Hey there. I'm something of a newbie here, so...yeah. New. Hai.

I was musing the other day about games and I had the notion of creating one based on the characters from William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest". Ignoring, of course, the language of the play (I'm not sure how many RPers out there are willing or able to play using on Elizabethan English.) I think the setting and the characters would make for some fun.

If you don't know the play, it goes a little something like this; Prospero, the Duke of Milan, falls into the study of Wizardry and withdraws from public affairs, leaving his brother, Antonio in charge of affairs. Never a wise move, especially not in Shakespearean tragedy, Antonio userps the position. Rather than kill his brother, he sets him and his young child adrift in the ocean. They land upon an enchanted Island, and Prospero uses his magical powers to take control of the island; enslaving two of it's inhabitants to be his aids.

The play opens about twelve years later when Prospero has one of his spirits whip up a great storm (or Tempest) to shipwreck a vessel carrying his brother as it passes by the island. Those who survive the wreakage are washed ashore, and they include not only the traitorous brother but also Alonso, the King of Naples, his son Ferdinand and his brother Sebastian. They all end up on different places on the Island, and from there Prospero begins to plot his revenge.

Now, in the original play Ferdinand falls in love with the daughter, Miranda, and there's an incident with some harpies, but in an RP one wouldn't get too bogged down with precise plot details, but rather more action-ey, if you see what I mean. But there is plenty to be inspired by; if you look at the basic concept. It's a group (well, a few small groups) of frightened Italian noblemen versus an enchanted island and a wizard with a grudge. I think some of the characters would be tremendous fun to play.

Here's a list and a brief analyses, if you're interested;

Inhabitants of the Isle
-- Prospero: The exiled Duke of Milan. A wizard, probably in his early 40's. He's intelligent and powerfull, but also has a desperate need to control both people and the world around him. He is loving to his daughter, but can be cruel and ruthless to others.

-- Miranda: Prospero's daughter. She is very young at the time of the play, about 14 or 15 years old. She is beautiful, caring and a loving and attentive daughter, but she can act out upon her own will at times.

-- Arial: "An airy spirit"; a sprite-like being who Prospero rescues from the torment of an old Witch. Ariel submitted himself to serve Prospero for twelve years, and holds his master in high regard although he still longs for freedom.

-- Caliban: The offspring of the old Witch, Sycorax. She was banished to the isle whilst pregnant with him, but while Caliban was only a boy, she died, leaving him alone. He is disfigured and slightly mad. He was the willing servant of Prospero until he attempted to rape Miranda, an offense for which Prospero has kept him imprisoned and in hard servitude for ever since. He believes that the island is his by right.

Shipwrecked Group One
-- Alonso: The King of Naples. When he lands on the island he believes that his son, Ferdinand, has drowned. He is distraught and inconsolable.

-- Sebastian: Alonso's brother. At the prospect of Ferdinand's death, Sebastian is talked into a plot to assassinate Alonso by his friend Antonio.

-- Antonio: The usurping Duke of Milan, Prospero's brother. He declares himself in the play to be utterly without conscience; "I feel not this deity in my bosom."

-- Gonzalo: An old courtier who is loyal to Alonso and showed kindness to Prospero when he was exiled, giving him the food and water that sustained them in the boat and some of Prospero's books that have helped them since on the island.

Shipwrecked Group 2 
-- Ferdinand: He ends up alone on the Island, and is later discovered by Prospero and Miranda. In the play, Miranda and he fall in love and are married by the end of it.

Shipwrecked Group 3
-- Stephano: The King's butler, a drunkard. He is Trinculo's best friend. The two spend much time stumbling about the island, and in the play they befriend Caliban and fall into plotting with him.

-- Trinculo: A jester. A merry clown, clever but short-tempered and decidedly dishonest.

Here comes the tricky bit. Firstly, I'm decidedly inexperience. I've only actually played on one RP for a significant period. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but it closed down, sadly. I have a vague notion that the style of play is called "freeform"...but I may be entirely wrong. Could anyone help me out by explaining exactly what "freeform" is?

Also, if I did set this game up, probably with the help of a friend I have who is far more experience than me, would it be a good idea or a ludicrously bad idea to have Prospero as a character-cum-GM type figure? This would lead to outrageous God-Moding, but that's pretty much what he's there for anyway. Any thoughts?

Any feedback at all would be much appreciated.

Hi Lizbet!  Welcome on board.

This roleplaying game you played ... I'm guessing from your language that it was either play-by-post or play-by-email.  Am I right?

If so, you might well want to try out some table-top roleplaying, to widen your horizons.  It's also pretty time-efficient, since you can get the same amount of experience (and often much more insight into your other players) in a few hours of tabletop as you can in months of PBP play.  The subtle cues and immediate feedback count for a lot.

As for freeform ... that's basically "roleplaying without formal rules."  So if you didn't have rules like "When two people wrestle each other, we will follow this procedure (often involving dice and character traits interacting in some way) to determine who is the victor" then you're probably doing freeform.  I'm a big fan of formal rules, as I think that they can gently help people to come to places and choices of their own that they wouldn't come to in a system where all such matters are handled at a social level.  But you'll certainly find many people who hold with freeform as the best of all possible ways to roleplay, so it's a "pick your poison" sort of deal.

I think Prospero would be the perfect character to act as an avatar for common GMing duties.  He frames scenes and presents adversity right there in the play ... you see him doing it.  The trick would be to make sure that his goals, if pursued to the utmost of his power, would not ruin the game for the other players.  Like, if his goal was simply to punish Alonso ... that would end up in a very short game.  Huge wrathful spirits of fire burn Alonso to a crisp, done.

As it is, his goal in the play is very, very murky.  There's something about vengeance there, yes, but there's also an awful lot about trying to judge these people, to test them and see how they respond.  He's a damn complicated character, and trying to boil down the art of "How to write Prospero" into a clear statement that would let Joe-Random-Roleplayer do it with style and elan is a worthy challenge.  I totally think it's possible, I just don't want you to underestimate the scope of the task.

I think the murky role of Prospero might make a lot more flexible gameplay -- if his intentions are ambiguous, it gives the role flexibility and a certain extra ability to make each play a new experience.

Also, the game should be played in blank verse, except when you're playing Trinculo and Friends.

I'm following this thread eagerly.

This is an interesting topic for a game. I did a comic version of this as a GenCon game in the lat 90's. It was call...

"Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter"

I pulled in the characters from the play discussed but not written in "Shakespeare in Love" along with some of the characters from Tempest, and threw in characters in London who work in the theater. This meant the players could run the game as Romeo and Juliet, the Tempest, for straight comedy, or as the play Will is putting on in London (under adverse circumstances - like the producer urging him to use a dog. "Have you got a part for the dog? Everyone likes the dog...")

The game was a gas. Different players viewed the game from each of the different perspectives, but it all worked.

Why it worked was totally due to the system used. I urge you to carefully consider what system you use. They do matter.

In Romeo and Ethel for instance, I used an Engle Matrix Game. Each turn players make an argument for what they want to have happen next in the game. Players are not required to be operating on the same plane of existence, They can role play if they wish but it is the arguments that write the story. When done as a PBEM, the arguments literally write the story. This rewarded creative writing and jumping from scene to scene because doing so does not interrupt the flow of play. (BTW the rules are available for free on my web page. The URL is in my tag line.)

In a RPG like D+D the story of the Tempest would have a hard time happening. It would all be about sword fights and saving throws. The magic would have to be rail roaded because other wise Prospero wins ("Die you wicked men!!!) Character's goals are as you say, but their power to act them out must be limited if for no other reason than wanting the game to be about more than a single die roll.

So I ask you, what kind of systems do you like? If you don't know, then "exploring what system is" is the place to begin. There are some really neat ways of running games out there that can really help you thinking.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games