Some of you have heard of role-playing games as a teenage wish fulfillment power-tripping sort of thing, and yeah, they're used that way; that seems to be how most people are introduced to the concept. But that perception is much more limited than the reality.
Computer gamers may be familiar with the computer version of a role-playing game, where you take on the role of a specific dramatic character and maneuver this person through the game, making choices and choosing dialogue. The difficulty with those games is that the roles are limited to what the game designers choose as your options, and your choices of what to do throughout the game are similarly limited. Granted, those choices may be staggeringly plentiful, but they are still not infinite. You can't do literally anything within a computer game; you can only accomplish what the computer game designers predict you'll want to do, in the way they expect you to do it. But there are role-playing games where the only limitation is the imaginations of the participants: these games are frequently referred to as “table-top” role-playing games.
Basically, a table-top role-playing game is improvisational acting combined with storytelling, using the players' imaginations to bring the fictional environment to life, and allowing the players to have a hand in actually creating the story. Today I intend to explain how this works, and how you might try it out, if you have a mind to.
All one really needs to play: a small group of people, most of whom are players, who take on the roles of the heroes of the story, the main characters, and one of whom acts as the main storyteller, the director of the movie that the players are acting in; a set of rules, which tell you how to define what the characters can do and how to resolve different actions; paper, pencils, and other paraphernalia required by the rules, usually including dice of various designs, which are used to introduce the element of chance to actions within the game.
And that's pretty much it. That's all you really need to play. But how does one go about doing so, and why? That can be a complicated answer, particularly for an adult, who has probably moved beyond some of the needs that frequently draw teenagers to the game. That doesn't mean there aren't attractions and benefits to role-playing games for a thinking adult, however; you just have to know what you're getting into.
Role-playing games (or RPGs; see sidebar) frequently revolve around the rules. Books full of description and explanation of rules and settings are the primary physical component of any such game. However, the rules are merely the method by which the game is put forward, the framework within which the players do what they want to do. The real heart of any game, the means by which the players interact with the imaginary game world, are the player characters they create and play.
Generally, you're in charge of your character's personality and unlike an actor in a play or film, you frequently get to define your character the way you want. Depending on how the game starts, you might take your pick from a selection of pre-generated characters, or you might create a character of your own from scratch. A lot depends on the kind of game you're playing. For example, a hotshot space-fighter pilot wouldn't work out too well in a sword-and-sorcery setting (unless that dichotomy is the point of the game, but let's not get that complex yet). However, if you're playing a sci-fi game, that hot-shot would fit right in, and you'll have something to do when the action kicks in. The point is, you get to pick the details of your character, and make the decisions as to what they look like, how they react to things, their skills and interests, and so forth. You can even choose to deliver all the lines you make up in a strange accent if you want; that's your choice in how you act when you deliver your character's lines, just like a stage actor might make the choice that their character is Italian or Russian. I highly recommend playing up accents, adopting mannerisms, etc., for when you are speaking “in character;” not only is it fun, it also helps differentiate between when you're playing the role within the game and when you're just making a comment or observation as yourself, outside of the game.
So describing and defining your Player Character (PC) is up to you. However, you can't just rely on words. I mean, it's easy to say "I'm the best swordsman this side of Cimmeria," but there's bound to be some other warriors who want to test that out, and how do you resolve such a test? That's what the rules help you define. A large part of any RPG's rules are going to describe how you define your character, and, once a character is defined, how you resolve actions.
The vast majority of RPGs use numerical values to define the various qualities of any given character. So you could have, say, a Strength rating of 6, and a Dexterity of 5, with a Swordsman skill of 8, and you would compare those with an opponent's scores to see how you measured up; they might look brawnier or weaker than you, or might move slower, or might handle their sword in a clumsier manner, and that would give you an estimation of how their scores were different.
Of course, if it actually came to blows, there has to be an element of chance. Different game systems handle it different ways, but there's usually a dice roll involved, somehow. If you're lucky with your roll, if all the advantages are stacked in your favor, then your strike does some damage to your opponent, and his doesn't hit you. Do that often enough, strike strongly enough, and you win the fight. And don't think you're limited to sword-fighting; the same general comparison and resolution system is applicable to ray-guns or space-ships or spies chasing through a construction site or gunslingers having it out on a deserted, tumbleweed-strewn street. You even use a resolution system to see if you can successfully find shelter when lost in the woods, or ferret out a clue from a crime scene, or repair that warp drive just in the nick of time. It all depends on the game's setting, the characters' desires and actions, and the rules.
Bear in mind, that's just the numbers. The real "character" of a Player Character comes with the personality, and that's all you. That's what a lot of young gamers tend to ignore. When you're younger, and you feel you're powerless or frustrated or what have you, you'll frequently focus more on the numbers, the statistics, and get a character that's a stupendous badass, however you want to define that term. Then, at least you can pretend to be someone that nobody can beat up after gym class. But if you're lucky, if you're interested in the drama of it, you can get past that, and start paying more attention to the personality aspects.
I think by playing a lot of different types of characters, I got a better sense of what it took to portray a variety of character types. I played heroic types, I played comic relief types, I played antiheroes (or more like heroes who were unlikable or difficult to get along with), and all sorts of others. It helped scratch my acting itch, and it also helped me imagine each character as separate and fully realized. I particularly enjoyed playing characters that were significantly different from myself, and that helped me figure out how to get into the head of someone I didn't otherwise have much connection with. Basically, without RPGs, my writing would not be where it is today.
A few words about the Game Master (GM): of all the participants, the GM has the most power within the game and the most responsibility. The GM is the director, the arbitrator of the rules, and the describer of anything the PCs sense in the game world. The PCs are the heroes of the story, and must use their creativity and imagination to overcome the challenges and obstacles in your way, but it's the GM who dreams up those challenges and obstacles, and must present them in an engaging way. The GM has to make the adventure interesting, making success moderately difficult yet still possible, and has to take the personal goals of each PC, and the interests of each live player, into account when putting an adventure together. It's important to know that the GM is responsible for preparing and presenting the adventure, the drama that the PCs move through, and is therefore the director of the enterprise, in large part.
Everybody likes to play, but in every adventure, somebody has to play GM. Some folks really get into it; others just do it because nobody else will. Some like it, but aren't really any good at it, so that's kind of a trial for the players. But a lot of times, even those games get played, because hey, it's a game, right?
Running a game also relates to drama and writing. As a GM, one of the things you have to do is construct a plot for your player characters to travel through. If they figure things out right away, you haven't done it well enough to keep the suspense up. If they don't figure out what to do without a lot of hints from you, you've made it too complicated. If the players are bored, you certainly haven't made it interesting enough, or varied the action enough.
There's also a matter of how you describe things. You're the one in charge of explaining to the players what they see, what they hear, what they otherwise sense. The more immediate, accurate, and visceral your descriptions, the more they feel they're actually in the moment, and that's what you want to do.
Like any writing, it's your goal to put your audience into the state of imagining the scene and setting. The difference with RPGs is that your main characters in the story are devising their own lines and coming up with their own actions, which can lead to its own complications. Good players will come up with ideas and strategies to overcome your obstacles that you didn't expect, and you'll have to think on your feet to come up with a way to keep them challenged, or at least a way to creatively keep them from destroying your carefully-plotted adventure without completely violating the rules of your fictional world's reality. That also helps stretch your creativity and problem-solving skills. You still want to keep the players entertained, but you want them to explore your plotline, and make use of the challenges you've prepared. But you don't want them to feel forced into the path, you want them to feel it's the only logical way to go about it, like it only makes sense to do it the way you've set it up. You want it to seem like THEIR idea.
Depending on your players, it can be easy or hard to pull off a good game, but it's the mark of a good GM how that issue is dealt with, just like it's the mark of a good player to come up with creative or at least fun solutions to the problems the GM poses. Even if a fight scene is the simplest, blunt-force response to an obstacle, a good player can still make it fun by creative or cinematic description and interesting tactics. The best players and GMs end up essentially working together to create a fun and dramatic experience that allows for everyone to feel they've had a good time.
Anyway, let's look at the nuts and bolts of a play session. We'll assume everything is set up and ready for the game, in terms of characters created and adventures prepared. So, the group gathers, with their rule books and dice and characters, and they sit down to play. Traditionally, this involves sitting around the dining room table, listening as the GM describes the scene, and then each player taking the opportunity to describe what he or she wants his or her PC to do. If there's interaction with each other or with one of the other characters in the world (all portrayed by the GM), then players frequently get to speak as their characters, taking on the voices and mannerisms as they interact. That is, if they're into it. The GM leads the PCs through the story, describing what they see and adjudicating anything they try to 
do. Part of the GM's job is to be the interpreter of the rules, the final arbiter if there is a difference of opinion as to what a rule indicates. Therefore, the GM has to be fair to all the players, and if he or she decides to cheat in any manner, it ought to be in favor of greater enjoyment overall, as opposed to some paradigm of obedience to the game rules.
There are frequently snacks served during the session, sometimes even dinner, depending on the group. A large portion of the experience is the social interaction with your other players, in or out of the actual fictional storyline. Yes, your PCs are searching for a lost treasure, but you are also a group of friends hanging out, at the same time. You commiserate and catch up, and when you're actually playing, the jokes tend to fly fast and furious. This out-of-character by-play is an essential part of the table-top RPG experience; it's how group in-jokes are made, how strategies are formed, how the “cool” moments get recognized. Basically, it's as much a part of the fun as anything that happens within the storyline of the game. Anyone who tells you differently is taking it way too seriously (either that or they've got some control issues).
Play continues through the evening, until either the allotted time is used up or the conclusion to the adventure is reached. That's when play is wrapped up for the night. If the adventure is still ongoing, there is usually a stopping point or a cliffhanger, much as there might be in chapters of a book or episodes of a movie serial. If the adventure is complete, there are often rewards given. This is how an ongoing PC improves, how PCs get better at what they do. The nature of the rewards depends on the game system, but once they are handed out, the PCs are stronger or more skilled in some manner as a benefit of having survived the adventure. And once that is complete, the game is over, and the players can all go home as they wish. The end.
Sounds simple, right? Well, it is – once you get a handle on how to play. Yes, you spend a lot of time in the role of your character, and you know your purpose is to adventure through the game world, accomplishing whatever goals you've decided upon, but the mediation for that, the elements that define your character, as was stated above, are the game rules. Now is the time to talk about some of the elements of said rules.
The methods by which you resolve actions and determine things within the game are usually called the “game mechanics,” the nuts and bolts of how the game operates, and they can be a tricky thing. There's much that comes down to personal preference, and there's also a limitation, based on simply what's available to you. Mind you, so many things are accessible through the internet, via Amazon or individual websites, that it's pretty easy to find most game stuff these days, but if you're unsure of what you want to play, little beats looking through a book there in a bookstore. The trick is to find a game whose mechanics you can work with, that seem natural and fluid to you. Once you do that, you can tinker with the details of setting and story, which I will touch upon in greater detail shortly.
In the early days, RPGs grew out of war games. They frequently used little maps and miniatures and such, and they tried to model reality to an obsessive degree, while still trying to justify their own notions of how experience works, and so forth. There were lots of tables and charts and numerical mapping and serious, life-or-death discussions of how many dice you would have to roll to determine the amount of damage done to a character by an avalanche, all that sort of stuff. It was very number-crunchy, and very depressing (to my mind, at least). You almost needed a slide rule or a physics calculator to play, it seemed like. That's part of how the stereotype of the role-playing gamer as obsessive nerd came about, initially. It was like you had to be that single-minded in order to thrive in these games.
Over time, a lot of this got simplified. Game designers came to understand that it wasn't as important to model reality as it was to provide a structure through which the characters can test themselves against opponents and other obstacles. The abstraction of it all was recognized as a necessary component. You're not trying to model how a person throws a punch, for example, just how skilled a person might be in hand-to-hand combat versus another person; that's a level of abstraction that's necessary for a game to operate smoothly and quickly. But there's still a lot of tradition associated with certain games, so you get lots of systems that handle things in a particular way, just because that's the way they've always been handled. Even these “legacy” sorts of games get re-vamped, streamlined, but they have a hard time letting go of certain central concepts, so those concepts, however clunky, have to be worked into the streamlined versions, as well. It can get frustrating, if you don't like the concepts in the first place.
So, systems differ greatly, and it's hard to tell what you'll like and what you'll dislike until you have a little bit of experience working within that system. In my head, the best systems don't get in the way of the storytelling. You want something that's simple, and therefore easy to use and fast to resolve. You want something that won't distract you or make you have to calculate on a sheet of scratch paper before you can finish your action. Some games are really good at this, some are good at it in most cases but bog down in others, and some never worked all that well to begin with. You won't know what will work best for you until you've had a chance to look over some of the options.
Recommendations:
My favorite game system for playing and for teaching new gamers, both because it was easy to learn and because it was a setting that everybody was familiar with, used to be West End Games' old Star Wars rules. But about the time Phantom Menace came out, Lucasfilm pulled the license from West End Games and gave it to huge conglomerate Wizards of the Coast, who adapted it to their number-crunchy D20 system (the same system the modern Dungeons and Dragons uses) and put it out that way. So much as I recommend the system, you can't find it anywhere. Oh, West End has come out with a generic system, the D6 system (named because you use only familiar 6-sided dice in resolving your tests), but it's not the same. It's also frickin' expensive, but at least it's still adaptable and fast, so if you've the money to spend, it's one of the best of the crop.
My second choice tends to be anything by White Wolf. I may dislike their current business practices (seen as “money-grubbing” or “milking the market” by some critics), but they're widely available, and if you can ignore the varying degrees of pretension (noticeable among players, even, depending on where you are and who you're talking to), the system is pretty flexible and customizable. White Wolf uses special 10-sided dice, but that's it, so you lay in a stock of 10-siders at the local game store (or order them online), and you're good to play.
The old standard by which all early RPGs were judged was the venerable Dungeons and Dragons. Within the past few years, it's been updated and revised to fit the D20 system, named because the primary die used to resolve most tests is a 20-sided die. D&D remains number-crunchy, in that there's always many different modifiers to any given die roll, and you have to keep track of them all or you might completely fail, and all that number addition and tracking can be exhausting. Plus, I don't like how they handle your character getting more experienced and powerful. It's not bad, but I like other ways better. Still, it remains the standard for fantasy-world games, and there's an immense variety of supplements and support out there. D&D uses a number of different dice for different purposes: 4-sided dice, 6-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided, and 20-sided. The different dice, and the different purposes to which they are used, and keeping track of those purposes; it all goes to show how complicated D&D can be. Still, it's better than it used to be. And it's so much the industry standard, packs of all the dice you'll need are commonly sold as units in game stores and online.
Steve Jackson Games revolutionized the gaming industry at the time, way back when it came out with GURPS: the Generic Universal Role-Playing System. This is a set of core rules of how to create a character and resolve things, and some basic details (weapons and equipment, maybe some special powers). Additional details are provided by specific source-books dedicated to special niches. For example, GURPS has sourcebooks for Ultra-Technology, for playing in a Horror game, for playing in a Swashbuckler game, for playing Aliens, for playing Superheroes, for playing a Time-Travel game, or in any number of literary or filmic fictional worlds that Steve Jackson Games has secured the rights to. I like the character creation system, and I think the game system as a whole is pretty well-done, but when I've played it, it's always bogged down when it comes to combat. The different steps to resolve a combat get a bit more number-crunchy than the rest of the game, and we never found a good solution to that problem. It's been years since I last played, so it's possible that Steve Jackson Games has come up with a smoother work-around than they used to have, but I have no solid data on that.
Basically, if you're interested, I'd recommend looking around and seeing what's available near where you are. Read a few things in the store, or borrow from a kid who owns a book (it's mostly the young who support the industry). If there's ever a science fiction or fantasy convention in your area, many of them offer a role-playing game room, and you can sign up for sessions to play with strangers; it's a good way to get your feet wet. See what's out there, pick something that you like, either in setting or game mechanics, and recruit some friends. It can take a while to learn how to be a good player or a good GM, but the learning can be fun, and it's a group activity, and a lot more mentally active and involving than sitting in front of a TV, watching a movie or a sports event. Not that those are at all bad, but neither is a role-playing game.
If you're trying to pick out a game, and you can't settle on the right combination of game mechanics and a fictional game-world setting that you think you might enjoy playing within, just find a mechanic you like and adapt it to a different fictional world, perhaps one of your own creation. After all, the game part is the imaginary angle; the rules are just the structure around which actions are built. If someone has already done the hard work of building the structure, use that, but you can paint the machine and the background any color you want, so to speak.
For example, I sometimes get frustrated with White Wolf for some of their attitude and the constant darkness of their game settings. Yes, it's pretty much their house style, but I'm not as dark of a person as would wholeheartedly embrace playing in a world like that. So I lighten it up a bit for my adventures. I mix and match character types that aren't normally supposed to interact, because I invent a special reason why they might work together, and then I resolve any differences that might come up on the fly, reserving the right to change my mind if it turns out my quick fix doesn't work out for very long.
The point is, as a GM, you're allowed to do whatever you want with your game world. In many ways, it's better if the players don't know all the details of your game world, like they might if you stick solidly to the background provided by an established role-playing system; if they can't find everything out, they can be surprised by the details, and that engages them. The important thing is to make sure the players and the GM all know how the mechanics work, so that when the players attempt something, the attempt can be fairly and accurately resolved. Therefore, look for game mechanics you like, and build whatever fictional world you want to out of them.
If you've gained a better familiarity with role-playing games, then this article has accomplished its purpose. If you decide to explore further into the subject on your own, I wish you good luck and much enjoyment. I know my involvement in this hobby has given me much satisfaction over the years, and I look forward to even more in the years to come. That is, if I can get a group together…
Resources:
There are some comedic dramatizations of role-playing sessions on the famous YouTube.
This one was created to advertise a new computer game at the large role-playing convention, GenCon, and features characters from several of the company's games acting out the Dead Alewives comedy troupe's audio sketch about Dungeons and Dragons. The audio seems to get disconnected as the clip goes on, but you can get the idea of what it was like to sit in on a session with a bunch of rules-heavy high-school kids. I am embarrassed to admit how many of my own Friday or Saturday nights were spent in this manner in my youth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vChEPj0dXXk
[Editor's note: The user can get stuck on these links; if you're in a hurry, restart your computer.]
There's also a 45-minute movie called "The Gamers," produced by the comedy troupe The Dead Gentlemen, out Seattle way. I'm not sure why “Dead” is such a popular appellation among comedy troupes who enjoy role-playing games. Regardless, the whole film is available in segments on YouTube, but I highly recommend purchasing the DVD if you enjoy what you see; they deserve the money, and the features on the DVD are quite amusing on their own. The film takes the view of college-age gamers, and portrays typical table-top chatter interspersed with dramatized scenes of the action in the fantasy world. It also plays to a lot of the stereotypes of young gamers (i.e. sometimes socially awkward, somewhat obsessive, etc.), but it's at least more forgiving than the computer animated sample above. Part 1 is here, and you ought to be able to follow the other parts as need be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiTEHqAeanw
As for resources about finding a good game to get involved in, there are too many to mention, and I have experience with almost none of them. I would suggest finding a book- or game-store in your area that carries some role-playing materials, and then browsing. Some game stores also provide a bulletin board where individuals staging games or desiring to play in a game can post messages. Sometimes this can work out, but there are also a lot of “power gamers” (i.e. those just interested in the statistics, not the characters) and those just looking to indulge in thrill-seeking fantasies out there, which may or may not be your taste (it isn't mine, but your mileage may vary). Basically, it's like with any other group of people meeting to share interests: it doesn't hurt to try out a new group, but don't get too attached until you're sure your tastes fit with the rest.
I've mentioned some of the bigger companies and some of my favorite games, but there are all types of games out there, somewhere, and plenty of homemade systems, as well. Most larger game companies offer a free “sample package” online, which outlines some simplified rules and walks you through an adventure; try out as many of those as you wish before purchasing anything. Remember, the two qualities of a game are setting and mechanics, and of the two, you can easily change setting if you really want to (you can tinker with the mechanics as well, but that can unbalance the game if you do too much, just like tinkering with an engine might impair its functioning if you're not careful).
Happy gaming!
