Okay, you want me to tell you what The Family Jameson is, huh? Well I better start by telling you what Over The Edge is. Better still, do you know what Roleplaying is? 'Cause Over The Edge is a Roleplaying game, and naturally to understand what Over The Edge is you are going to need to know what Roleplaying is. Wouldn't you agree?
Do you remember when you used to play games as a kid, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, doctors and nurses - oops sorry, that was later <ahem>. Moving on: What you were doing was taking the concepts, stories and characters that you had read about in books, saw in films and TV, and started making your own stories around those ideas. But you played the Hero, or Villain, and you made the story your way, or at least you and your friends agreed on a story as you went along.
As you grow older, you start to get funny looks from people, when you run around the streets pretending to shoot each other. You may even get arrested. The other problem is the perenial "I shot you, your dead!", "No you didn't, you missed me!", "Did not!", "Did too!". So how to avoid this? Rules. Yes the growing child learns to adopt a set of rules to judge what does and doesn't happen. And what is usually the first rule in a Roleplaying game, even if it isn't listed? "Have fun". If your not having fun, then do somthing else. The other thing that changes, is that you turn into a couch potato. No longer do you run around the streets and people's back gardens shouting 'Bang, Bang'. Remember you can get arrested for that these days. No, now you get together with your friends anywhere you can sit comfortably for a few hours without too many disruptions, or distractions.
Which brings us to what roleplaying is. A group of friends get together to play a game. The game could be a cops and robbers affair, or cowboys and indians. But the most common setting for roleplaying isn't that standard fare of TV and films. At least it wasn't a few years ago, things have changed. The most common settings have always been Fantasy and Science Fiction. These two headings cover huge tracts of territory, and even overlap in places. Fantasy can range from the ubiquitous 'Dungeons and Dragons' and 'Runequest' to 'Deadlands', and 'Torg'. Worlds that contain a touch of magic, wonder and surprise, new races to encounter and interact with. Science Fiction covers the well known 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' franchises to 'Traveller' and 'Alternity'. If that interaction is simply "Kill the monsters!", then, personally, you'd be as well playing a computer game. Your not taking advantage of one of the main aspects of a Roleplaying game: a Referee.
The Referee has nearly as many different titles as there are games: DM (Dungeon Master), GM (Game Master or Moderator), StoryTeller, Keeper, or Referee. I'll use Referee. The job of the Referee is to bring a setting to life for the players. The players control a group if characters (typically the heros), and they work together to acheive a goal. That goal could be anything. What ever it is it is meaningful to the characters that the players created. 'Become rich', 'Get revenge in the Evil Warlock that slaughtered my family', 'Become famous', 'Prove my innocence', 'Explore and see the world/universe'. As many different motivations as there are characters.
The player usually controls a single character, this character interacts with the other characters that populate the world the game is set in. These other characters are sometimes refered to as Non-Player Characters, or NPCs. Again different games can call them different things, but NPC is the most common. All the NPCs are controlled by the Referee, yes it can be a lot of work.
The Referee controls the setting and tells the Players how the game universe reacts to there actions, even whether their actions are successfull. Please remember, however that this is NOT the Referee vs the Players. The problem with this is, that the Referee's word is Law. This would have a slightly imbalancing effect if they were in competition with their players.
Basically there is no Win/Lose in the traditional sense. You 'win' if you have fun playing the game. You 'lose' if you stop someone else from winning. Read that last one again, you may not have caught exactly what I said. That is the exact opposite of the more 'likely' "You 'win' if you make eveyone else 'lose'". Roleplaying is definitely much more cooperative. And often the only way for a character to succeed is through cooperation of the various Player characters, and often with a number of NPCs as well.
Going back to the point about the Referee's word being Law. The job of the Referee is to entertain the players, by providing an interesting plot for the the characters to work with. Included in this is the arbitration required to avoid the 'Bang your dead' problem mentioned earlier. This is accomplished through consultation with the rules of a particular game. These rules will typically provide guidelines and rules on how to resolve a number of situations, from landing a shuttle in stormy weather to shooting an apple of of someone's head. The rules take into account aspects of all the characters involved, there skill at the given task and other prevelant conditions. If the result is obvious, then the Referee can make a decision and proceed with the plot. If however there is doubt, then the Referee and/or Player can roll a number of dice to determine what happens. The Referee interperets the result of the roll using the rules as guidelines and declares the outcome.
There you have it. Roleplaying is basically a mediated version of Let's Pretend. And in my opinion, good roleplaying involves more character interaction and less dice rolls.
Over The Edge is, according to the blurb on the cover of the second edition rule book: "The Role-Playing Game of Surreal Danger by Jonathan Tweet with Robin D. Laws." It is published by Atlas Games. The First Edition came out in 1992, and the Second in 1997. Character generation is very free form compared to other games on the market. The game is set on the island of Al Amarja in the mediterainian. Don't bother looking for it on a map, it's existence is suppressed in the outside world. The themes covered by the game are for the mature audience.
The following is a brief excerpt from the Introduction of the game: "All references to vices and to the supernatural contained in this game are for entertainment purposes only. Over the EdgeTM does not promote satanism, belief in magic, drug use, violence, sexual deviation, body piercing, cynical attitudes toward the government, freedom of expression, or any other action or belief not condoned by the authorities."
This is a Play By e-Mail game, based on the Over The Edge game. I can't say too much about it yet, as the Players are still in the dark about a lot of things. In fact, at the moment, they in the dark about everything. See The Story so Far.
This site maintained by Paul Campbell My PGP Public Key
This Page Last Modified: Fri, 9 June 2000
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