The concept of KUP RPG (part 1)

As promised, let us focus on an oustanding detail of my project: the KUP RPG. 

Several years ago I started thinking of a game model where only the GM uses the dice and makes any action required to determine the events of the game. I talked about this idea with a friend who convinced me that this would have been a failure for sure in terms of interest and playability. I must admit that the discussion didn't last so much: the explanation he gave was solid... Gamers want to toss dice and ideally make 20! That's one of the keys for the success of the RPGs!

I then set aside this idea and tried to elaborate something different which brings to the same result and found a solution that now I call KUP: Keep Uneducated Players.

Before any further detail I need to explain the reasons that led me to rethink the current game model: one (and it is not the only!) aspect I dislike is the complete disclosure of any detail of the game mechanics to the players. First of all if you look at a modern Player's Handbook you will find more rules in there than in the DM Guide, by far. Why? Why should players look after tons of microrules which establish a +2 modifier to grapple if you use both hands and foot or a +4 if along with that the target is prone on the ground? What would change if this detail was available only to the GM? In the long run, such an approach has created a generation of players competing against the GM for the "last word on that rule"... this is simply awful! 

Back to basics: players should play, regardless the details of the rules and GM should lead the story and transform the words of players into game. Full stop. 

With this in mind, I tried to eradicate the trend and refocus the importance of the game on the fun of role-play. It is not required to know every rule if you want to use a character: the fun is living the fantasy the GM is showing you.

The KUP model therefore tries to move the burden of the mechanics on the GM's shoulders mainly. It is even more than that: the first paradigm is the less knowledge a player has, the more fun he will experience even from an ordinary situation like finding something never seen before in game.

How did I manage to have a KUP model? I aimed to safeguard some basic principles:

  1. Players do not need to know the rules; the less they know, the better it is
  2. Players do not need to know all the stats of their PC, again in this context it is a waste having all the information of your player available and start doing calculations in order to see whether it's an advantage or not carrying out an action... We do not know ourselves, why on earth a player should know every detail of his PC?
  3. The GM keeps some pieces of information for his eyes only without disclosing them to the players
The outcome is what poets call "the astonishment of ignorance": a player enjoys every aspect of the story because he expects always a surprise out of an unknow result.

...on this topic I will come back with further explanations. For the time being I'd say it is enough!

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