Under the Hood – Co-operation?  By The Warden  Roleplaying games
are a group experience, there’s no question. While there are
versions allowing players to go solo (in fact, right after this,
I’m working on a review for Open Design’s Party of One
adventure), RPGs are primarily designed for two or more people
to share the game and work together to achieve a goal. It’s what
makes RPGs stand out against board games, which are usually
built on the premise of “first player to score the most wins”
and other solitary objectives.  Knowing that, it’s strange how
co-operation is not a mechanical function of a majority of
popular RPGs. Instead, it’s left to the etiquette of the players
involved to work together through description and action with a
few options allowing one character to help another with a
certain kind of dice roll. Mechanically speaking, there’s very
little in most RPGs for allies to automatically benefit from
working together. They are instead a collective of individuals
who happen to walk the same path