblivion play-through to which you linked, I think you might have some success with John Tynes' Puppetland RPG. It mandates that the players speak in the style of narrators telling a children's tale and sets the maximum session length at an hour — ideal for YouTube recordings.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Oooh, that sounds like a fascinating suggestion. Thanks :) \$\endgroup\$ Apr 10, 2011 at 11:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ Okay, just read the puppetland rules. It would make a horribly inventive "Interactive" LP (in the style of his morrowind LP) where the readers would present quests that the puppets have to solve. I may just have to try this... \$\endgroup\$ Apr 10, 2011 at 12:00
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You may want to give Paranoia a try. It tends to be mechanically light on the crunchy and very heavy on the absurd, entertaining and unusual.

This is probably the one game in which I have laughed the most and been surprised the most, all within and because of the game itself and not through normal player banter.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Solitare paranoia. Oh gods does that make my brain hurt. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 10, 2011 at 12:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ "Am I happy citizen?" "Wait, so if I know the rules, I can run the rules for myself but I can't know the rules because knowing the rules is treason then I can't run the... Friend Computer-as-me, where is the nearest execution booth for my convenience?" \$\endgroup\$ Apr 10, 2011 at 12:11
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Because you are looking for story don't focus to much on the system, look at the settings. That is what will make or break your story. If you don't like the setting for say, Vampires: the Masquerade, then you probably don't want to use the system.

On the other hand if you are just looking for a system that lets you modify your characters the way you want them, I would advise trying GURPS. It is one of the better of point buy systems with enough different addons for various types of settings that you will be able to go wild with what type of characters you want.

If you plan for generic fantasy though, use D&D because it is the generic system for it. The best for the story would be 3.5 and using one of the settings. This would be the best known and with a setting already attached you would not need to work at fleshing out the world.

In the end though if you know a system real well use that and don't cheat. The better you know the system the more likely you can get your play to flow which will sound better. If you cheat on things like dice rolls people will know and they will not accept anything else in the story as being a real game which is part of the draw of this type of thing.

If you know a number of systems quite well first know the type of adventure you want and remove any system that does not fit it. Next take the ones that are left and make up your party for them and remove any system that did not let you make the character you wanted. With your party made in a number of systems run a quick fight for each system recording each. Listen to the records for any pauses that go to long or stumbling caused by rules confusion, if you find none you are lying so have a friend who will tell you the truth listen to them and tell you which goes the smoothest. Use that one.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Although those elements are certainly important for a successful game, they don't address the core issue of the question: "which game would be best to play out in an audio/video recording where one person plays all the parts." \$\endgroup\$
    – Jadasc
    Apr 10, 2011 at 11:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ Good point, I added a fourth part to deal with that. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 10, 2011 at 11:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ The problem is I know quite a few systems really well. Do you have one that you think would be particularly entertaining? \$\endgroup\$ Apr 10, 2011 at 11:33

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