There are lots of tabletop RPGs that distribute narrative authority more equitably than your average D&D clone – like, hundreds of ‘em. We’re going to need to narrow things down a bit!įor example, there are GMless games where players take turns framing scenes, with other players jumping in directly if their own characters happen to be involved, or serving as a semi-interactive audience otherwise. Fiasco – self-described as Fargo: The RPG – is a simple one where the group starts out by brainstorming a scenario based on a set of random tables called a “playset”, then takes turns describing how it all goes wrong. On the opposite end of the crunch scale, there are games like the Jane Austen-inspired Good Society, with its complex multi-stage scene framework and rigorous rules for who has narrative authority over which characters, and under what circumstances. There are also games that that operate much like traditional roll-the-dice-to-do-the-thing dungeon crawlers, but replace the GM role with a set of random tables, print-and-play cards, or other tools that any player can bring into play to inject adversity into an otherwise collaborative exercise.
