Role-playing game

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Role-playing game (RPG; often roleplaying game) describes a variety of games in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters.[1] Participants determine the actions of their characters,[1] and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.[2]

The original pen-and-paper role-playing games are conducted like radio drama: only the spoken component is acted. In most games, one specially designated player, the game master (GM), creates a setting in which each player plays the role of a single character.[2] The GM describes the game world and its inhabitants; the other players describe the intended actions of their characters, and the GM describes the outcomes. Some outcomes are determined by the game system, and some are chosen by the GM.[2] There is a variety of role-playing game in which players do perform their characters' physical actions, known as live action role-playing games (LARP).[3]

A genre of video game is also referred to as role-playing games. These games do not involve "role-playing" in the sense used in role-playing games;[1][4] they take their name from the settings and game mechanics which they inherit from early role-playing games.[5] Due to the popularity of video games, the terms "role-playing game" and "RPG" have both to some degree been co-opted by the video gaming industry; as a result, games in which players play the roles of characters are sometimes referred to by the retronyms "pen and paper role-playing games" or "tabletop role-playing games,"[2] though neither pen and paper nor a table are strictly necessary.[2]

Contents

[edit] Varieties

Role-playing games are played in a wide variety of media from the spoken form of pen-and-paper games, to physically acting out characters in LARP or playing characters virtually in digital media.[6] There is also a great variety of systems of rules and game settings. Games that emphasize plot and character interaction over game mechanics and combat sometimes prefer the name storytelling game. These types of games tend to minimize or altogether eliminate the use of dice or other randomizing elements. Some games are played with characters created before the game by the GM, rather than those created by the players. This type of game is typically played at gaming conventions, or in standalone games that do not form part of a campaign.

[edit] Pen-and-paper role-playing games

Main article: Role-playing game (pen and paper)

Also known a tabletop role-playing games, this is the format in which role-playing games were first popularized. Players describe their actions through speech, and the game master describes the results.

[edit] Live action role-playing games

Main article: Live action role-playing game
A fantasy LARP group

A LARP is played more like improvisational theatre.[7] Instead of describing their characters' actions, participants act out their characters' actions, often in costume. Further, the players' environment is used to represent the imaginary environment of the game world.[3][8] Some live action role-playing games use rock-paper-scissors or comparison of attributes to resolve conflicts symbolically, while other LARPs use physical combat with simulated arms such as airsoft guns or foam weapons.[9]

LARPs vary in size from a handful of players to several thousand, and in duration from a couple of hours to several days.[10][11] Because the number of players in a LARP is usually larger than in a tabletop role-playing game, and the players may be interacting in separate physical spaces, there is typically less of an emphasis on tightly maintaining a narrative or directly entertaining the players, and game sessions are often managed in a more distributed manner.[12]

[edit] Electronic media

an example of an online play-by-post role-playing game

The challenge of producing a video game with which players can interact through role-playing, rather than simply a framework within which they can interact with each other, is yet to be answered.[1] Within the computer industry, the terms "role-playing" and "RPG" instead refer to role-playing video games.

Nonetheless, computers and other electronic media are not unknown in role-playing. Online text-based role-playing games use the internet as their medium. Some games are played in a turn-based fashion, whether play-by-mail games using email, or play-by-post games on internet forums. Others are played in a more real-time way, similar to offline games, over TELNET or IRC; these are known as MU*s.[5] Massively multi-player online role-playing games add a graphical component.[5] Finally, some people use internet chat clients or dedicated virtual tabletop software to play what would otherwise be a traditional RPG.

Computer-assisted role-playing games blend elements of traditional role-playing with PC gaming. PCs are used for record-keeping and sometimes to resolve combat, while the participants generally make decisions concerning character interaction. This may include tools used to facilitate traditional pen & paper games to be played over the internet. Such tools may be nothing more than an IRC program, but there is also specialized software which includes built-in functions for dice, character sheets, mapping, and such (e.g., OpenRPG). The fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons was supposed to make use of an online Virtual Tabletop and numerous online tools to expedite play of the game as part of their D&D Insiders program,[13] but the software was not ready when the game was published.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Template:Citation web
  2. ^ a b c d e Kim, John. ""Narrative" or "Tabletop" RPGs". http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/whatis/tabletop.html. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
  3. ^ a b Tychsen, Anders; Hitchens, Michael; Brolund, Thea; Kavakli, Manolya (July 2006). "Live Action Role-Playing Games: Control, Communication, Storytelling, and MMORPG Similarities". Games and Culture (Sage Publications) 1 (3): 255. doi:10.1177/1555412006290445. http://gac.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1/3/252. Retrieved 2007-11-04. "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique features: (a) The players physically embody their characters, and (b) the game takes place in a physical frame. Embodiment means that the physical actions of the player are regarded as those of the character. Whereas in a RPG played by a group sitting around a table, players describe the actions of their characters (e.g., “I run to stand beside my friend”)". 
  4. ^ Rilstone, Andrew (1994). "Role-Playing Games: An Overview". RPGnet. http://www.rpg.net/oracle/essays/rpgoverview.html. Retrieved 2006-09-01. 
  5. ^ a b c Kim, John. "Computer RPGs". http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/whatis/computer.html. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
  6. ^ Tychsen, Anders; Newman, Ken;Brolund, Thea; Hitchens, Michael (2007). "Cross-format analysis of the gaming experience in multi-player role-playing games" (PDF). Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: Situated Play. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/07311.39029.pdf. Retrieved 2010-01-01. "The Role-Playing Game (RPG) is one of the major genres of games, and has proven an extremely portable concept - from the physically embodied live action and tabletop formats to the various digital, mobile and even enhanced and augmented reality formats." 
  7. ^ Kilgallon, John; Sandy Antunes, Mike Young (2001). Rules to Live by: A Live Action Roleplaying Conflict Resolution System. Interactivities Ink. p. 1. ISBN 0-9708356-04. "A live action roleplaying game is a cross between a traditional 'tabletop' roleplaying game and improvisational theatre." 
  8. ^ Falk, Jennica; Davenport, Glorianna (2004). "Live Role-Playing Games: Implications for Pervasive Gaming" (PDF). Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 3166. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. pp. 131. ISBN 978-3-540-22947-6. http://springerlink.com/content/up8k3p2xywdf49ag/?p=c2914626bfa243b299327f78722deb90&pi=1. Retrieved 2008-10-28. "The LRP player, like a stage actor, is a person who under-goes a transformation into a character. The character’s costume and accessories, or kit, aids this transformation ... Physical structures may be used as game locations, and sometimes even purposely constructed to enhance the game world ... Players frequently use physical artifacts as props and tools in their role-play, primarily to back up their character roles." 
  9. ^ Young, Mike (Editor) (2003). The Book of LARP. Interactivities Ink. p. 7-8. ISBN 0-9708356-8-X. ""Live combat... requires the players' abilities to perform an action. You want to hit someone with a sword? You have to actually hit the player with a prop representing a sword, usually a padded weapon. ... Simulated combat is more abstract. It uses an external method that does not rely on player ability. For example, if you want to hit the other person with a sword, you may have to make a rock-paper-scissors challenge." 
  10. ^ Widing, Gabriel (2008). "We Lost Our World and Made New Ones: Live Role-Playing in Modern Times". in Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros. Playground Worlds. Ropecon ry. ISBN 978-952-92-3579-7. "...the participants sustain these temporary worlds for a few hours or several days" 
  11. ^ Tychsen, Anders; Hitchens, Michael; Brolund, Thea; Kavakli, Manolya (July 2006). "Live Action Role-Playing Games: Control, Communication, Storytelling, and MMORPG Similarities". Games and Culture (Sage Publications) 1 (3): 258. doi:10.1177/1555412006290445. http://gac.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1/3/252. Retrieved 2007-11-04. "Games range in size from a handful to more than 4,000 players)". 
  12. ^ Tychsen, Anders; Hitchens, Michael; Brolund, Thea; Kavakli, Manolya (2005). "The Game Master". The Second Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment. Creativity and Cognition Studios Press. pp. 218. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1109180.1109214. Retrieved 2008-12-03. "[The GM is] forced to let go of the game and let it take on a life of its own outside his or her control. While based on similar principles, the requirements [are] therefore very different in practice from GMs in PnP RPGs... The GM is generally, unless the LARP is small in terms of number of participants, not responsible for keeping the narrative flow. The GM can however oversee the progress of the game and help or influence where needed... Establishing a hierarchy of GMs and NPCs to monitor the game and ensure everyone is entertained and activated within the shared game space is a typical way of controlling large fantasy LARPS. This structure is usually established before the game commences." 
  13. ^ "Dungeons & Dragons(R) Flashes 4-ward at Gen Con". http://www.digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070816005037/dungeons-dragonsr-flashes-4-ward-at-gen-con.html. Retrieved 2007-10-31. 

[edit] External links

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