The Stereotype:
When most people think of “Role-Playing Games” (abbreviated RPGs), they conjure a mental image of teenagers, dressed in goth-like attire, huddled around a table in a dark basement with satanic symbols surrounding them. Stereotypes like this exist very commonly among people who do not exactly know what a role-playing game actually is. Most people, in fact, do not know the definition of a role-playing game, how the rules work, or how to play.
How They Work:
Each game typically has one “Game Master” who establishes a “world” in his mind for players to explore. Through sensory description, he shares his world with the players. Except in very, very, very, few games, the game master does not play against the players, nor on their team; he simply runs the world and manages the responsibility of constraining his world to the logical parameters that he previously established. Every role-playing game has a set of rules, either on hard paper or in the mind of the game master. These rules do not set up a code of conduct for the character that represents each player in game master’s world.
The Intent of the Rules:
Creators of role playing games have the immense task of creating formulas to govern the probability of each action in the world using a four, six, ten, twenty, or one-hundred sided dice (or any combination of those dice). These formulas must incorporate skills, conditions, and many other variables. In all “good” role-playing games, players are free to play their characters as they see fit. If one player wants to make a living for his character by selling flowers, then a good game master would allow this endeavor, and a good rule system will have rules for this, including market price for common herbs in small towns and metropolises, a basic explanation of the skills a character must acquire, and formulas necessary to calculate profit from harvested products.
Magic:
Another important aspect that some role-playing games employ is the use of magic, which many people find unsettling. Magic, when put simply, alters the parameters and rules of logic. In “our” universe, an object placed in “mid-air” (above the surface of the earth--relatively close, of course) will accelerate toward the earth at a rate of thirty-two feet per second squared. Gravity at work. However, in a universe made up for amusement by a game master, why shouldn’t we allow him to conceive the idea that a force can distort space to attract an object,thus causing it to “float” in mid air?
Magic, Demons:
Although many game masters place demons in their worlds, they are not necessary and they do not add much to the game itself. Theoretically, you can have a very entertaining game without using any magical creatures, and many people choose to play “demon-free worlds” (myself included). All of the Christian friends that I’ve role-played with before create themes based on the Crusades and place their characters in the midst of battle--an example of interactive-historical-fiction.
The Stereotype (explained):
I know of a ridiculously large number of people who play role-playing games. However, not one of then even comes close to the stereotype people think is so common. I find it highly amusing that people actually think that role-playing games inspire normal kids to act in cultist ways. Now, this does not mean that people who actually do play role-playing games in a cultist way do not exist, because they do. However, if they really must roam around in a world and kill people and pillage, I think that the safest place for them to do it is in a world that does not actually exist. Let them sit in their dark corner and play their game; they’re not bothering anyone--you probably have never even seen them.
Several years ago, a scare arose where people who played an online Dungeons and Dragons game became insane. However, that happened as a result of the “computer game,” not the paper-and-dice role-playing game. Computer games are not really role-playing games because the logical limitations of a computer prevent the player having his or her character from taking literally “any” course of behavior. Instead, computer RPGs are really ‘adventure games.’
What really happens?
Usually, a “gaming night” starts out with potential seriousness, but, after twenty minutes of playing the game, everyone starts making jokes about everything and people spend more time talking about the farcical things that they think would have a funny outcome (if reality would allow these characters to do it). Typical game-play usually has the composition of 5% seriousness, 85% comedy, and 10% people coming to the game master’s house and eating all his chips and drinking his Mountain Dew. The following are my two favorite role-playing stories (they both happened).
Scenario #1:
Game Master: After a while, you find yourself at the end of the long passageway and, looking ahead of you, you see a large entity, seemingly composed entirely of frost.
Player #1: Does he notice me?
Game Master: [rolls dice] No
Player #2: Is he hostile?
Game Master: You do not know.
Player #1: I pick up player #2 and throw him at the entity, then run in the opposite direction as fast as I can.
Scenario #2:
Game Master: You manage to escape out of a window onto the roof above the porch of the inn, and the guards are gathering below waiting to arrest you for theft.
Player #1: Can any of them reach me?
Game Master: Not currently. One of them seems to have left. You reason that he might be fetching a ladder.
Player #1: I start dancing the Cha-Cha Slide!
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