Role-playing game

A role-playing game (RPG) is a game in which each player assumes the role of a fictional character and through this character, interactively experiences adventures and other situations in a fictional world. Role-playing games are a popular application of conworlds.

The most popular genre in role-playing games is high fantasy, but other genres such as dark fantasy, horror, cyberpunk science fiction, space opera as well as historic or present-day settings are found as well.

There are three main kinds of role-playing games: pencil and paper (also called tabletop) RPGs, live action role-playing (LARP), and computer RPGs (CRPGs).

Pencil and paper role-playing

Pencil and paper RPGs are the oldest modern role-playing games. The game proceeds by a combination of conversation (each player announces what his character says and does), dice rolling (to reach random decision) and, optionally, moves on a map. Each player records the game-relevant data of his character (strength, intelligence, skill levels etc.) on a character sheet; these values may change during play. Usually, one player functions as a game master (GM), who does not play an individual character, but is in charge of the world the characters live in. This is a demanding and creative task and should be taken over by an experienced player.

There are many pencil and paper RPG rules sets. The oldest is Dungeons & Dragons, first published in 1974, and continuing, in much modified form, until today. Dungeons & Dragons is a high fantasy game for which several world settings are available. Other popular RPG systems are Traveller (space opera), Vampire: The Mascerade (vampire horror) and GURPS (a universal system applicable to any genre).

Live action role-playing

In live action role-playing (LARP) the players do not sit at a gaming table, but act out the game situations with props and costumes in a live action setting. Obviously, this mode of role-playing offers a much more intense experience of the game world and the events therein. The drawback of LARP is cost; while in a pencil and paper game, the limits of what can be enacted in the game are set only by the imaginations of the players and the GM, in a LARP game, everything costs real money, and most LARP events do not have the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster crew.

Computer role-playing games

The idea behind computer role-playing games (CRPGs) is to have a computer act as a GM. Using a computer as a GM is appropriate to some aspects of game mastering (bookkeeping about the world), but less so to others (a good game master requires creativity and readiness for improvisation). This means that CRPGs are limited to what has been programmed into the game.

There are basically two varieties of CRPGs: single-player games run on a single computer, and are played by a single person, while multi-player games are played over a computer network (nowadays, usually the Internet) with each player playing his own character, and the characters interacting with each other over the network. (To same multi-player gamers, the actual gaming activities such as solving quests actually take a back seat to socializing with other players.)

You may think that CRPGs could not have appeared before computers became affordable household appliances in the 1980s, but in fact, the first CRPGs were clandestinely developed by university students on university mainframes in the mid-1970s (of course, wasting the valuable CPU cycles of the mainframe on a game was illegal, and the activity had to be hidden from the admin staff).

Modern CRPGs offer a realistic graphical rendition of the scene, allowing a more intense experience than tabletop games (though less so than LARP). On the other hand, single-player CRPGs are a solitary rather than social activity, and even in multi-player online games, the social aspect is mediated via the computer network and thus less immediate than in other kinds of RPGs. Another drawback of CRPGs is that computers lack the creativity and improvisational skill of a good human game master.

Related games

Tabletop wargames

Tabletop wargames are the main ancestor of role-playing games. They were first developed in the early 19th century and used for training army officers, but later became a popular hobby, especially in the United States (in war-torn Europe, they were understandably less popular). Most wargames have historical or contemporary themes, but in the late 1960s, the first fantasy and science fiction wargames appeared. Two of these, Chainmail by Gary Gygax and Blackmoor by Dave Arneson, were the parent games of Dungeons & Dragons.

The main differences between tabletop wargames and role-playing games are:

• In a tabletop wargame, each player controls an army (or a smaller military unit) rather than an individual character, and the members of these army are not individualized.

• A tabletop wargame is almost entirely focused on combat, while role-playing games often involve many non-combat activities.

Computer strategy games

A computer strategy game is like a tabletop wargame, except that it is played out on a computer. As with CRPGs, there are single-player and multi-player games.