Perhaps in the middle right in that empty space somewhere? Then that would not make as much sense to place the green block way up there like he is…hm…

@Desert: hehe, it’s alright. I can’t say I’ve been keeping up to date with all of the blogs I usually follow either.
And yeah, these types of games can be pretty fun if you find the right people to play it with. It’s one of those games that takes a lot of patience and time. (Well, in terms of time, the game never really ends. It only ends when the players want it to end).
I’m sure there’d be a group at any medium/large sized collage. Tabletop roleplaying games have been growing in popularity since the 70s, so I doubt it’d be that hard to find some people playing it.

Anyway, I haven’t played any RPGs of this type, never really got into them, though they do sound interesting. I don’t know of any groups in my area…maybe I’ll look for some at the college I’ll be attending.

It kind of reminds me of dungeon crawler video games, because it basically works off the same mechanic – you have a home base, and you go out into the wild and explore ancient ruins/deadly forests/etcetera, and fight/negotiate with whatever baddies are in those places.

I think that a (main) part of the experiment was seeing how well the players could play acting out more individually – finding things out more or less on themselves. He (Ben, the author of Ars Ludi) stated in one of his blog posts that some of the players had never played a roleplaying game before, but it still worked out OK. I think if you’re taught at first to go and explore what you want, and be ready to think up ideas that you want to do in the game yourself, then it becomes more of a habit. I have to admit, if I played one of these games, I’m sure it would take me a few sessions before I got the hang of “what do we do now?”, because I’m used to being directed by the GM.

It sounds like it would take a lot of commitment from the GM because they would have to make up a lot of details about the world and manage a lot of different characters. Also, the players would have to learn how to make goals for themselves without the help of the GM, which can be surprisingly difficult if you don’t have any direction.

We should definitely try to start something up sometime in the near future. If you know anyone interested, definitely say so!

I’ve always been interested in playing Dungeons & Dragons (or other pen and paper roleplaying games) but have never had a chance. I’d love to join a Winnipeg group if you were forming one. Unfortunately, I don’t know very much about this type of roleplaying. Would there be a lot I would have to learn first?