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This article is about role-playing games as entertainment. See computer role-playing games for their digital counterparts or roleplay for a more general definition.

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A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which players assume the roles of fictional characters via role-playing. In fact, many non-athletic games involve some aspect of role-playing; however, role-playing games tend to focus on this aspect of behaviour.

Concept

At their core, these games are a form of interactive and collaborative storytelling. Whereas cinema, novels and television shows are passive, role-playing games engage the participants actively, allowing them to simultaneously be audience, actor, and author. An example of this difference could be the classic scene in a horror film when a doomed character ventures alone into the basement to fix a broken fuse. The audience experiences dramatic irony and says, "Don't go down there!" because they know the monster is lying in wait. In a role-playing game, the player may choose what to do about the broken fuse. The simplest form of role-playing can be seen in loosely-organized games such as "cops and robbers", "cowboys and Indians", and "playing house", where participants pretend to be someone else.

In the more sophisticated role-playing games that are the focus of this article, participants play the parts of characters in an imaginary world that is organized, adjudicated, and sometimes created by a gamemaster (aka narrator, referee, dungeonmaster (DM), storyteller). The gamemaster's role is to provide a world and a cast of characters for the players to interact with, and to adjudicate how these interactions proceed. In addition, the gamemaster may also be responsible for advancing some kind of storyline or plot, albeit one which is subject to the somewhat unpredictable behavior of the players.

In a sense, the players are the "actors" who play the heroes, improvising more freely while the gamemaster plays all the supporting roles (ranging from villain to victim) and keeps them at least partly limited to the script s/he had in mind as the "writer." At the same time, the gamemaster "directs" or referees the outcome of each decision, and his/her descriptions "produce" and "stage" the game setting.

Some newer role-playing games expand the players' powers beyond dictating the actions of their player characters. Some groups or games have rapidly rotating gamemaster duties, or in the more radical cases, no gamemaster at all.

The cooperative aspect of role-playing games comes in two forms. The first is that the players are generally not competing against each other, nor against the gamemaster. Most sports, board games and card games place players in opposition, with the goal of coming out the winner. A role-playing game is not a zero-sum game; in the majority of these games, the only way to actually lose is not to enjoy the game. The second form of cooperation is that all of the players are writing the story together as a team. At the end of a role-playing game session, the events that transpired could be written into a book that would tell a story written by all of its participants.

Game mechanics

Despite this generally non-competitive nature, RPGs usually have rules, or "game mechanics", which enable the players to determine the success or failure of their characters in their endeavors. Normally, this will involve assigning certain abilities to each character (such as exceptional strength, x-ray vision, or magical spells). Frequently, dice are introduced in order to bring in an element of chance, though this is not always the case.

Game mechanics commonly center around the fictional characters represented by the players. An essential step is character creation, where aspects such as the background, abilities, personality and resources of the character are recorded, often onto a character sheet. This usually takes the form of numerical values that represent different physical and mental aspects of the character, such as dexterity or charisma, or the character's skill in some task, such as singing, computer operation, or martial arts. In early role-playing games, the emphasis in character creation was often in the combat prowess of the character. More recently, there have appeared games that emphasize personality and background over combat mechanics.

Adherents of a gaming style accentuating character personality, background and story development sometimes use the pun roll-playing to describe the style of gaming more focused on mechanics, combat rules and their resolution using die-rolling.

Variations

The term "role-playing game" is used for a few distinct methods of play. The traditional method is a pen & paper or tabletop game played with dice by several people. These frequently use several types of polyhedral dice. Some games and gamers also use miniatures, either on a square or hexagonal grid, or on a plain table, to depict strategic and tactical situations for play. Combat can be (but does not have to be) a significant aspect of such games. Position, terrain, and other elements can affect the probabilities of success for a given action. For example, a character making an attack from an opponent's rear or flank may gain a significant bonus on their chances "to hit" and may also gain advantages on any damage they inflict.

Sometimes miniatures are not used at all, and sometimes a whiteboard, chalkboard or similar drawing surface is used in lieu of any figures or tokens. However, many gamers are also collectors of the miniatures and engage in the related hobby of miniature figure painting.

Another mode of play is live action role-playing (LARP), in which the players physically act out their characters' actions. The two types of LARP are theater-style and live combat (sometimes known, respectively, as "Fest" and "Dungeon"). Theater-style gameplay is usually more focused on characterization and improvisational theatrics and less focused on combat and the fantastic, if only because of the physical limitations of the players themselves. Live combat games, as the name implies, feature actual combat using padded props called "boffer" weapons. Live action gamers often dress up as their characters and use appropriate props in the game. The related style of freeform role-playing is less physically oriented, and is often played at conventions.

Online text based role playing games have gained popularity throughout writing-based communities. These games often have little to do with the dice or random number generators used by some players to determine outcomes; rather, characters are created and manipulated by their players in the form of a large interwoven story, using only the imagination to determine what occurs. These are usually conducted through internet forums, but can also occur through e-mail or chat programs. This type of role playing can be a form of fan fiction, with players taking the roles of characters from their favorite movies, television shows or books.

The term is also used as a name for a genre of video games that almost always lack the "role-playing" element of pen-and-paper games but borrow many gameplay elements from said games. These games are called CRPGs which stands for "computer role-playing games" or "console role-playing games" depending on whether the game is played on a personal computer or on a video game console.

These computerized simulations have become increasingly prominent over the last two decades. The most recent computer role-playing games have endeavored to incorporate social interaction via networking, beginning in the realm of text based chat rooms, and soon moving to static persistent worlds represented in the text MUD and the like (MUSHes, MOOs and MUXes). Currently, these have evolved to incorporate graphical representations of tokens (characters, equipment, monsters, etc.), as well as physical simulations obscuring much of the underlying rules of the games from users. Today, online role-playing games are epitomized by massively multiplayer online games such as EverQuest and City of Heroes. These games (MMORPGs, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) are played exclusively online and feature graphically intensive gameplay in a virtual world shared by thousands of other players simultaneously.

Computers are inarguably superior to humans in creating simulations, and they have allowed simulation games to become more realistic than ever before. They do, however, have one great drawback: They do not have the creativity and flexibility of a human referee. Some people also prefer the face-to-face interaction of paper-and-pencil role-playing games to computer games which are played over a network. Computer-assisted role-playing (CARP) seeks to overcome the limitations of both computer and paper-and-pencil games.

Genres

Role-playing games can also be divided into genres by the fictional setting where they take place.

Fantasy role-playing games draw their inspiration almost exclusively from fantasy literature, such as the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. The setting in these games is usually a world with a level of technology similar to that in Europe sometime between years 800-1400. Fantasy elements include magic and supernatural creatures, such as dragons. The genre can be subdivided into high fantasy where supernatural events are commonplace, and low fantasy where there are little or no supernatural aspects.

SF role-playing or sci-fi role-playing games are inspired by science fiction literature. The setting is generally in the future, sometimes near future but also quite often in the far future, though in many cases the setting bears no connection to the world we live in, e.g. Star Wars. Common elements involve futuristic technology, contact with alien life forms, experimental societies, and space travel. Psionic abilities (i.e. ESP and telekinesis) often take the place of magic. The genre can be divided similarly with science fiction literature into sub-genres, such as cyberpunk or space opera.

Historical games take place in the past. Settings that have been explored in role-playing games include Maya civilization, Ancient Rome, and Victorian era.

Horror games take their inspiration from horror literature. Horror Roleplaying can be divided into two major groups. The first is inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, focussing on humanity's fight against malevolent, extra-dimensional entities. The second focusses on playing supernatural creatures, mostly preying on humanity, such as the books of Anne Rice. The setting in these games is often contemporary or from the 19th or 20th century. Creating the correct mood and suspense is important in these games.

Several games combine different genres. Ars Magica can be considered a fantasy role-playing game in a historical setting, Shadowrun combines cyberpunk with fantasy elements whereas steam punk games combine elements of science fiction with history. There also exist games unique enough that they do not fit comfortably into easily-defined genres, but these are rare.

History of role-playing

Humans have long engaged in impromptu dramas and children's games of "let's pretend". Modern role-playing games trace their heritage to wargames. Drawing inspiration from Chess, Helwig, Master of Pages to the Duke of Brunswick created a battle emulation game in 1780. Increasingly realistic variations became part of military training in the nineteenth century. The hobby market began with the publication of Little Wars by H.G. Wells in 1913.

The first fantasy games emerged in the late 1960s in and around the University of Minnesota's wargaming society, especially in the groups moderated by Dave Wesley and Dave Arneson. Around the same time, Gary Gygax was developing the medieval wargame Chainmail. Gygax's choice of time period was unusual. Most wargames recreated modern wars.

A literary heritage inspired the beginnings of sword and sorcery roleplay. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series began a genre of magical fantasy fiction. Pulp fiction and comic books also played a part. Gygax has named Poul Anderson, L. Sprague de Camp, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H.P. Lovecraft, and A. Merritt as strong influences.

Dungeons & Dragons, first published in 1974 by Gygax's TSR, met initial resistance among retailers. The dice looked strange. The game had no playing board. Its rules were dozens of pages long. Basic questions such as, "How long does it last?" or "What are the winning conditions?" were unanswerable. After establishing a toehold in boutique stores it developed a cult following.

The game's growing success spawned cottage industries and a variety of peripheral products. Derivative fantasy games also appeared, some of which blatantly copied the look and feel of the original game (e.g., one of the earliest competitors was Tunnels and Trolls). Along with Dungeons & Dragons, early successes included Chivalry & Sorcery, Traveller, Space Opera and RuneQuest. Ubiquitous concepts such as character level and experience points demonstrate Dungeons & Dragons's primacy. Organized gaming conventions and publications such as Dragon Magazine catered to the growing hobby.

TSR launched Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the late seventies (later called "first edition" among gamers). This ambitious project expanded the rules to a small library of hardcover books, each hundreds of pages long. These covered such minutae as the chance of finding a singing sword in a pile of loot or the odds of coaxing gossip from a tavern keeper. Optional modules in the form of small booklets offered prepared adventure settings. The first edition Dungeon Master's Guide published in 1979 included a recommended reading list of twenty-five authors.

Early TSR publications drew from literary and mythological sources. By the eighties that heritage became a liability. Copyright infringement issues dogged the first edition Deities and Demigods rules book. Some vocal conservative Christian opponents misinterpreted the game's fictional references to Dante's hell and Pagan mythology. These accusations caught the gaming community unprepared. Novels and films in the same tradition had caused no such outcry. Representative of the backlash is Mazes and Monsters, a television movie in which a role-playing hobby leads a young Tom Hanks into psychosis. Dungeons & Dragons's second edition launched in 1988 downplayed literary elements. Surviving artifacts of this heritage and its influence on the wider gaming community include widespread use of Tolkienesque character types and the persistence of the gaming term vorpal. Borrowed from Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky," this was the first edition's most powerful magic sword.

Outsiders who misunderstand the nature of fantasy gaming have created serious problems for the industry. Rival publisher Steve Jackson Games nearly went out of business after a 1990 Secret Service raid seized the company's computers. The firm's fantasy technology games inspired a mistaken assumption that they were computer hackers. A 1994 United States court of appeals, fifth circuit ruling upheld the firm's subsequent lawsuit against the Secret Service. Noteworthy role-playing products from Steve Jackson games include GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing Game System), an omnibus blueprint for flexible game settings and Munchkin, an expandable set of parody games that lampoon gamer subculture.

The White Wolf company launched in 1991 specializes in gothic and horror themed games with strong narrative elements. Their most famous game is Vampire: The Masquerade. Their supple and simplified rules appeal to gamers who prefer immersive storytelling to charts and dice rolls. White Wolf's games are popular among LARPers, or Live Action Role Players.

An influential newcomer called Wizards of the Coast released Magic: The Gathering in 1993 under the collaboration of founder Peter Adkison and Richard Garfield, a doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania. This competitive card collecting game is a zero sum game. For that and other reasons some purists contend that it is not a true role-playing game. Magic: The Gathering draws inspiration from medieval fantasy role-play, baseball card collecting, and the strategy card game Bridge. A collectible card game genre emerged. The Japanese franchise Pokemon is the most famous example. Wizards of the Coast experienced phenomenal growth and purchased financially troubled TSR in 1997. Wizards of the Coast became a division of Hasbro in 1998. They subsequently released the D20 system, a major rules revision to Dungeons & Dragons, in editions 3.0 and 3.5.

This borrowing from software terminology hints at the growing importance of electronic media. Early imitations of role-playing games such as Atari's Adventure were simpleminded. Many gamers shared a desire to adapt complex rules into computer code. It proved difficult to recreate the depth, flexibility, and teamwork of pen and paper gaming. Players conducted early multiplayer games online over BBSes {electronic bulletin boards) which paved the way for MUDs (Multi User Dimensions), MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, and play-by-email (PBeM) gaming. TSR found itself on the other side of the copyright issue with litigation against Mayfair Games, the publishers of the Role-Aids line of game supplements, and later against file sharers who were bootlegging RPGs.

Contemporary electronic role-playing games exist in a variety of environments. This is a popular genre for X Box and Nintendo systems. Many home computer role-playing games are networkable. Users can play alone or participate in LAN parties (Local Area Network parties). Text-based Internet games retain a grass roots following. A few friends can launch a nonprofit MUD on a small budget. Graphical variations such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft have gained rapid popularity.

Controversy

Almost from the beginning of the role-playing hobby there have been those who have leveled accusations of connections to devil worship, as well as claims that role-playing games lead to suicide.

The most famous case perhaps being the work of author Rona Jaffe that exploited the hysteria surrounding Dungeons & Dragons in her novel Mazes and Monsters, a thinly-veiled attack on Dungeons & Dragons, released in a time when very few people who didn't play Dungeons & Dragons knew what it actually was about. The book was turned into a TV movie featuring a young Tom Hanks in the key role of a mentally unstable collegian who experiences a psychotic episode and loses himself in the game world. It should be noted that the allegations in the book and film were based on faulty interpretation of William Dear's 1979 investigation. Dear, a private investigator, searched for a wealthy college student, James Dallas Egbert III. While the search proved successful, the brilliant and depressed boy committed suicide after a quarrel with his domineering father. Dear later wrote The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III written from case notes. The author described his own experiences learning D&D, as a key to understanding Egbert's withdrawal from reality. Dear also makes it explicitly clear that Egbert's suicide had more to do with family troubles than with roleplaying games.

Such negative portrayals of role-players, ironically, may have originated from an initial inability of some outside observers to properly differentiate between reality and the immersive role-playing aspects of gameplay. Perception, or rather misperception, has been the major prejudice that role-players have had to face over the years.

Religious fundamentalists such as Jack Chick (famous for the anti-RPG tract Dark Dungeons) claim that role-players gain (or seek to gain) the ability to cast "spells" and use "magic" and as such are anathema and anti-God. Such accusations continued well beyond the 1980s and into the 1990s.

Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (BADD) was an organization founded by Patricia Pulling after her son (Irving "Bink" Pulling) committed suicide which she believed was from playing the game. Pulling wrote Interviewing Techniques For Adolescents (1988), a primer for police officers who are dealing with crimes that involve role-playing games.

Studies by Michael Stackpole and others have explored the connection between gaming and suicide and have generally concluded that it does not seem to encourage suicide. In The Pulling Report (1990), Stackpole uses BADD's own statistics, the suicide rate is actually lower among gamers than non-gamers. Moreover, attempts to catalog incidents which would link role-playing to self-destructive, occult, or obsessive behavior have been observed to typically devolve into myth chasing and sorting through hysterical urban legends, as addressed by Jeffrey S. Victor in his book Satanic Panic (1993).

The Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs has published a report on "role-playing as a hobby". The report describes role-playing as a stimulating hobby that promotes creativity.

Recently, two crimes in Brazil against RPG gamers shocked the Brazilian society ; a discussion in the press about the permission of these games by parents, based on the lack of information, cruelty and format of these crimes, was exposed in the media. In Espírito Santo, the site of the crimes, law projects to ban RPG games have been initiated by religious leaders in the local deliberative assembly. .

Types of role-playing games

The term "role-playing game" can be applied to a number of distinct genres:

• Computer role-playing games (including console RPGs, MUDs and MMORPGs)
• Computer-assisted role-playing games
• Live action role-playing games
• Freeform role-playing game
• Message board role-playing games also known as Play-by-post gaming (PBP) or Online text based role playing game (OTBRPG)
• PBEMs (Play by Email/Mail)
• Role-playing in general
• Storytelling games
• Tabletop role-playing games (also "pen and paper RPGs")
• Skirmish wargames

Links

Famous writers

• Dave Arneson
• Keith Baker - creator of the D&D Eberron campaign setting
• M. A. R. Barker - Tekumel
• Terry Brooks
• Phil Brucato - Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade, Deliria: Faerie Tales for the New Millenium
• Frank Chadwick
• Monte Cook
• Bruce Cordell - Return to the Tomb of Horros, Expanded Psionics Handbook
• Greg Costikyan - Toon, Paranoia, Star Wars RPG, Violence
• Tim Dugger - Game Designer of High Adventure Role-Playing (HARP) working for Iron Crown Enterprises
• David Eddings
• Raymond E. Feist
• Andrew Greenberg
• Ed Greenwood - Forgotten Realms material
• Jeff Grubb - Forgotten Realms material
• Gary Gygax - Early TSR material, often called "The Father of D&D"
• Mark Rein Hagen - Vampire: the Masquerade and World of Darkness
• Tracy Hickman - TSR's Dragonlance
• Steve Jackson (US) - Steve Jackson Games
• Steve Jackson (UK) - Games Workshop
• Steve Kenson - Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds
• Robin Laws
• Mercedes Lackey
• Mark C. MacKinnon - Big Eyes, Small Mouth
• Roger E. Moore - Dragon Magazine Editor as well as writer
• Marc W. Miller - Various incarnations of Traveller
• Melanie Rawn
• R.A. Salvatore - TSR's Forgotten Realms (Menzoberranzan)
• Mike Selinker
• Lisa Smedman - Forgotten Realms fiction
• Michael A. Stackpole - Also known as the "RPG Advocate"
• Greg Stafford - Glorantha
• Steffan O'Sullivan
• Timothy Truman - TSR Hobbies Staff Illustrator (early 1980's)
• Jonathan Tweet
• Margaret Weis - TSR's Dragonlance
• Skip Williams
• Ray Winninger
• Loren Wiseman
• John Wick- Game Designer of Legend of the Five Rings, 7th Sea, and Orkworld.

Famous artists

• Brom - many TSR products predominantly Dark Sun
• Clyde Caldwell
• Jeff Dee - many early TSR products including Deities and Demigods
• Jeff Easley
• Larry Elmore - many early TSR products including the Dragonlance series
• Phil Foglio - GURPS IOU, S.P.A.N.C., the Xxxenophile card game
• Erol Otus - many early TSR products including "S3: Expedition to Barrier Peaks"
• Keith Parkinson
• Brian Snoddy - Magic: the Gathering
• David C. Sutherland III - Early TSR Products and Book Covers "A Paladin in Hell"
• Timothy Truman - TSR Hobbies Staff Illustrator (early 1980's)
• Michael Whelan - many TSR products including 2nd Edition PHB and DMG
• Tony Diterlizzi - many early TSR products including 2nd Edition Monster Manual and Planescape series, diterlizzi page

Famous players

• Sean Astin
• Fairuza Balk
• Abraham Benrubi
• Dave Chappelle
• Stephen Colbert
• Rivers Cuomo
• Billy Crystal
• Vin Diesel
• Johnny Knoxville
• Matthew Lillard
• Jennifer Lopez
• Ewan MacGregor
• Eric Raymond
• Jason Statham
• Brian Warner
• Wil Wheaton
• Robin Williams

Events

• GenCon
• Ropecon
• Origins
• Winter Fantasy
• Dragon Con

Types of games

• Simulation
• Simulation game
• Nation-simulation game
• Grand strategy
• Wargaming
• Miniature wargaming
• Tabletop game
• Tabletop role-playing game
• Computer and video games
• Computer role-playing game
• Computer-assisted gaming
• Play by mail game
• Online text based role playing game
• Massively multiplayer online game
• Live-action role-playing game
• Freeform role-playing game
• Storytelling game
• Board game

RPG Terms

• Adventure
• Atlantis PbeM
• Black ribbon
• Dungeon crawl
• False document
• Indie Role-playing
• Interactive fiction
• Letter game
• Min-maxing
• Munchkin
• Powergaming
• Rules lawyer
• Shared universe
• System agnostic
• Playtest

Lists

• List of campaign settings
• List of publishers of role-playing games
• List of role-playing games
• List of species in fantasy fiction

External links

History of roleplaying

• A Brief History of Roleplaying - categorization of role-playing games in history
• Roleplay.org - An introduction, history, and articles on role-playing and role-playing games.
• What is role-playing? (a copylefted introductory article)
• A History of Role-Playing - 8 part series
• The Attacks on Role-Playing Games - originally from the Skeptical Inquirer.
• History of Wargaming - discusses developments from chess to H.G. Wells
• Literary Sources of D&D - a detailed summary of first edition literary borrowings.
• - text of the appellate court ruling in favor of Steve Jackson Games
• SJ Games vs. the Secret Service - a summary by a Steve Jackson Games attorney
• Card sharks - success of card game company Wizards of the Coast - Company Profile - a financial analysis of the firm

Lists and reviews

• John H. Kim's Role Playing Game Page - Nearly complete encyclopedia of role-playing games and companies that published these games.
• RPG Index - A database of free and commercial RPGs and RPG products
• Over 4,500 profiled webpages about RPGs, categorized

Community

• RPG Wolfpack - An online community dedicated to the design and creation of many forms of role-playing games.
• Role Players Gaming Network - An online games-server and forums community for role players.
• RPG Forum - Discussions about online RPG games
• RPG.net - One of the largest general role-playing game fan-sites.
• indie-rpgs.com - "The Forge"; maintained by Ron Edwards, this site for Independent Role-Playing Games includes discussion forum, articles, and other resources.
• Lakeland Role Playing Guild - an active community of gamers
• FreeRoleplay.org - a site for developers and players of open-source RPGs; includes a mailing list

• Role-playing games