Talk:Freeform role-playing game

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[edit] Regional bias?

At the moment, this article is written from a distinctly British POV. It is perfectly comprehensible, but over the next week or so, I may look into providing American "translations" of some Britishisms. I say again, this is a minor nit, not a big problem at all. The Bearded One 04:31, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

The bias is entirely understandable, since I am a Brit and I created the article. Your contributions are, of course, welcome. Do you know which came first, and if so should this article be moved to the US name? — PhilHibbs | talk 10:09, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
  • My understanding is that American "freeforms" began at sci-fi conventions in about 1983 or 1984. I have a more complete history for the American side, but I'm out of state right now. I'll be back on Tuesday. Ta. The Bearded One 20:45, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
  • A quick search of my online resources located something. The first documented American "freeform" was called "Rekon 1" and was run in 1983. The Bearded One 17:05, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
I don't think the article should be moved; from my (admittedly second-hand) knowledge freeforms are far more common in Europe and Australia than in the US, and in any case freeform is an accepted term there as well. I've added a bunch of info on Australian freeforms (as I mention in the article, they've historically been much more popular here than standard LARPs) and tried to make the descriptions a bit more generic to cover the different styles of play. If we can get more information about UK and America freeform specifics, there's definitely room to have a subsection for each, outlining the differences (assuming they're significant enough to warrant that). All feedback on my additions welcome, too. -- Guybrush 07:07, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
  • I don't know how frequently UK freeforms deal with controversial or social issues, but that is becoming increasingly common in US freeforms, and it has been the case for years in Scandanavian freeforms. This article could probably stand to be broken into regional sections and expanded, but we'd need contributors from each region, Scandanavia included. The Bearded One 11:49, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
  • I have a history of freeforms / roleplay up, albeit slightly inaccurate. I'll be working on this as I find documentation that suggests otherwise: Roleplayer's Timeline Alighieri 15:33, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] LARP vs Freeform

Freeforms are distinguished from other LARP games in that they employ minimal or no rules.

This does not seem to be at all acurate in describing the distinction between freeforms and boffer larps in the USA. I would say that the more important difference is that, in de-emphasizing combat, freeforms re-emphasize social interactions. The Bearded One 13:48, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] LARP, tabletop, freeform, system games

Hello,

I would just like to point out that this page seems to be about LARPs "which are also known as freeforms (in some parts of the world)" and not the other way around.

"Freeform" is also used with a completely different definition - that is, a roleplaying game where no system is used. This is particularly relevant with online roleplaying games. A system game is any game that uses a system - including rock/paper/scissors in WoD LARPs. A freeform game is based entirely on descriptive writing (at least in the case of online), and offline I would suspect based on acting and player's actual abilities.

I would like to suggest that the article title be changed to say "LARP" rather than "freeform" and that in most of the article, use "LARP" instead of "freeform."

[edit] Online Forum- and Email-based Freeform

Hello all -- I just added a small paragraph at the bottom on the type of freeforming I'm familiar with. I'll see if I can find a supporting external link as well. cruinne 02:19, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

I've updated it a bit as well, relating to the same topic. I'm also considering re-instating the sparring article, which got merged somehow with the online roleplaying article. Thought, that article contains so much crap information. Alighieri 15:33, 14 August 2006 (UTC)