As I’ve mentioned before, I play Roleplaying Games (the real kind, as I’ve also mentioned previously.)
Some of you know what I mean, but for many of you, this is a
foreign concept, or you may be confused as to some of the finer points on how
such games are played. So I’ve decided
to create this primer on RPG’s, to sort of lift up the curtain and shw you how
it all works.
And this way, you closeted geeks can see what you’ve been
missing, and what you’ve been too afraid to ask about.
To begin with, the core concept of RPG’s is that you control
a character. This character is rather
like an extension of yourself in the fictional world of the game, rather like
an avatar in a computer game.
Usually, you create this character, determining things like race
(or species,) gender, physical appearance, personality, and the various mental
and physical attributes that define them.
These attributes can include things such as how strong your
character is, how tough, how agile, how charismatic, and so forth. Each game uses different rules and statistics
to create your character, and different methods of determining these abilities.
Some games go for a balanced approach, where every new
character is roughly equal, as you must make choices of give and take, so that
each character starts out with the same potential, and you choose how to apply
it.
This is usually called the “point buy” system, and you can
allocate points into your various attributes.
So if you want your character to be super smart, you won’t have much left
to put in things like physical attributes.
Conversely, you could be exceptionally strong, but this would be
balanced by not having much left to put in intelligence. This can create a feeling of fairness and
equality.
Other games (perhaps more realistically,) have you randomly
generate your scores using dice or other methods (more on dice below.) This means that, just like the real world,
some people will be stronger, smarter and
tougher than someone else, just because they had lucky rolls at character
creation.
Because of this idea of creating a new persona, these games allow you to explore new
possibilities. Not only are stories
normally set in another world (such as the Old West, a high fantasy realm of
magic and warriors, or a galaxy far, far away,) but you can also be someone entirely different from who you are. Not just because you are
playing an elf or an alien, but because you can choose to be the strong one, or
the smart one, or the noble or ignoble one.
You can choose your character’s personality, and try your hand at making
choices you never would in your own life.
And those choices are what the game is all about. Once you have your character, you make
decisions about what your character does in the story. Whenever you have a choice to make, from
which way to turn at a crossroads, to whether to talk or fight in a situation,
YOU are the one to decide.
But just like in life, not everything you try to do will
work. RPG’s have rules to determine how
well something works, or how badly you fail.
If you are in a bar fight in a game, you can’t just say “I punch the big
guy and knock him out,” and expect it to happen, any more than you can just
decide to knock someone out in real life; there are lots of factors that
control if you are able to do that.
Most games use dice for this. Your abilities, such as how strong you are,
how skilled you are at fighting, any bonuses you get, like if the other guy is
drunk, or you’re wearing brass knuckles, all affect your chances. You then roll dice to see if it happens. So there is always a chance for a lucky shot,
as well as for a random fumble, and these combine to make the game interesting
and cinematic when done right.
Failure in the game is a lot like in life; fail to sneak
away from the town guards, you may get caught, fail to deactivate the bomb
aboard the freight train, you blow up, fail to properly set the coordinates for
traveling through hyperspace and you could end up passing right through a star
or a super nova (and that would end your trip real fast, wouldn’t it?)
But failures make the story interesting. No one wants to play a game where you never
lose, and never have to try harder; you would never grow as a character.
And games allow for that growth by tracking experience. Nearly every game charts your character’s
development, allowing you to become better, stronger, or faster, by ‘leveling
up.’ When you level up, you can increase
skills or learn new abilities. Most
games allow you to grow in new directions, and not keep you limited to what you
chose at the beginning. If you want your
warrior to learn to cast spells, or for your computer hacker to train to throw
knives, you can do so.
Experience allows characters to get better, face tougher and
tougher opponents, and unlock new powers and abilities. This is one of the great attractions of these
sorts of games; they allow you to get better, and give the players a sense of
accomplishment.
But how does one actually play the game? One player is
in charge of running the game; telling the story and adjudicating die
rolls. This individual is referred to by
different titles such as Dungeon Master, Referee, Storyteller, etc., depending
on the specific game, but the generic term is Game Master.
The GM describes the setting for the other players, so they can react accordingly, describing what their characters would like to do in the situation. The GM must then determine how the players’ actions would affect the story.
Some GM’s use pre-made adventures, with all the encounters,
treasure, and characters involved already laid out for you. But others write their own stories, and this
allows you to share your ideas with players, as everyone participates in
creating a story together. The players
have no idea where the story will lead them, and the GM has no idea what the
players will do in reaction to it. This
is one of the most compelling aspects of playing RPG’s.
There is no board; the GM describes the setting, the action,
and any other characters who are involved.
The players must use their imaginations to create the scene in their
heads. Some people use miniature
figurines to represent the various characters when in combat, often on a map to
indicate where everyone is standing. But
that is not necessary.
People play RPG’s in any place, on nearly any surface. The classic image of a group of friends
sitting around a table with nothing more than some papers (character sheets
that list a character’s stats for the players, notes about the adventure for
the GM,) some dice and rule books represents all that is needed to enjoy a
game.
There are hundreds of different RPG’s available. They range from all kinds of rulesets, from
painfully
simple (FUDGE System,) to bewilderingly complex (Twilight 2000, 1st
edition Shadowrun.) And pretty much any
setting you can imagine (I can name about a dozen Old West games alone, for
example.) There are games based on
nearly any story, movie, or intellectual property you can think of (Marvel
superheroes, Star Trek, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars books, you name it,) has a
game associated with it. And if it
doesn’t, you can adapt a set a rules to fit it (or someone online has already
done so for you.)
It’s not for everyone:
Just like any activity, some are going to find it boring. And of course, it’s only really going to be
fun if you are playing with people you like, and who are looking to get the
same thing out of the game as you are.
But if the idea of sitting around a table with a group of
friends, being part of a story in your imagination (and probably eating pizza,)
sounds like a good time, then maybe it’s time you faced your fear, picked up a
rulebook and some dice (and a 2-liter of Mountain Dew if you want to perpetuate
the stereotype,) and get together with friends to give it a try.
We won’t tell.
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