“What are Roleplaying Games?” This used to be a simple question to my mind. But the truth is, the closer we zoom in on the specific goals & practices of each group, the more we see disparity. This isn’t a problem in itself, but it can lead to conflicts between players who have disparate styles & appetites.
Let’s start with a “view from 1,000 feet”: What is a Roleplaying Game?
In the broadest terms, it is a chimera merging the elements of childhood “make believe” with guidelines and mechanics ('rules') seeded in miniature wargames & board games.
RPGs bring people together to generate what’s called a “shared imaginary space,” wherein we play make believe together, using the rules of a gaming system to provide the framework. Think of RPGs as virtual-reality machines, mixing imagination and boundaries so that we can escape into functional alternate realities called “Secondary Worlds”. Which Secondary World you’re playing in depends on the chosen genre (our focus here being Dark Age Fantasy).
Traditionally, RPGs have one person as the referee (called a “Game Master”, “Dungeon Master,” etc.), with the others referred to simply as the “Players,” who control their own characters, called “Player Characters” (or PCs).
Game Masters (GMs) are like the AI governing the “virtual-reality” software of the gaming world, and their job is not a small one. They are responsible for creating (or perhaps interpreting the creations of others’) Secondary Worlds, serving as referee for rulings, playing the roles of all the GM-controlled characters, traditionally referred to as “Non-Player Characters” (NPCs), and the monsters that the player-characters encounter, with all of their choices and actions.
The players focus their energy taking on the roles of their characters (which should logically fit within the genre being played). GMs will usually spend time with players to familiarize them with that exact setting. Fantasy RPGs will be heavily based on specific Fantasy or Ancient/Dark Age Historical Fiction novels/movies, while others are a mish-mash of different sources.
Restrictions are helpful, if not downright necessary; a player cannot say, “I want my PC to be the smartest, strongest, deadliest warrior who is also the greatest wizard the world has seen.” Instead, all player characters must be “generated” (usually via rules & dice) to establish their attributes like intelligence, strength, speed, and so on.
Choices are made by the players, assisted by the GMs, to determine their skills as well as background and personalities. The players act out & make the choices that they believe their characters would make and interact with others in the world as if their characters. A large range of theatricality exists in these games; some players are reserved, while others work at giving dramatic representations of their character’s personae.
Once the character creation is completed, the PCs “enter the world,” seeing objects, traveling their lands, and interacting with people in this imaginary world as described by the GMs. The abilities of the characters set the stage for what they can reasonably accomplish. For example, a player cannot declare that they succeed in scaling a 90°, sheer cliff. Instead, they declare that they will attempt to climb it, and the game’s rules give guidelines for success based on each character’s skill in climbing. The GM arbitrates each ruling. Almost all RPGs use dice to some degree to help determine outcomes.
The GMs setup scenarios (usually called, “campaigns” because of the tradition of wargaming) that the PCs get embroiled in, sometimes appealing to the PCs’ greed like, “there’s a king’s horde in that sunken, haunted ruin!” Other campaigns call for more benevolence, requiring the PCs to assist others in this world. For example, a remote village may be experiencing repeated, murderous raids from strange, hitherto unseen creatures. The PCs would have the choice of helping through whichever avenue they choose to follow. PCs should be given options, sometimes a multitude of them, and the GMs must determine how each action affects that scenario.
Over 40 years ago, RPGs sprouted out of tabletop miniature wargaming, and therefore combat is a common event. Based on which game you’re playing, the combat rules may be minimal or expansive, comic-bookish or realistic. PCs frequently encounter dangerous situations from one source or another, and can potentially die. When that happens, the player must create a new PC, who the GM will introduce into the current campaign.
The above outlines RPGs using a broad brush. I think it’s a useful & fair representation if handed to someone with no idea what RPGs are about. But in the next essay, I will descend from the 1,000 foot perch to look at how different styles generate different results.
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