What is a Role-playing Game anyway?

By Dave Arneson

Well, there are several good answers to that question. Most of them have
already been said in various places and in various ways. I'll quote a couple
of authorities on the subject, and then try to explain what the appeal of
the game is.

In his game, PANDEMONIUM!, Stephan Michael Sechi explains role-playing in
this way:

Role-playing games aren't like the games that most of us knew
when we were growing up. Unlike say, Monopoly, there is no
board, no pieces to move, no set pattern for play, and no
final victory for anyone.

About the only similarity to Monopoly is that there are
rules, and you'll have to roll dice now and then. Oh, yes,
and in both cases it's a waste of time buying up utility
companies.

In the course of a role-playing session, the participants
create, in an entertainingly haphazard fashion, a story --
typically, an adventure of some kind. It's a lot like the
stuff you see on TV or read in comic books, except that
instead of watching or reading about a bunch of fictional
characters, you and your friends are playing their parts, or
roles.

You guessed it. That's what role-playing is. Now that wasn't
so bad, was it?

Role-playing is a lot like playing make-believe while we were growing up.
Role-playing games are often compared to a more stylized version of "Cops
and Robbers" or other childhood fantasy games. I think it's this child-like
ability to pretend that makes a good role-player. If you're the kind of
person that's embarrassed at the idea of pretending you're a fictional
character, role-playing probably isn't right for you.

Now everyone has heard the outrageous stories about how role-playing is some
sort of devil-magnet that makes young people go nuts and kill themselves. Of
course, there is no truth to these claims. It is very strange that this
particular myth has become so firmly attached to role-playing games. When you
tell people that you play role-playing games, they inevitably bring up
Satanism and/or D&D's alleged involvement in teenage suicides.

Let me set the record straight. NO court of law or psychological study has
ever found any negative connection between role-playing and mental illness,
suicide, or Satan-worship. So nyah.

Anyway, since we've heard from Papa Sechi, we must hear from my other
favorite RPG designer, Greg Costikyan, an award-wining game designer.
Designing games such as TOON, Paranoia, and the Star Wars RPG, among many, many others. Here's part of what Greg said this in his article "I Have No
Words and I Must Design":

Stories are inherently linear. However much characters may
agonize over the decisions they make, they make them the
same way every time we reread the story, and the outcome is
always the same. Indeed, this is a strength; the author
chose precisely those characters, those events, those
decisions, and that outcome, because it made for the
strongest story. If the characters did something else, the
story wouldn't be as interesting.

Games are inherently non-linear. They depend on decision
making. Decisions have to pose real, plausible alternatives,
or they aren't real decisions. It must be entirely
reasonable for a player to make a decision one way in one
game, and a different way in the next. To the degree that
you make a game more like a story -- more linear, fewer real
options -- you make it less like a game.

Consider: you buy a book, or see a movie, because it has a
great story. But how would you react if your game-master were
to tell you, "I don't want you players to do that, because
it will ruin the story"? He may well be right, but that's
beside the point. Gaming is NOT about telling stories.

That said, games often, and fruitfully, borrow elements of
fiction. Role-playing games depend on characters; computer
adventures and LARPs are often drive by plots. The notion of
increasing narrative tension is a useful one for any game
that comes to a definite conclusion. But to try to hew too
closely to a storyline is to limit players' freedom of
action and their ability to make meaningful decisions.

Role-playing is, above all, unique.

There are no other games that combine the disciplines and arts that
role-playing does. No other hobby provides as many creative outlets. You are
a performer, designer, illustrator, tactician, and philosopher, while
socializing with my friends. Role-playing is storytelling, theater, and
strategy gaming. All of these can be found in no other art form.

It is what role-playing is that is exciting for the player. A group of
friends sit around someone's living room, and, by merely speaking to one
another, constructs a fantasy which they all share -- playing it in their
heads like a film. What computer game can compete with that? But mostly they
kill things.

THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF ROLE-PLAYING GAMES

Role playing is simply playing a role. Today most so-called role playing
games have the player allow the player to function only as a mindless
killer. The roles defined for them are reflected in differing weaponry,
magical spells (or technological skills), and needing differing amounts of
points to gain a new 'level'. This new level allows the player to take and
inflict more punishment by superior firepower, protection and magic
(Technological skills).

You kill, you advance, you kill some more, and then meet the final challenge
and win the game by killing the chief bad guy. End of story, end of game.
The computer versions of this add big explosions and all the gore that the
law will allow.

The enemy is there to be killed. The NPCs, mini-games, and puzzles are there
to tell you where the enemy is so that they can be killed and the foe's
treasure acquired. Ultimately the path of destruction will led to the
ultimate bad guy and ultimately killed. If they help the player accomplish
his goal they are good. If not they are the enemy and may be killed. NPCs
rarely go anywhere unless they join your group to allow more effective
killing. They have limited vocabularies and many just grunt. Rarely do they
have opinions but will grunt the same thing when you ask. Many times the
grunts are unintelligible (Puzzles).

Treasure gives the player the points that allow you to acquire new weapons,
protection, and abilities so that you may kill your intransigent opponents
more effectively.

Warriors are the best killers. Clerics heal players, better and quicker than
modern medicine can ever dream of, but kill less effectively. Wizards use
great magic to kill more effectively but are not as well protected. Thieves
sneak around and can open places so that he may enter and kill or steal but
are also easy to kill. Elves, Dwarves and the like have differing types of
weapons, protection and skills when killing the enemy. All characters require
different amounts of points (gold) to increase their abilities to get at the
foe to kill them.

All the types love each other and the player whose group they join. They
will follow the player anywhere and happily die at the player's command.

The stories endeavor to not get in the way of the killing, or finding the
ultimate evil bad guy to kill. Many plots for adult films have better
stories.

Ohhh.... cool...so this is role playing?

Nah...

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