What is a Role-Playing Game?
The underlying principle behind all Role-Playing Games (RPG's) is imagination. Picture a board game in your head. The object of the game is to move your piece forward until you reach a predetermined goal. Along the way certain marked spaces will help you go faster or slower.Now try to change your perspective. Look at the game through the eyes of your token, as it might view the game. As your piece passes through the Lollipop Forest you can imagine looking up at the large colorful lollipops standing above. It isn't too difficult to imagine your piece arriving at a river of chocolate. You can now see the fictitious landscape in your mind, even though you can't see the board being described. You have an image in your head of surroundings that don't really exist.
Role playing is a group activity that takes place in an imaginary locale, like the hypothetical candy forest. Several people get together and only one of the players can see the board. It is that players job to let the other players know where their tokens are and describe their current positions to them. This player doesn't have a token and acts more as a referee. Generally, the player holding this role has a title like Adventure Master or Storyteller. The title may change with each game, but the role is the same. The Realms of Ruwar calls this player the Game Ref. I will be this ref, running the game for Jessica, Rachel, and their friends.
Now imagine that this playing board has more than one path. The players now have to make choices to get to their goal. It is no longer linear and gives each participant a greater degree of freedom in deciding where to go, forming his or her own strategies. The game is still playable, but it has changed dramatically. In the end, the board is taken away altogether and replaced with a set of rules governing what the players can or can't do. Instead of being a two dimensional game, it has become a mind game, played inside your head. This "boardless" form of free play is the first of two major distinctions in role playing games.
The second significant change is in the different types playing pieces you play with. These differences are evident in other games. Monopoly pieces only move forward while all of the pieces in chess move in a variety of ways. Stratego pieces all move the same, but each has different values. Varying the abilities of game pieces is a concept almost as old as games themselves. In Role Playing, the piece is a fictitious person that the player defines and then makes decisions for in hypothetical, imaginary situations.
Imagine if author were to create characters for a book, endow them with personalities, traits, and weaknesses. Now instead of writing a story in the usual fashion, this author would allow them to move freely through an imaginary world of his choice, like the one described earlier. In this example, the author is the Game Ref and a group of players all control their own characters. When a group of characters work together they are called a "party". Players participate cooperatively, playing in the world being described by the Ref. Players make all the choices for their characters and respond to the changes in their situations. In turn, the Ref gives the players feedback, explaining how what they have done affects their environment. Here is a simple example.
Referee: You step through the door and find the area beyond to be very dark.
Player 1: I have my character, Kendain, light a lantern.
Referee: He is now able to see. He's in a foyer. Behind him are the stairs he just came up. Ahead lies a straight carpeted hallway.
Player 1: Kendain moves down the passage, away from the stairs.
Player 2: My character, Oran, follows Kendain down the hall, staying near their light.
Keep in mind, when someone assumes the role of a character they don't physically act like that character. The players in the above scenario would not get up and walk out of the room. It is a verbal game and actual enactment doesn't take place. It is a mental step into an imaginary costume, a different persona.
This process of communication between the players and the Referee is the foundation of all Role Playing Games. It is a form of collaborative storytelling that never gets written down.
So how do you actually play this game and what are all those dice for?
While it's all about imagination, there are rules governing what your imaginary character can and can't do. This is different depending on what the game world you're playing in is like. In a super-hero world, you might have a character who can fly. In a fantasy setting, your character wouldn't be able to do that.What your character can and can't do, what equipment they have at their disposal, and their physical attributes are all written down on your character sheet. Then, when the player tries to have their character do something, the game Ref can check their sheet to see if that's possible for them. All of these stats are put on a numerical scale. The dice are there to add an element of chance. Here's an example.
Player 1: My character, Kendain, wants to unlock the door and rescue the people trapped inside.
Referee: Does Kendain have a LockPicking skill?
Player 1: Nope.
Referee: Then you don't know how to do that.
Player 2: Forget the lock. I want to smash the door down!
Referee: Okay, you can try to break the door. It has a Challenge Rating of 8 to break. Roll one six sided dice and add it to your Strength. If it's high enough, you break the door.
Player 2: Okay, my Strength is 4, so I need to roll a 4 or higher.
Player 2 rolls a 3, adds their Strength, for a total of 7.
Referee: Sorry, you can't seem to break the door down, it's too tough for you.
Now, as that example goes on, Player 1 can try, or the players can try to hunt down a key, or come up with some other ideas. The dice are simply used, in conjunction with the stats on the sheet, to see what is and is not possible for the character.
Everyone takes turns, the Referee manages it, and the story proceeds, one action and consequence at a time.
