Okay, since the Discourser and the Super Goober have finally outed themselves, I guess it's time for me to do so as well. Hi, I'm Steve the Ranter and I'm a Gamer. Yep, I'm one of those Geeks that roll many sided dice and have a piece of paper with stats on it in front of me that I call a "Character". Like my two friends I started out with the "training" RPG (that's Role Playing Game for the uninitiated) Dungeons and Dragons. Now for those that don't know what an RPG is, it's very simple. Take your basic board game. But instead of being confined to a linear path around a board, take that board and put it in your head. Use your imagination (that's the important part of an RPG), now picture that board as another place. Some other "World" with continents and oceans and rivers and cities and populated by people. Now, still using the board game reference, take the little plastic pawns that come with the game. You know, the non-descript multi-colored pawns that you use to represent you progress around the board. Take that piece in your mind and flesh it out. Make it male of female, give it hair, or not, eye color, etc. Now give that fleshed out pawn (I will henceforth call it a "character") an occupation, a background (who are it's parents, where was it born?). Now clothe it, and equip it for travel and adventure in the "World" that you will be playing in. That's an RPG. Depending on the criteria for character creation, your character can be human or non-human, male or female; it's up to you. Now take your character and put him/her in a group of other character's. This is called an Adventuring Party. Here's where it gets different than a normal board game. An RPG gets it's base nature from the aforementioned board game as far as guiding a pawn towards a goal; but that's it. An RPG is more like an interactive story. Your character is one of the characters in the story, and the things you do/say affect the outcome of the tale. Your quest is guided by a Dungeon/Game Master, also known as the Storyteller. The GM guides you through the tale (and in turn the "world") by giving you situations and awaiting your interaction. Sample game: The GM tells you that your character is sitting in a tavern/bar having a drink after answering an ad for someone to go check out the haunted house/scary hills/dark forest where monsters/bandits/ghosts are terrorizing/killing/kidnapping villagers. There usually is some game hook to get all the folks at the table, the players, together. After the meeting the next part usually goes something like this:
GM: Okay, you've gotten your assignment and need to leave soon. What does everyone do?
Player 1: I get supplies.
Player 2: I gamble a bit, I'm already supplied plenty...
So depending on what the GM has in store, you may have an uneventful night, or something may occur to further the story along. Sometimes you may have a character that chooses to do some research, the GM will have to decided just how much info to give that person.
Sounds complicated??? It's not really. It's like life in a sense. You are given choices, and make them for good or ill. RPG's are popular with highly creative people. A night's gaming is very social and brings a group together. You learn to work as a team; essentially it's you and your fellow Players vs. the Storyteller.
If you stick with gaming, you eventually branch out and play using other rule systems and worlds. Some systems, like Hero, are generic enough that you can create any kind of character in any kind of genre you can think of. Others are more restrictive: Legend of the 5 Rings (Feudal Japan) and Shadowrun (Future cybertech world) are two of those that come to mind. An RPG is fun and entertaining. If you've never played one, but are contemplating, I suggest you do so. You won't be sorry you did.
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