作者：Megan Elizabeth

角色扮演（不论是与玩家相关，还是一些较为神圣的主题）是推动玩家选择诸如《Iron Realms》等在线游戏的一大原因。我将在此分享RPG游戏《Imperian》的角色扮演活动的文本内容，以及运营一款RPG游戏需要注意些什么情况。

Iron Realms(from zam.com)

角色扮演活动是由什么构成？

我们首先从定义说起。角色扮演游戏活动可以涉及任何主题，既可以是玩家间的互动，也可以是玩家与一些神圣的事物或者是一些非玩家控制角色（NPC）间的接触。简而言之，角色扮演游戏活动就是指玩家与其它NPC之间的互动。但是现在这种互动却受到一些非计划的角色扮演游戏体验的影响而发生了变化，这种体验包括玩家使用手机进行简短交流而无需再次回到游戏中，或者玩家拥有一个计划周全的体验等。

我们拥有一种计划表，借此能够帮助我们更好地规划角色扮演游戏活动。在此我们能够畅所欲言，记录下每一个灵感，并从理念上规划游戏中的每一步发展进程。我之所以提到理念，是因为我们不能预见未来的任何发展变化，但是我们却可以记录下任何我们所预见的变化。有些人利用这种方法策划较小的游戏活动文本内容，但是有的人却并未这么做。更多情况下，每个人都用它记录一些较大规模的活动，特别是你的小组成员人数较多的时候，这真的是一个让我们记录东西的好工具。

如何策划一些小活动：

我们无需随时记录那些游戏小活动。策划这些游戏小活动经常只需要1，2个人，他们通过使用少量的移动设备，并花费几天的时间（游戏邦注：有时候会需要几周的时间，这都是依赖于参与者的效率）便能完成任务。游戏的角色扮演活动内容多样，既可以是帮助丢失的孩童找到家，也可以是打败一个压迫你的坏蛋等等。游戏的角色扮演小活动并不一定要规划好，有时候突发的灵感便能形成一个不错的主题。有时候游戏的小活动也会变成大活动，而这时候我们便需要静下心来好好计划如何做才能记录下更多有益的内容。

如何策划一些大活动：

大型游戏的角色扮演活动通常要求我们使用工作表记录下谁在做什么，什么时候开始执行相关变化等等。我们可以将一个大规模的活动分成不同阶段，如阶段1-铺下悬念，暗示接下来将会发生什么。阶段2-发生地震或其它不好的事。阶段3-出现kraken等怪物。这些阶段可以用一些最普遍的细节表现出来，如“这个场景将从这里开始”，或者更复杂的“A角色可以用右手握住一把难以形容的利剑在场景7中寻找目标Z，而B角色应该与其它玩家联合起来阻止A角色。”你掌握要领了吧？工作表能够让我们更好地规划游戏的角色扮演活动。大型游戏活动难以规划，但是通过在工作表上记录任何将会发生的应急计划，这种担忧便不成问题了。另外，因为你是整个游戏活动的策划者，所以除非你是个天才指挥者，要不每一名玩家都清楚游戏正在发生什么情况。

你需要注意：

首先，你并不知道玩家会怎么做。在游戏角色扮演小活动中，这种情况很正常。小活动的时间设置较紧凑，并依靠玩家的决策而设定游戏的下一个步骤。但是在大型游戏活动中，不可预测的玩家行动有时候会破坏我们的整个规划。但玩家的这种不可预测性和独特性正是角色扮演游戏活动的精彩之处。如果一款游戏对玩家的每一步行动都能做出准确的反应，那么这将让游戏活动的精彩度大打折扣。

其次，必须记住的是没有一件事情会完全按照计划发展。一方面是因为玩家的不可预测性（如上述），另一方面是有可能出现一些不好的情况而对RPG玩家的游戏体验产生影响。不管你会遇到什么状况，运行一款角色扮演游戏活动最重要的其中一点便是，你需要坚持最初的理念，并懂得如何随机应变。确实，如果你缺少随机应变的头脑，那么世界上任何一种计划或技巧都不能帮助你进一步发展你的游戏活动，以策划出更多优秀的游戏活动。

在开展游戏活动过程中需要注意的第三点便是可怕的“仓促行动”。“仓促行动”是指玩家在游戏中偏离了原先设定好的游戏主轴，而角色扮演活动的幕后工作人员却力图想把玩家引回“正轨”。不管怎么说，这种强制性的“仓促行动”将会破坏整个游戏活动，也会影响玩家的游戏体验。最有力的解决方法便是通过你的随机应变能力，想出一个最中立的解决方法，让玩家重新回到，或者是接近原来的游戏活动设定的主轴中。但是有时候这一点并不容易实现。就其本身而论，“仓促行动”是我们在开展游戏活动中应该注意的一大问题。

最后，对于我和《Imperian Divine》的其他工作人员来说，开展文本游戏活动真的是一件很有趣的事。我们喜欢与玩家进行交流，并听他们描述周边生活中的各种事。我希望读完这篇文章，你能够了解角色扮演游戏活动的相关情况，并且不会破坏你原先对这类游戏活动的美好想法。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Text Games: An Imperian God’s Tale V

By Megan Elizabeth

One of the biggest pulls for people to play one of the many Iron Realms online games is the opportunity for role play, not just with the players, but with the Divine. I am going to share some of the things that go into planning role playing game events in the text based RPG Imperian, and what I look out for when running one.

What makes a role play event?

Let’s start off with a definition; A role playing game event can be anything, really, that involves players interacting either with each other, with a Divine, or with a (or a group of) non-player characters. For brevities sake, we will just focus on role playing game events involving interactions between a player and one too many NPCs. Now this type of interaction can be broken down into an unplanned role play experience, which would be the random possession of a mobile in order to interact with someone briefly with little to no intention to revisit the interaction, or a planned experience.

We have a type of worksheet that helps us to plan a role playing game event for you. It gives us a place to put ideas, keep track of names, and ideally plan what should happen when. I say ideally because we cannot predict everything that will happen, but we can put down some ideas for what we think might happen. Some of us use this format to help plan smaller text game events, and some of us do not. For the most part, everyone uses it for the larger scale events, especially when multiple people are involved, so there is a place for people to keep track of things.

How to plan for small events:

Small text game events may not need a lot to keep track of them. They are usually ran by one or two people, use only a handful of mobiles, and last less than a few days (occasionally a week depending on the availability of all parties involved). Small role play events can be anything from helping a lost child find its way home, to defeating an oppressive bad guy from doing whatever it is oppressive bad guys do for that instance. Small text game events do not always need to be planned, and are sometimes spontaneous mini-role play events that just become so interesting we keep them going. Occasionally small role playing game events turn into big events, and then we need to sit down and write out a plan to help us keep track of things.

How to plan for big events:

Big role playing game events generally require us to use the sheet to keep track of who is doing what, and when to implement certain changes. We can break a large scale event down into phases like Phase 1 – start dropping hints about what’s going on. Phase 2 – earthquakes and other bad stuff happen here. Phase 3 – Release the kraken, etc. The phases can be anything from a general “this should begin happening here” to a more complex “Person A will now be able to find Object Z in Field 7 while wielding the sword of unnamable horror in his left hand, while Person B should be rallying players to help him stop Person A from succeeding.” You get the idea, right? This helps us to make sure a role playing game event is running on schedule, for the most part. Large scale events can be very difficult to plan for, however, because you often times have to have a contingency plan in case what you were hoping would happen would. Otherwise you’ll just be railroading the text game event, and unless you’re a talented leader of the play, it can be fairly obvious to players that that is what is happening.

What to expect:

First off, you cannot predict what a player will do. In the case of small role play events, that is usually fine. They are often times “winged,” and reliant on a player’s decision to setup for the next step. With larger events, though, the unpredictability of the players can sometimes throw a wrench in the plans we have. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. Your unpredictability and uniqueness is what makes running role playing game events exciting. If you reacted to every step exactly the way it would not be interesting to us to run the events.

Second thing to remember is that nothing will ever go as planned. Either because of the unpredictability of players (see above), or just the general bad circumstance that leads to key rpg game players not being available when stages are supposed to progress. Either way, one of the biggest things to running a role playing game event is to be able to hold on to the seat of your pants and improvise. That’s right, all the planning and detailed skills in the world cannot save you if you are unable to improvise, evolve and change your event to suit the available resources.

The third major thing to watch out for when running a text game event is the dreaded railroading of an event. Railroading happens when players get off the main story line that an event is supposed to follow, and the person behind the role play tries to force them back on track. Tracks and railroads, get it? Anyways, railroading can ruin a text game event, or a players fun, if it is done in a forceful manner. The best way to get an event back on track is to use improvisation to gently coax players back to the closest possible solution, but sometimes, it becomes impossible. As such, the railroad is a major problem we have to watch out for running events.

In the end, running text game events for the players is enjoyable to me and many other members of the Imperian Divine. We enjoy getting to interact with players and seeing them respond to the world around them. I hope this offered you a little bit of a glimpse behind the curtain of running a role playing event without spoiling the magic of it.（source:ironrealms）