RISE Together with Collaboration

In which Dyo shares two tips on teamwork and one very specific mechanic, COLLABORATION, to help you RISE alongside your friends!

One of the tag lines, or mottoes, of RISE is "Elude ruin, and RISE as a hero!" Easy enough to understand: "Elude ruin [read: avoid killing your character or destroying his fortunes], and [by doing so, you will] RISE as a hero!" It is a mighty, deeply individualistic creed, to be certain. But, if you know your way around the philosophy of gameplay here at RISE, you know that underlying that motto is the firm principle that each player should view herself as part of a group of heroes. The way to RISE as a hero, and to elude ruin, is to view your party as a unified whole. First, it's pragmatic-- there's a reason why many parties have a 'no player goes off by himself' rule: it's too easy for the GM to squash a single vulnerable character who has wandered away from the support of his party. Second, it's an issue of focus: you should be thinking, primarily, of the world or environment around you, not the folks around the table (save the GM, sometimes) as your potential antagonist. Third, it's an issue of morale: no one wants to interact with a colleague whose main schtick is annoying another party-member. That's not to say that there won't be spats, or disagreements among party members, but just that RISE isn't intended to be the Real Housewives of Westfield, if you will.

So, general teamwork and a kind spirit towards your fellow players go a long way (see my earlier post on how not to get killed off by your own party-members. Also, some may debate me on this, but since your job isn't necessarily to dazzle the other players with Hail-Mary revelations of powers only when you are upon the brink of destruction, but to defeat common enemies (yes, while achieving specific individual goals too), you should be willing to reveal your key strengths and even your specific powers to your fellow players, so that you can work together more effectively. Of course, you have to be fair about what your *character* would know, (which is separate from what you as the player knows), and not do too much meta-gaming, i.e. you meet a new party member in a dark cave, and, oh, serendipity! you just happen to know that he has a power that allows him to illuminate an object without him having revealed or indicated in-game that he is a wizard. I've tried that kind of thing, and the GM will (and should) call you out.

Alright: not viewing your party-members as antagonists, knowing each other's characters and capabilities, and... collaborating! Yes, there is actually a formal mechanic for collaboration in RISE. This is one of the most exciting innovations of RISE! When characters in RISE formally collaborate-- i.e. two or more players (up to seven) perform a check aimed at a specific, shared result, the potential for success is much higher, though by no means guaranteed. With each successive participant in a collaborative scenario, the die used to make the roll is one step lower, so that two collaborators would each roll a D12 rather than a single person rolling a D20, and three collaborators each roll a D10. Thus, each person's individual contribution is slightly less powerful, but the cumulative result means that decent rolls in Collaboration can result in more success than one stellar un-Collaborated roll.

RISE implemented Collaboration to mimic the real-life results of working together: increased knowledge and likelihood of success, but balanced by possible increases in time or resources needed. Collaboration encourages players to tackle common goals, of course, which means that characters have to elucidate their goals to some degree, which benefits party unity. Additionally, Collaboration speeds up one of the more mundane aspects of roleplay, namely when every single party-member in a party of eight rolls a separate insight check and the GM has to decide what to tell each one of them in turn, wasting precious time for heroes ready to RISE.

Collaboration is not just good for a momentary boost in potency, i.e. everyone trying to perceive what's charging toward you in the dark of night; it's also good for more systematic aims, such as a Deception check that allows each of you to band together in an elaborate fraud ring-- ideally one that defrauds gold dragons, maybe, or orcs...but I'm revealing my motivations when I say that (which is a good time to remind you that in a collaborative setting, keeping your identity and values and goals a secret may not be the most effective thing to do. But I will hop off that hobby horse and boldly press on!).

The only requirements for Collaboration: your collaborator(s) must be willing participants; and you and your collaborator(s) must each perform an identical action, such as a crafting an individual item, attacking a single foe while each using the same power, or utilizing the same acumen or competency for the same purpose. Collaboration can apply to many kinds of checks-- an acumen check, a research check, or a crafting check, and so forth, so long as teamwork would be reasonably possible. When in doubt, ask your GM if your issue is one that could benefit from formal Collaboration. Note, too, that collaboration not only increases your likelihood of getting the desired result, it creates better bonds between you and your collaborators, and maybe you each can get XP for tapping into a specific mechanic of the game that enhances gameplay. Finally, there's more suspense and celebration (or sorrow) when two or three people throw a strike or a gutterball all at once. The only thing you have to lose is the perception of your character as the sole hero of the game.

So, stop viewing your party members (or that one specific person) as barriers in the way of your success, be sure that your team knows what your character can bring to the table, and exchange your D20 for a lesser-faced die and get ready to Collaborate! After all, the party that plays together, profits together!