You may occasionally hear the term "role-playing game" mentioned now and then, and may even hear mention of certain games, like Dungeons & Dragons or Vampire: The Masquerade. The term RPG (short for role-playing game) is often used to describe certain types of videogames, but just to make things clear, this page is about the "pen and paper" or "tabletop" RPGs that many people play while sitting together and speaking to each other. RPGs are a form of interactive storytelling, in which all of the participants act out the roles of characters in the story. In all, it's very similar to the childhood game of "let's pretend" or "cops and robbers," but with rules and a referee. Unlike other games, RPGs do not typically have clearly defined winners and losers - individual characters may have goals that they are trying to achieve, but overall, the goal of the game is to create a satisfying story. One of the best ways I have heard to describe role-playing to a non-roleplayer is this one: Think of some of your favorite boardgames that you like to play, now or when you were younger; popular games like Monopoly, Battleship, Clue, Stratego, or Risk. Try to imagine playing one of those games while stepping into the role of a shrewd businessperson, a Navy captain, a master detective, or Army General. Now, instead of just rolling dice, drawing cards, and moving pieces around the board, you're acting out that role, interacting with the other players who are doing the same thing, and creating a story as well as playing a game. Now take that idea a step further - instead of competing with the other players, you are working with them as a team, to accomplish a specific goal. One of the players that is acting as "gamemaster" is presenting situations to you, describing where your characters are and what they can see (and even hear, feel, smell, and taste), and playing the roles of anyother characters (friendly or otherwise) that your characters interact with. This player prepares the story beforehand (by writing it and stocking it with characters, or reading a prepared story), describes the scenes and events of the story as they unfold, and tells the other players the results of their actions. A player's character is usually defined by a set of numbers or words that describe different qualities about the character. For example - a Dungeons & Dragons character with a Strength score of 18 is very strong (stronger than any character with a lower score), and a Vampire character with two dots in the Acrobatics skill is pretty good at jumping and tumbling. As you can see from this basic example, the rule systems between different role-playing games can work in very different ways.



In most of these games, dice are used to generate random numbers to resolve certain events (such as whether a character can climb a slippery wall, or if an attempt to fast talk a guard will work). These dice come in an array of shapes and sizes; a common set of dice includes 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, and 20-sided dice. Some games use a complete set of these dice (Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu are two examples), while others may only use one particular kind (GURPS uses only 6-siders, for example, while the World of Darkness games use only 10s). In others, dice are replaced with other randomizers such as cards, or in some cases, removed altogether in what is often called a "diceless" system.



Miniature plastic or metal figures are used in some games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, to help the players visualize where their characters are in a scene. They aren’t used in many RPGs, however, so you frequently will not see them at a game session. There are also strategy wargames that use the same or similar figures – these games are also a lot of fun, but are not quite the same thing as a role-playing game (even though RPGs were actually born from the wargaming hobby).

RPGs are usually played in a comfortable area with a table where everyone can relax while they play and have somewhere to put their books, notes, and dice. There is a “sister” hobby to RPGs called Live Action Role Playing (or LARP for short) where players dress as their characters and occasionally use props and/or foam weapons during the game.

HOW IT WORKS



Here is an example of how the character's abilities and dice are used to determine the results of an action in a roleplaying game. In this example, a group of players is participating in an espionage RPG, and one of the players thinks she has discovered the warehouse where some hostages are being held. When she tells the gamemaster that her character wants to check out the back of the building, she finds an opportunity to put her character's skills to work: Gamemaster: You sneak around to the back of the building. The alley is damp and dark, and you see stacks of pallets, a dumpster, and some old garbage cans. Next to the dumpster, you see a padlocked door. No one seems to be around. Player: Sarah is going to try to pick the padlock. She has a Lockpicking skill of +5. Gamemaster: The lock looks new, and well made. It's going to be pretty challenging to pick. Roll a 16 or higher to get it open. (The player rolls a 20-sided die and adds 5 to the result, hoping to get a result of 16 or higher. If she does, her character will have successfully picked the lock - if not, she will have to find another way in...) Depending on the results of that die roll, the gamemaster will describe what happens to Sarah, and the player may get to respond with further actions that she would like the character to take. Other players may step in to have their characters get involved as well, and the game (and story) continue in this way. There are, of course, exceptions to all of this. Some RPGs, as mentioned above, do not use dice at all. Some may not have a gamemaster, or may use a system where the players help direct what happens in the story, taking some of the control away from the gamemaster. There are even some RPGs where the players are working against each other, and trying to make everything go their way. But the basic concept is still the same - a game where a group of players cooperate to create a satisfying story.