1. Introduction
As the name indicates, the player’s task is to take
on the role of a fictitious character and play out his or her adventures
in an equally fictitious setting. In the traditional variety (of which we
are speaking here), it’s all done with the aid of your imagination –
well, as well as a few dice and a couple of sheets of paper. The
traditional RPG is more like a novel that the players act out through the
characters they assume.
RPGs can take place in pretty much any kind of
setting, but their primary playing fields are the phantastical genres,
i.e. fantasy, science fiction, or horror. Predominantly among those is the
fantasy field, transferring the players into a world where magic is
abundant, as well as wizards, monstrous creatures – such as dragons –
and the like.
Whereas most games present a rather general world
concept, some limit themselves to a specific subset of the genre, such as
a RPG on vampires, or one based on a specific movie that had garnered a
notable following, or on a familiar and popular legend (you need only
think of King Arthur or Robin of Sherwood, for instance.)
The plots presented typically posit a group of heroes
– i.e. the players – who have to fight the Forces Of Darkness (for
instance dragons, dictators, lawyers) with their wit and weapons.
A game commonly starts with each of the players
creating their own characters (also called PCs, which is short for Player
Characters). First off, the game always offers a certain range of
available characters – sticking with the general fantasy genre, you have
to decide whether to play a human (such as the player quite probably is
herself as well), a dwarf, an elf, or some other race. Then you decide on
some other factors, for instance the occupation of your character – is
she a fighter, a wizard or a cleric?
(The details of the offered choices vary, of course,
from game to game.)
Well, this only gives you a rough framework of what
the character is like. There also have to be some specific characteristics
unique of this fictitious person. To define those, you always need to roll
dice to let good ol’ Lady Luck decide for instance how strong the
character is, how agile, and so on. (It really would diminish the fun of
such a game if the player could just make up values for this, right? How
entertaining would a game be if everyone is a superman or
superwoman?)
The finishing touches are still missing on the
character – most importantly a name. Add to that a personal history, a
hometown, a few past adventures; and you’re starting to have an
interesting companion (or alter ego) for the game session.
Other than the players, there is one more person at
the table who is vitally important in a RPG: the game master (GM). Think
of the GM as the writer of the story that the players act in.
The GM provides the players with all the information
their characters receive – for instance what they see, what they smell
or hear. This includes any other persons they meet during their adventure,
who are voiced by the GM. (These persons are called Non-Player Characters
– NPCs – who are run by the GM. Depending on the importance of a NPC,
the GM will also have a character sheet for her, just as the players have
for their own characters.)
The GM needs to know the game rules by heart, as she
has to decide whether any action by a player succeeds – not to mention
what will ensue. How does a NPC react when he notices one of the players
trying to steal his wallet? That’s up to the game master.
A RPG tells a story through the interactions of the
players and the game master. But that requires a plotline to be strung
through the fictitious world – which is the task of the GM. She has to
prepare an adventure that ought to fire the players’ imagination,
involve them in the world and – most importantly – make every
participant in the RPG have a lot of fun!
The GM begins by telling the party about the setting
they find themselves in. Let’s say they are in the middle of the road in
a town.
Then the players announce what each of their
characters is going to do. One says that his character is looking for the
next inn, to quench his thirst. Another says that she wants to find a
place to sleep, wherefore she will accompany the first character.
Now the GM will inform them how they walk through the
town and whether they find an inn.
If that takes a while – let’s say it’s a big
town -, one character might decide to ask a passerby for the right
directions. Ideally the player will now address one of the persons in the
street (previously mentioned by the GM) as if she were her character.
The GM, in turn, now responds as the NPC.
That is the basic sequence of any RPG. The players
can of course converse with each other, decide on some strategies, swap
items, etc.
It gets a bit different when specific actions are
taken by the characters. Let’s say one needs to cross a river, but
instead of a bridge there is only a tree that has fallen across the
stream. The PC wishes to try to clamber over the tree, and now it has to
be seen whether she is successful. Each character has a specific value for
agility, while the tree has a specific value for its difficulty.
The player now rolls a die to check whether her
character’s agility suffices to get to the other side. If she fails, the
GM has to explain to her what happens, i.e. she falls into the river. (But
it might be a stream with a strong current so she could be whisked away,
perhaps hurt her head.)
Combat is handled by both the players and the GM;
commonly, the GM takes the opposing side.
A very important element in a RPG are the experience
points (EP). These points are awarded by the GM to the players, for
successful actions or role-playing. They are meant to indicate that the
characters of the players garner more knowledge during each game session,
more experience. Just as you learn new things every day in real life, so
do your characters in the RPG.
Experience points also have a direct influence on the
characters since they help to improve a character. Think of many movies
that have the young farmer boy go off on an adventure. At first he’s
quite helpless, unaware of oh so many things that go on around him, but at
the end he has become an experienced hero, a better fighter, a –
hopefully – wiser man.
In the same way experience points help a player
improve her character, e.g. enhance the character’s strength or
endurance.
Simply said, they tell you how fit your character is.
A healthy, uninjured person has a certain amount of hit points, according
to his physical constitution.
Also, during combat, you can – and will – lose
hit points. That indicates that your character is taking damage, i.e.
injured. If you lose all your hit points, your character is, well, dead.
Fortunately, you can restore hit points – as in
real life, wounds heal. (Or you have a handy cleric in your party who can
magically heal your wounds.)
Time has to be measured in the game. There is the
limit to the actions you can possibly take in any given time; to represent
this, there are game rounds.
For an example, think of the turn-based games you are
familiar with: Pretty much every board game proceeds by each of the
players taking her turn and moving her token. The same applies to a RPG,
only that here there is no fixed sequence as to who does what when. You
announce your actions, and they usually create a sequence of their own.
(There are also so-called combat rounds. They are
much quicker, and they have a pre-determined sequence. For the GRPG, you
can find out more in Chapter 8.1.6. Range or Who gets to attack first.)
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