About roleplaying games

For someone new to roleplaying games, the concepts may be confusing. This section will try to straighten out the basics to get you started. Don’t worry if you don’t get everything right now, just get going and the details will get clear along the way.

What is roleplaying?

Do you remember when you were a kid and pretended to be a police, a cowboy, a pirate or a detective? Have you ever wanted to be James Bond, Elliot Ness, Conan or Flash Gordon? Have you ever wanted to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes? Roleplaying games combine elements from these with elements from modern interactive storytelling and improvised theatre. It is a story and a game at the same time.

Do you remember the discussions when playing as a kid? Did your cowboy hit or miss the indian? To solve this, the roleplaying games use rules to decide what happens in situations like this, with dice to add some unpredictability. There is also an arbiter, a game master, who has the task of solving these disputes.

The game master is also the one who is creating the frame of the story, the starting point, but the story is not predetermined. To help weave the story, the other players each take on a persona in the game world, a character. The players are supposed to act as their character, doing what the character would do, with the game master as the link between them and the game world.

All this takes place around the game table and the entire action takes place in the mind of the players and the game master. Usually, only verbal acting is used, maybe enhanced with gestures. Most gaming groups do not resort to theatre style acting and props, just the magic of imagination.

So what is roleplaying? It is nothing short of excitement and adventure in the comfort of your own home!

How do I get started?

If you have never played role-playing games before, welcome to a fascinating hobby. It may look complex and difficult at first, but nothing can be further from the truth. There is a learning curve, however, and some initial steps to overcome.

It is perfectly possible to learn by gathering a couple of friends and just try it. In fact, most players probably learned that way. It is not the easiest way and you will probably have a hard time in the beginning. To grasp the basic concepts while learning the rules at the same time can be confusing. There is no reason to make the same mistakes that other people have already made, so it is strongly recommended that you skip ahead a year or so on the learning curve and play a couple of games with experience game master and players. Most likely, there will be a role-playing club or group nearby who will be happy to help you. They can usually be found through the internet on role-playing forums or by asking for assistance at a local store that sells role-playing games. Trust us; it is a much easier way to learn with a guide, the pieces will fall in place much easier.

Terminology

Just like any other hobby, role-playing has its own terminology. Some of the central concepts will be explained here.

Game master

When playing, one person will have a very different task; he will assume the role of game master.

The game master is both the storyteller and the referee. He is the one who sets the scene and makes sure the game world reacts according to the player’s actions.

The game master has several tools to help him in this task, one of which is the rules. The rules, however, are just guidelines, and if the game master feels that it would suit the game better to ignore a rule, he is free to do so. Always remember that the task of the game master is not like a referee in the Olympics who uphold the rules at all times, it is much more like a referee in professional wrestling, who has the responsibility to keep the fight interesting and exciting. The game master will neither be with the players or against them; he will act as a balancing factor between the players and the game world.

He will also be the link between the game world and the players, telling them what is happening and translating their actions into game world results. This may seem like a daunting task, but you quickly get a feel for it and game mastering starts to flow by itself.

Character

The players will have an alter ego in the game world, the person they will be playing.

The character will be described, both in words and in numbers more suitable for handling by game mechanics. Each player will control a single character, which he will be expected to play with a personality and style that fits the character.

Non player character

Not everybody in the game world will be controlled by the players; there will be many people who are enemies, henchmen, victims, friends, allies or just bystanders. The game master will control all these people.

Since these people in some ways are similar to characters, they are called non player characters, or NPC for short.

Game world

The game world is the world that your character lives in. This may not be the same world that you and the other players live in, in fact, most of the time it is not. The game world is a fictional place of excitement and adventure, much like the world in a movie or a book.

Scenario

A scenario, sometimes called an adventure, is a shorter series of events, planned by the game master and played by the game master and the players. These events do not have to go according to plan, in fact, most of the time; something will happen that will change things completely.

A scenario is the roleplaying equivalent to a book, a movie or a TV series episode. It may be a murder case investigation, an examination of a mysterious haunting or a search for lost treasure. A scenario usually takes one or two game sessions to finish.

Campaign

If a scenario is the roleplaying equivalent to a TV-series episode, the campaign is the equivalent to the entire TV-series.

Usually, a campaign is made up of several scenarios, all interlinked and leading up to a massive climax. A campaign, apart from the obvious advantage of long continuity, has many other advantages. It gives the players time to explore and develop their characters, it gives the players greater familiarity with the game world and its inhabitants, and it allows for more complex sub plots, twists and sidetracks. Most importantly, it provides more opportunity for the players to get attached to their characters and their lives. It simply provides a more suitable growing ground for more depth and interaction.

Dice

To add some unpredictability to the game, dice are used. These include the ordinary six-sided dice, but also a number of special dice. The special dice can be bought at any shop that sells roleplaying games and most that sells other games. They should also be easy to find on the internet.

The commonly used dice have 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, and 30 sides. These are abbreviated as D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20, and D30. In addition to these, D2, D3, and D100 are commonly used. D2 is rolled as a D4, where 1 and 2 are interpreted as 1, 3 and 4 as 2. The D3 works just like the D2, but the roll is made with a D6 instead. To roll a D100, two rolls are made with a D10, with the first of them representing the tens, the other representing the ones; a double zero is interpreted as 100. The D30 is not used in Generica, so there is no need to try to get this hard to find die.

These abbreviations are commonly used in expressions like D6+2, which means that you should roll a D6 and add 2 to the result.