A Gentle Introduction to Roleplaying Games
◦◦◦ clueless to 1st character ◦◦◦
a 590-word article
Terms Defined in this Series of Posts:
- Armor Class
- Dungeon Master
- Initiative
- player character
- Round
Dungeons & Dragons is probably the most well-known example of what is known as a roleplay game. In a roleplay game, you take on the persona, or role, of a protagonist, usually an aspiring hero, but sometimes a miscreant.
Whether you assume this role via a video game, such as Baldur's Gate III, or with several friends sitting around a table with a Game Master and character sheets, the idea is to immerse yourself in a rich unfolding story in which you are one of — and sometimes the only — key actor. The computer programming handles the mechanics of how things resolve — does your sword strike land? Are you able to climb the castle wall without falling? Do you manage to hold your breath long enough to swim through the underwater tunnel?
In a CRPG (computer roleplaying game), the programmers who wrote the game have undergirded the unfolding story with a set of rules that govern what can happen, and the computer itself interprets those rules and referees what takes place.
In a table-top roleplaying game, such as Dungeons & Dragons, you and a group of friends gather together and the exploration, battle, and derring-do takes place in each person's imagination — just as it does when playing a computer roleplaying game such as Baldur's Gate III.
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Player Characters
In the tabletop version of a roleplaying game, there are usually two or more people who take on the role of players, and each player controls and makes decisions for a character. These characters are the actors in the unfolding adventure or story.
The players are the people sitting around the table, each player assuming the role of his or her character — in essence, stepping into that character's shoes, living in their skin. Because of this intimate connection between the player and her character, that character is often known as a PC — a player character.
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The Dungeon Master
One of the people sitting around the table for your Dungeons & Dragons (or some other) game usually takes on a role known as the Dungeon Master or the Game Master. Sometimes this person is simply called The Referee. This Dungeon Master describes the world, the conditions, the complications — she interprets the world for the player-characters.
When a player wants his character to do something, he tells the referee. If it's something commonplace that can be taken for granted, then there is no need to do anything further — it just happens. But if it's something risky, dangerous, with a possibility of failure, then the Dungeon Master is the arbiter who decides the outcome. Frequently, the DM does this by telling the player to roll a certain die or set of dice. The results of the roll help the Dungeon Master describe what happens in response to your character's actions.
Are you intrigued by the possibility of confronting and slaying epic monsters, discovering secrets long lost to history, developing never before seen magicks, or exploring steaming jungles, dark forests, or civilizations lost in the sands of a desert? If so, you would probably really enjoy a roleplaying game.
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