Roleplay / The Art Of Minimalism

You are in a large, open room. There is a big screen on one wall and a laptop computer in one corner, on a stool. Next to the laptop is a power outlet. What do you do?

The first turn of The Art of Minimalism

The Art of Minimalism is a series of minimalist Roll to Dodge games on the Bay 12 forums, run by Great Wyrm Gold. While each has been different, they have some elements in common:

• A bland setting (which the players begin to fill with random stuff and/or destroy)
• A method of getting various sorts of new kinds of items, with varying levels of control
• Attempts to prevent the players from using the abovementioned powers to destroy everything
• Players who manage to completely ignore the abovementioned attempts and destroy everything anyway

In fact, this tendency is what has lead to the end of each of the games, except the current one.

All Games

The Art of Minimalism IThe Art of Minimalism IIThe Art of Minimalism IIIThe Art of Minimalism IVThe Art of Minimalism VThe Art of Minimalism VIThe Art of Minimalism VII (current)

---

This game contains examples of the following tropes:

• A God Is You: T Ao M IV, at first.
• Amusing Injuries: Injuries rarely have as much of a negative effect as they would in real life.
• Apocalypse How: Typically, a Class 5-6 Universal Apocalypse ends each game.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Seems to describe most of the players.
• Death Is Cheap: Just respawn next turn!
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Multiple examples have shown up when cosmic beings are involved. One recent (and extreme) example is an example of Did You Just Bludgeon Cthulhu To Death With Cheesecakes?
• Driven to Suicide: Happens from time to time, mostly when players are sick of a given incarnation and want to respawn.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: For instance, the first couple games had no controls over players whatsoever to keep destruction to a minimum. In addition, in the beginning of the first, turns would be run every few minutes if there was even one action...which was not well-received by those who could not post actions every few minutes.
• Eldritch Abomination: Several have shown up, including Cthulhu, various incarnations of Xantalos, and 5.
• Epic Fail: Most times that players roll a 1.
• Genre Shift: Whenever the players smash the guidelines the GM put in place to try and avoid the game getting completely out of control.
• Gone Horribly Right: A rather common occurence, typically whenever a player rolls a 6.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Also common, whenever players roll a 1. Or when they plan badly.
• It Makes Sense in Context: Pretty much any turn includes at least one example of something which makes no sense out of context. Some even include things which don't even make sense within context.
• Literal-Minded: The GM at times.
• Long-Runners: For minimalistic RtDs, at least.
• The Many Deaths of Everyone: People die in many ways.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Most item-spawning methods are unexplained.
• Mega Crossover: Many players spawn as characters from other games, from Gandalf to Phoenix Wright.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Each time the game has ended, it has been due to player action.
• Random Number God: As a Roll to Dodge game, this should not be a surprise.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: #4

---