Written During 2000

DISCLAIMER: The article below is Robert Farquhar's personal view of what roleplaying is. It should not be taken as the views of any or all other roleplayers, nor should it be accepted as the single and only definition of roleplaying (sorry if that sounds pompous or egotistic).

This article is intended for those who have little or no idea as to what a roleplaying game is, although experienced roleplayers may find my own personal interpretation of roleplaying interesting.

Another article on this theme has been written by Guy W. McLimore. Also, roleplaying game author Greg Costikyan has written an analysis of what makes a game.

First, a technical definition: When I use the term "roleplaying game", I do not include computer roleplaying games, nor the stimulating field of theatre sport (although comparisons can be drawn with the latter).

In the general field are computerised Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (such as EverQuest and Anarchy Online) and Live Action Roleplaying; however, while the following applies generally to them both, it's more geared toward 'traditional' tabletop roleplaying.

Externally, a roleplaying game in progress looks like a group of people seated around a table, with pieces of paper, dice whose number of sides often exceed (or, occasionally, fall below) six, and pencils. A single game can take from a few hours to an entire evening, or several. Most of what goes on during the game is in the conversation and interaction between the participants, the players, as they act out their parts.

A roleplaying game is, to quote Mike Pondsmith of R. Talsorian Games, "Let's Pretend with rules." In its simplest form, it is a game where players act out the parts of characters in an imaginary world. Those people sitting around the table are playing the game of Let's Pretend, only rather than getting up and running around, pointing fingers or toy guns, all the action takes place in their imagination, and each player tells all the other players verbally what his or her imaginary character is doing.

One player occupies a role generically known as the game master; some games dub this role "Referee", "Dungeon Master", "Narrator" etc. The Game Master (or GM) effectively controls the world the other players' characters (most often known as Player Characters, or simply PCs) interact in: he plays the parts of every other character aside from the PCs, describes the surroundings, and tells the players the results of their choices and actions in the game-world. During each roleplaying session, often referred to as an adventure or scenario, the game master sets the team of player characters an obstacle of some sort to overcome, be it a quest for a fabled magic item, a villain of the piece to be beaten, or a contract to be fulfilled. A series of adventures can be linked by a common plot which advances with each adventure; this is called a campaign. A superb, if lengthy and extremely detailed example of a campaign is the TV series Babylon 5; where almost every episode moves the plot along at least one step.

Player Characters need general and/or specific outlines; not only what they look and sound and how they act, but also what they can and cannot do. Most roleplaying games define the latter by using numerical values. These are often split into two primary groups: a set of natural abilities (sometimes known as "stats" or "attributes") and a set of learned abilities (most often referred to as "skills", although other names such as "talents" have been used). As they progress through the game world, not only do they accrue physical items, but also gain "experience points" which can be traded in for increases in skills (and new skills) and, sometimes, attributes.

Sets of rules are most often used to determine whether characters are successful at tasks they attempt in the game. Many roleplaying games use the rolling of dice to determine whether a task is successful to a varying degree; usually, when the player attempts a task, they must roll dice (possibly adding in values based on their attributes and skills) and the resultant total must exceed a value set by the GM in order for the player to succeed in their task.

Individual roleplaying game product lines mostly focus on a specific world or genre. Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons line, a name familiar to most unfamiliar with roleplaying, is set in a "fantasy" genre; such a genre involves a Tolkien-esque pre-technology era, where magic, brave knights, evil sorcerers and, of course, dragons abound. Traveller, another game line almost as old as D&D (released in several varieties, including MegaTraveller and Traveller: The New Era by the now-defunct GDW, Imperium Games' Traveller (T4), GURPS Traveller and the upcoming T5), deals with far-future star empires and high technology adventure. Some game lines are franchises of existing fiction; the most recognisable (and probably most popular) is Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars (previously held by West End Games until 1999/2000).

The term "game" implies that there is some way to 'win'. Although a single game session usually does have an objective to accomplish, and players receive rewards in terms of increased experience (and sometimes new equipment) for their characters, there is no real way to "win" in roleplaying. The old maxim "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game" applies to roleplaying more than probably any other form of entertainment. Enjoyment in roleplaying comes from acting out a character. In the same way you would watch a movie not only for the ending, but also for everything else before it, games are played for the conflict, character interaction and the choice to simply escape one's ordinary life for a while and explore a new (although imaginary) world.

But Why?

So why play a game where there's no true end, no real "win" situation? What's the point?

Well, everyone does things for different reasons, but here's mine:

Back in high school, I once spotted a photocopy of a picture from the American comic strip "Family Circle". It had one of the young children of the family in the cartoon sitting on a couch with a book in his hands. He was saying, "I like reading. It turns pictures on in your head." I've always remembered that. It was the best summation of why I liked to read.

It's also probably the main reason I like roleplaying games. Reading through an RPG book turns on pictures inside my head, too. Except, rather than creating pictures of the events described in a novel or the points of view of particular characters, I am exploring this new world myself; or perhaps I'm creating an alter-ego who fits into the world somehow. In a roleplaying game, I'm not constrained by the linear, unchangeable plot of a book or movie.

It's even better when it's not just me alone, performing this act of imagination and creation. During an actual roleplaying game session, I don't have a book to read; I have several friends who are also creating the game world inside their heads, who are seeing pictures and vistas of their own, who have their own alter-egos interacting with their view of the world. The best bit is, each brings something different to the process. As our characters interact, things happen that none of us would have thought of ourselves, and in the game, we have to figure out how our alter-egos react to these changes. The Game Master has to do this not only for the myriad NPCs he plays the parts of, but for the game-world in general (which is why GMing can be a rather intimidating task). Roleplaying can be a very stimulating, exciting thing.