Role-playing

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I smite him with my axe...

In its most basic form, role-playing is all about taking part in a story - rather than simply reading a book or watching a movie, you participate and build the story for yourself and others playing with you. This can be done sitting around a table with a bunch of papers and dice, setting up battles with miniatures, getting in costume and acting it out, or sitting at a computer.

In its most real form, role-playing is about getting together with a bunch of your friends and kicking serious monster hiney, all while explaining how this fits into your character's motivations and goals.

Typically, a role-playing playing group consists of one person in charge of the game "world", called, amongst other things, the GM (Game Master). The rest of the group are "players" or "cannon fodder" and interact with the world through the GM. If, for example, a player wanted to climb a castle wall, she would explain to the GM how she planned to do so. Most out-of-the-ordinary feats are resolved by "skill checks", the exact nature of which vary from system to system. Typically, these involve rolling funny-shaped dice (see below) and hoping they land within a target range.

Dice

Many people think they know all there is to know about dice. "Yes," they'll say, "for instance, the singular is 'die'. Shall we play Monopoly?" They are, of course, reduced to gibbering idiots when presented with a d4 or d20.

Partly because it lends a unique element to the hobby, but mostly because it makes money, gaming retailers hit upon the idea of dice with more (or less) than the usual 6 sides. After extracting geometrical secrets from some mathematicians, they realised that they could create other regular polyhedra in plastic. And thus were the d4 (tetrahedron), d8 (octahedron), d12 (dodecahedron) and d20 (icosahedron) created. Apparently the d10 is not regular, but we forgive it.

Many people are initially confused by the concept of the d100, until they realise that a it can be easily simulated by two d10s, and this is why you find "tens" and "units" versions of our 10-sided friend. Of course if you're going to splash out you can get one of the large, dimpled balls that act as genuine d100s.

Now, everybody has heard of Dungeons and Dragons, the system made famous by TSR. What fewer people (that is, gamers) realise is that there are many more systems and settings available. D&D (or, more accurately, AD&D) advertises itself as a generic fantasy system, with an emphasis on the settings created by TSR. But, if you look, you will find that all genres from science fiction (Cyberpunk, Cyberspace, Alternity) and science fantasy (Shadowrun) to horror (Call of Cthulu) and western (Deadlands) can be found. As well as this there are a few "generic" systems (GURPS, RIFT) that operate in a modular fashion to provide for all settings. The point is, as with any other creative media, the options are as broad as your imagination.

War-gaming

Some people recreate famous historical battles with carefully crafted miniatures and delicate landscapes, others use ice-cream tubs and haphazard organisations of miniatures to vent their destructive urges. It's all war-gaming.

Typically, instead of worrying about only one character, you worry about a whole party and their concern is usually the other guy's party, who are set on getting rid of your party. As before, the setting is limited only by your imagination and what is commercially available: orcs, space marines and treefolk bump shoulders with Napoleon's soldiers and US marines in the eclectic war-gamer's cupboard. And if there're a few missing in the morning...

LARPing
Live-Action Role-Playing should explain it all, but that would make for a short paragraph. Instead of merely sitting around a table with some dice, or moving miniatures around, LARPing means you get in costume and really in character. Although there are usually GMs to handle more difficult manoeuvres such as combat, most of LARPing involves making your actions and interactions yourself. To avoid confusion, though, LARPs usually happen within a defined area thereby preventing non-players from getting confused, scared or aggressive.

LARPs happen on various scales, from the small and intimate 12-person, 3-hour variety to the 25-up, all-weekend marathons. By now the multiple-genre nature of role-playing should be apparent and if it isn't, tough. LARPing does have certain restrictions, though, being limited by budget and the fact that having a 10-metre tall tentacle beastie in the story may involve constructing said beastie. When in doubt, emphasis is placed on the "suspension of disbelief" factor.

Card gaming

"All right," you ask, "so if you mess with my concept of a mundane six-sided dice, how are you going to destroy the innocent 52-card deck? Will I ever be able to play poker again?"

Carding is probably the newest aspect of the role-playing subculture, as evidenced by the fact that few role-players will admit this. Although certain variants do use elements of a standard deck (Doomtown), most CCGs have their own paradigms, mostly hinging on creating your own deck from available cards and hoping that you shuffle well enough to get the ones you want. Discussing more would border on copyright infringement (I refuse to say "tap"), suffice to say that the intricacies of individual systems are many, leading to the addiction of many a strategy-minded soul.

Computers

Obviously, there are many examples of role-playing-type games on the market. So-called quest games are an example of solo adventuring to a very specific story, although recent games like Starship Titanic provide for a less restrictive environment and brown-nosing opportunities. The RPG game-type is usually an example of "dungeon hacking", and involves more by way of combat than real role-playing.

True role-playing in the computer world is more readily found in collaborative environments such as MUDs, MOOs and their ilk. As in traditional role-playing you take on a persona and interact with others in a virtual world, the central computer acting as GM.

Overall, though, the best way to find out about role-playing is to try it. Varients of role-playing groups, conventions and shops are to be found everywhere, if you use a friendly search engine or look hard enough. For instance, you could have a look at [http://play.at/CLAWs/], the homesite of the best role-playing society in the whole world: the Cape Legion of Adventurers and Wargamers, who hail from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.


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