Using Role Vs Roll in your Existing Game
Using Role Vs Roll cards in your existing role-playing campaign.
So you got a new deck of Role VS Roll and let me start off by saying thank you! The next I want to say that I'm more than willing to talk to you about using the cards in your game.
So how do you get the players to use the cards and what is the best way of doing that? After all, they should already have a good understanding of their charters backstory.
First, think of what would be an appropriate reward would be for using the cards. Using the cards should be extra XP or perhaps a reroll in the case of bad rolls. In either case, Role Vs Roll cards should not unbalance your campaign.
Example
Shadowrun 2 Karma
Numenera 1 to 2 XP
Gurps 2 XP
Dungeons and Dragons 1 point of Inspiration
Homeworlds RPG Dice Reroll
TORG 1 Possibility point
Second, remove any cards that will not fit in your campaign. Removing the bad habits or Howyoudoin card from the deck might be a good idea if you have kids in the group.
Next, have the players Draw 3 to 5 cards before the game starts and have the players read each card. have them discard all but one of the cards. From the moment the players draw the cards, they are already starting to think about their character and backstory. We have found that alone will help with role playing, However, we are going to go further than that. This would be a good time to take any of the new players aside and talk to them about the card they have chosen and offer suggestions on how they might play those cards.
We have found that the first time player uses Role Vs Roll they do tend to get the bonus early in the game and it can feel a bit forced, as they are still new to the concept and its fresh in their mind. We suggest that you ask the players to wait till later in the game to use the cards unless it really seems to be appropriate. just mentioning this will make the players think about a good time to use the cards .
Now watch the fun. Watching the players start to use the cards is really the best part.
The first game you should be a bit lenient about how the players use the cards. Let them stretch their wings a bit. But after the first session is when you might want to step in as a GM if the players seem to be stretching it a bit.
Optional Rules The Guessing Game. This is actually part of the original design of Role Vs Roll but we found during the blind playtesting that nobody was using the rules . So here is how you do it. Tell the players before the start of the game to not let anyone see their card. They must subtly attempt to act out the requirement of the card without anyone else noticing. At the end of the game, the other players try to get what card they picked.
This is a mechanic built in to prevent overacting or being too outlandish. It also makes the player think about using the card in a way that truly fits the character as anything else would result in not getting any points.
So there ... try it out and please give us feedback.
