Sunday, April 29, 2012

Put Roleplaying back into RPG's - The Pirates! Band of Misfits



I am thoroughly entertained by children's movies and am excited when I take my kids to one that looks fun. I was not disappointed when we went to see "The Pirates! Band of Misfits." After the movie I was standing at the obligatory restroom stop for the Mrs. & the Gang. While there I was reflecting on the movie and became excited about how the movie had some really great roleplaying elements that are wonderfully illustrated.

These antidotes offer really great ways to bring roleplaying back into your campaign. Here are a few points I wanted to touch on:
Don't take things too seriously:
The story never takes itself too seriously. The movie doesn't have a complicated plot or uber-serious content/ramifications, it's about the journey from place to place. The leader is guided by his supporting team & has an adventure to find glory.
Stick together and work together with a common thread:
The team is held together through a common thread, "Polly." The team stuck together in their goal because of a commonly favored NPC (non-playing character). This allowed everyone to participate in the adventure and would give the game master enough solidarity to manipulate an interesting story.
Interesting characters:
Good fun roleplaying characters don't need to be overly complicated or overplayed. One of the most fun characters was the "surprisingly curvaceous pirate." Every time he came on screen my children were screaming, "It's a girl!" It was a simple tool used to great effect to create an interesting character with entertaining situations.
Use the world around you to inspire:
The film was loosely based on "The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists" and also utilized elements from old paintings adding more detail & absurdity to them.
Some of the best campaigns are ones that contain as much fun as the characters and film crew were having in this movie.

No comments:

Post a Comment