If you're reading this, you likely know someone who plays roleplaying games, or you just want to know more about them, possibly considering joining one yourself. I hope I can shed some light on the subject for you and you leave with a better understanding of just what an RPG is.
The first question we're going to answer is "What is roleplaying?" The answer is very simple. Split the word into two parts and swap the order. Roleplaying means playing a role. What does this mean? It means every Hollywood actor, every kid in a school play, everyone who has performed a skit in a talent show, is a "roleplayer." Ok, not really in the gaming sense of the word, it means you're an actor, but every actor has played a role. So, what is a roleplaying game? It's a game in which you play a role. Simple, huh? What do I mean by play a role? I mean you adopt the persona of another character, you play the part of someone other than yourself.
That is the most basic definition of a roleplaying game. In order to learn more about it, let's take a look at one of the most popular, in fact, probably the single most popular, RPG available, Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons, or D&D as it's commonly called amongst gamers, began in the 70s when Gary Gygax and some of his gaming buddies were playing wargames and one of them had the brilliant idea of keeping track of their army's heroes and having them improve as they gained experience on the battlefield. This soon led to them developing rules in which they played as a small group of heroes instead of entire armies, and finally the first version of D&D came from this concept. Since then, D&D has gone through a few different versions as the rules improved and the product changed hands from one company to another. Even though the game has changed a lot since its origin, it is still based around the same principle: playing a single character.
Before we go any further, there's a second question we need to address, and that is "Are roleplaying games evil?" In the late 70s and early 80s when D&D was becoming mainstream gaming amongst nerds, it began to get a lot of negative press. One of the biggest sources of negativity was when Irving Pulling, a D&D player, committed suicide in 1982, leading his mother, Patricia to file a wrongful death lawsuit against TSR, the company that owned D&D at the time. The suit was dismissed, but it lead Patricia to form a one-person advocacy group called BADD (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons). When Patricia died in 1997, BADD died along with her as she was the only member. James Dallas Egbert III committed suicide in 1980, after having disappeared the year before and failed a suicide attempt. It was speculated at the time that D&D may have been the cause of his suicide, that the young man failed to distinguish reality from fantasy, but it was later determined that depression and great stress was the cause of the boy's suicide, and the detective hired to find him after his initial disappearance speculated that his domineering mother had more to do with his depression than fantasy gaming did.
The biggest issue at hand here lies around the fact that during the 80s when D&D and fantasy gaming in general was catching all this flak, the media purportedly stated that D&D included witchcraft, occult, wiccan, demonology, and satanic rituals. Patricia Pulling stated all this and more, but let me ask you this: do you think she ever played the game to find out?
Some of the D&D sourcebooks may look evil, such as the Draconomicon, Necronomicon, and Book of Vile Darkness. These may sound like occult tomes, but in reality, they only contain rules and story ideas for using some new stuff in your games, specifically new options for dragons, undead, and just really bad bad guys. People who report negative press about D&D probably don't want you to know that in addition to the Book of Vile Darkness, there is a Book of Exalted Deeds. Does that sound like an evil tome? No. It's just the counter-point to the BoVD. The Book of Exalted Deeds contains information for playing really good good guys.
Alright, so let's get to the nitty-gritty here. Since I've played D&D for the past 5 years or so, I'll tell you just how evil it is. First of all, when you open the Players Handbook (the first book new players are likely to open) you'll find instructions for creating your character. Well, that doesn't sound too evil yet, so let's move on. You'll see options for playing good or evil characters. Ah-ha! There we go, you can play an evil character! You'll see rules for using various skills and abilities your character possesses, and even how to cast spells. Oh, there we go! The game does encourage witchcraft! There are entire chapters just about spellcasting. Yes... in-game spellcasting. Let's take a look at a particular spell. How about, Fireball. The spell lists a material component, specifically, bat guano. Um... ok, I need poop to cast this spell. It also says I have to speak some magic words. Wait, there are no words listed. What do I have to say? It also says I have to perform some sort of gesture, but it doesn't say what. So, how exactly do I cast this spell? Well, if you recall, this is a GAME. Your character is assumed to know the word and gesture required to cast the spell, assuming you're playing a spellcaster and the spell is one of the ones you know. Wait a minute, did I just say that right? Did I say that the game designers don't actually provide words and gestures so you can try this out yourself? That's right. Now, granted, some of the really powerful spells in the game do include some sort of ritual your character must perform, but these were included so that you couldn't just cast the spell anytime you felt like it. You're required to actually have the time and be able to put forth the effort to cast the spell. One other thing, in the chapter on magic, particularly arcane magic, it mentions that most spells are written in, and cast by speaking, Draconian, the language of dragons. Do you know anyone who knows what language dragons speak? Wait, have you even seen a dragon? Um... so, the designers didn't intend for any real person to actually know how to cast a spell.
Alright, so maybe you aren't given enough instructions to try to cast spells in reality, but this game still promotes spellcasting! Well, yes, but so does J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. One of the main characters is a wizard and is seen casting a few spells in the story. So, are you telling me it's evil to read or watch Lord of the Rings? Hopefully not. Anyone with any sense should realize that it's just a story about a fictional world. Well, that's all D&D is. Wait, didn't I mention before that you could play an evil character? Well, yes I did, but doing so is extremely difficult. Out of all of the source material available for D&D, somewhere close to 90% of it assumes you're playing a good guy. Take a look at the Monster Manual. It includes rules for pretty much any type of enemy you could think to include in your game. If you take the time to read each monster's entry from cover to cover, you'll find about 90% of them are evil. So, if you actually plan to play a bad guy, be prepared to face the same monsters over and over again until you get sick of them.
I think I've gone on enough about this. How evil is D&D? Well, no more evil than the players make it. That's the real answer. Any parents reading this, my advice to you is this: There's no reason not to let your kids play. If you have good kids, and you know the people they're going to be playing with, then you're alright. If you have bad kids... well, wouldn't they be doing something bad anyway? Also consider that the time spent playing D&D could also be time spent going out drinking, or running with some gang. At least playing D&D is done indoors, usually around a table, and (at least most of the time) there's no drinking and nobody's getting into any real trouble. If you want to read more about the issue and see where I got some information, you can check out this article.
Ok, so getting back to roleplaying in general. We've had a rather long discussion about morality, so what about some positive aspects of roleplaying? Well, consider that your average roleplaying game involves 4 or 5 people, all sitting around the same table. This requires direct face-to-face interaction with your fellow players, something you're not going to get from X-Box Live or internet gaming. In fact, roleplaying is proven to improve your social skills. Most games involve the rolling of dice and adding and subtracting numbers. I've seen living proof that roleplaying can improve your math skills. One of my players used to have to count on his fingers to add or subtract from his roll, and now he's able to give me his total much quicker, without using his fingers. Roleplaying also requires a lot of imagination as many gamers can't afford game mats and miniatures to represent their characters, so you have to picture the battlefield in your mind as it's changing. Also, most gamemasters don't lay out a diagram of every single scene they describe, so even if you do have miniatures and a game mat, you will likely still have to use your imagination a lot. Let's also not forget that you have to read the rules, you don't have a program running the game for you, so reading skills are important. Most games involve a group of heroes fighting for a common goal, which encourages teamwork, so roleplaying games can teach players to work together. Also, some of the challenges in the game can be made a lot simpler when tackled a certain way, which encourages creative thinking and strategy.
Roleplaying is starting to look better and better all the time.
Alright, so, think about this: if you're a parent, or if you're not, pretend for a moment that you are, would you rather your child spend two hours sitting in front of the TV being a couch potato, or would you rather him/her be sitting at a table with friends for two hours pretending to be a great hero in some long-forgotten realm, learning to be a team player, improving valuable skills that can actually be useful later in life?
It's about time to bring this guide to a close. So, what is a roleplaying game? Ultimately, it's a game of the mind. It requires the use of your imagination, it requires creative thinking, and it requires teamwork, and if you don't want the game to drag on for two hours longer than you planned, it requires quick thinking. I hope I've been able to shed a little light on an unfamiliar subject. If you want more information, I'll be covering some aspects of roleplaying games more in-depth in future guides.
