Introduction
There are some differences. For one thing, freeform characters are usually pre-made by the Games Masters in order to effectively integrate them into the plot. Very rarely are you allowed to make your own character, because if you did, things just wouldn't work. The other main difference is that the plot is driven by player character interaction, as opposed to normal roleplaying which is determined by player-GM interaction. Really, GMs only serve to referee freeforms, and occaisonally input small plot devices. Basically, they just hand out the characters, already with their set motivations, and watch how the characters deal with each other.
Freeforming is also known as live roleplaying, and amazingly enough, there is actually a coherant reason for this. Generally, people are required to act as their character as they move about and talk to other characters. And that's really what a freeform is. A bunch of bizarrely dressed people wandering around talking to each other. Each character has their own objectives to accomplish, and these goals can only be met by talking to people and working things out. Of course, these people have their own goals, which often don't coincide with each other. Sometimes, people must be creative and use very round-about ways to accomplish their goals. And the main thing to remember: almost anything the players come up with is possible. Of course, this is where the GMs come in.
And now for some fun freeform facts. (Although I won't even try to define 'fun' in this case...) The usual number of people for a freeform is from 15 to 25 people. Any more than that just becomes too much of a bother and you don't even get to really talk to everybody. Any less, well, it's just not enough! For the WWF freeform, I had around 18 people, and wouldn't have wanted to do with any less. Also, the general duration for a freeform is three to four hours. Trust me on this, you don't want it to be longer! I once went to a six hour one, and by hour 5, I was bored out of my skull, as were the majority of people there. Shorter than this obviously doesn't give much time for things to develop. Finally, if you still have no idea what a freeform is, the closest analogy I can draw is one of those mystery thingys. Strangely, most people seem to know what those are.
However, to make things more complex, there were many ways to increase your wrestling score for a match. Many of the characters had a certain limited number of uses for special moves which could be used to raise their wrestling. Also, there were such great foreign objects as bats, chairs and the unforgettable flame-thrower, all of which added to your wrestling score. Of course, it was impossible to use more than one foreign object in a match, as it's darn tough to hit someone with a bat and fry him with a flame thrower at the same time. The only exception to this were the cans of Steveweiser beer, which could be used in conjunction with other foreign objects. Finally, we come to tag team matches. There was no limit to the number of people that could gang up on someone. Basically, one person was chosen to be the main wrestler, and the others all 'supported' them. This resulted in adding half of each supporting wrestler's score to the main wrestler's wrestling.
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