In a few simple words: Roleplaying is an exiting adventure story which the players can experience, participate in and even decide the outcome of.

 

What if…
We’ve all seen movies or read books where the hero or heroine suddenly does something absolutely stupid. We want to get up and yell at them, not to do it. Or we begin telling our friends “If I was the hero in this story, I’d do sooo much better than that.”

And that’s how it all starts.

In a roleplaying game every player gets the chance to play one of the main characters in a fantastic story and they can let their character do the things all those movie-heroes don’t do just because it’s not in their script. Media like movies or novels also tell stories, but their stories are static and always stay the same, no matter how many times you watch the film or read the book.

Roleplaying is different because the story is dynamic and every player can contribute his share to the whole game and every other player can react to that and interact with each other to tell a unique story every time.

 

What do you need to have a great roleplaying experience? There’s the big 5 of roleplaying: players, a gamemaster, a setting, a story and having fun. Let’s dive into it.

 

The Players
Typically roleplaying is done in groups of 4-7 people of any age, although most players tend to be older than 14, as many nuances of roleplaying usually require a certain mental maturity, that kids have not yet developed. That being said, there are always exceptions (in both directions).

The group usually gathers around a table, which doesn’t have to be an actual table anymore, as there are plenty of groups that are using virtual gaming tables instead. There are pros and cons for both, so it’s basically up to the group what they actually can use and are most comfortable with.

All players at the table usually have a sheet of paper called a “character sheet” and a few dice (both physical or virtual) and are listening to the gamemaster who tells everyone the setting and the guidelines for the current adventure. After that everyone interacts with the gamemaster and the other players by describing what their character wants to do next – depending on what the rest of the world, the bystanders and antagonists (in the form of the gamemaster) are trying to do.

The character sheet helps the players by providing information about the characters’ strengths and weaknesses, talents and traits. These are usually marked with numbers which indicate how good or bad a character can do these things. Whenever a situation occurs during the game where it is not sure if the character succeeds at his action there’s going to be a dice roll. This roll is usually based on the corresponding talent or trait value and one or more dice against a difficulty number set by the gamemaster to determine success or failure.

 

The Gamemaster
(often also referred to as GM, Dungeon Master, DM, Narrator or Storyteller)
The Gamemaster is not playing a character of their own as the players do. Instead they play every other person, friend or foe, that the characters may encounter in the game world. They come up with an exciting story, introduce the players to the beginning of the action and are trying to sort of “guide” them through it. They’re not supposed to “railroad” the players along the plot as in a book or movie though. The players should feel free to decide for themselves what their characters want to do next.

The GM also knows the setting and has all the background information about what’s going on in the game world outside of his story. They know the rules of the game and  also act as a referee in case a question comes up that is not covered in the game rules.

In the end they’re not working against the players, but with them to create a thrilling story, just like a movie director is also working with his actors to create a good movie.

 

The Setting
So, we have the heroes, the villains and the neutral people (aka. The Non-Player-Characters or NPCs). We now need surroundings for these people, so everyone has a place to be. You can easily take the background from a movie or novel or TV-show and play within that world (for example Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, Conan, Stargate, Discworld, Aliens, Blade etc.). Besides the official roleplaying games for many different and interesting franchise worlds it is also possible to make up your very own.

In addition, there are lots and lots of roleplaying settings which are not based on a specific movie or novel franchise, but instead were developed for roleplaying in the first place. The most popular roleplaying game system in the world is arguably “Dungeons & Dragons”, but there are virtually hundreds of others, some big with tons of background material, some smaller (but not less interesting).

And there are some game systems that are universal and can be played with a variety of settings. With this range to choose from there should be a setting/game system for everyone, be it high fantasy, sci-fi, dark future, adventure, horror or whatever setting you like.

 

The Story
After we’ve got player characters, non-player characters and a setting in which they exist we need something to do for them. The Gamemaster usually comes up with a story he would like the characters to experience. This can be a completely original story or inspired by movies or books or any other media. But what if the GM has little time or lacks inspiration for something original? Well, depending on the game system they chose, there may already be commercial roleplaying adventure books. Some systems have quite a variety in stock and clever gamemasters can also adapt adventure stories written for other systems into their own campaign.

Usually, a game session lasts between 4 and 8 hours. There are stories that are short and meant to be played in only one session. These are called “one-shot”.

If the plot is too complex to be solved in one session it can be split up into several parts, where each part can take up one session.

Larger storylines can also be structured as an ongoing campaign, with lots of subplots and story twists to help keep it interesting and allow for several stages of a scenario where the player characters can win or lose small battles on their way to the grand finale.

 

Having fun
By far the most important aspect of roleplaying is to have fun, and to have a good time with some friends. Everything said above is pointless if there’s no fun in it. Now that doesn’t mean everything in the game should be made fun of, but it is important to keep in mind that it’s a game and it is played for enjoyment.

What else can be gained through roleplaying? Well, there’s lots of things you can do. At the end of each session the gamemaster awards experience-points to all player characters depending on things like accomplishing the given tasks, defeating enemies and good roleplaying of one’s character. These Exp. (or “XP”) can be used to enhance the character’s abilities and talents, making them stronger, smarter, faster and thus enabling them to do better in every subsequent game session.

Fully playing a character can also mean to evolve the personality of the character through the course of a campaign which can also be very rewarding.

Also, a player is not limited to one character, but can have a multitude of them and try out something new every now and then (although most GMs only allow one character per player within the same adventure or campaign, which is fair enough). And lastly, there are hundreds of worlds to play in, so there’s bound to be something interesting for everyone.

The only limit is your imagination!

 

On a side note:
Besides having fun during the game, it is also a good opportunity to reflect upon one’s own personality, and there are many people who have gained self-confidence or presentation and group-leading skills through roleplaying games.

 

(This text is a non-literal translation of my “What is roleplaying?”-article originally written for our local roleplaying club.)