What is a role-playing game?
Role-playing games are a social activity typically played in groups of 3 to 6 players. Players gather around a table to guide characters through an imaginary world described to them by a Game Master (GM).
The GM stages the adventure, while other players portray the main characters of this adventure. During the ongoing dialogue, the players describe their characters’ actions, attitudes, feelings, and so on. The GM, in turn, describes the effects of these actions, portrays secondary characters, and arbitrates the simulation of actions using a set of rules.
How does it work?
Interactions between the GM and the players produce a form of collective storytelling, in which the GM and the players elaborate the story. Players describe their characters’ actions and attitudes and perform them orally, while the GM arbitrates situations, plays secondary roles, and ensures the coherence of the game’s framework. The GM often rely on a scenario containing information on the setting, its locations, characters, and events. Each players’ characters as well as secondary characters incarnated by the GM are described using numerical data: how strong, nimble, clever, sensitive they are is expressed in a set of numbers – the higher the better, in general. The same numbers are used to simulate actions attempted during the adventure: whether a character manages to burst through a closed door depends on how strong he is, etc.
Playtime differs from actual game time: you might play for two hours, while for your characters several days, months, or even years have passed. Or conversely, only a few minutes may have passed: time tends to slow especially during dramatic events, combats, important plot points, dramatic revelations…
How do you win?
There are no winners or losers in role-playing games. The participants’ goal is to verbally enact situations that are as rich and interesting as possible, in an interactive narrative that contributes to the development of a coherent and dynamic story. All themes and scenarios are possible; the only limit is the participants’ and the GM’s imagination.
The game’s sole purpose is the pleasure of telling a story together and sharing memorable moments. The game ends when time runs out, when an interesting point in the narrative is reached, or when the main objective of a given scenario has been achieved. Players can continue to play the same characters, each game session representing a chapter in their lives, much like episodes of a TV series. A character can die, but the player can create a new one and continue the adventure. A character’s death doesn’t mean the player is defeated. It might even be a satisfying conclusion to that particular point in the story, and the start of a new adventure! The memory of a character’s heroic death can be as meaningful as any collective memory for the players.
How is it played?
One of the players must take on the role of GM. To the GM are revealed all the secrets of the setting, the world in which the story takes place. The GM must prepare the game beforehand by reading the rules simulating actions, becoming acquainted with the setting and the scenario the players want to play.
The GM must then arrange a meeting with the other players, gathering them around a table (and some food) so they can create or choose their character. The players must equip themselves with a handful of dice, a pencil, and an eraser. The dice represent the random element in the simulation of actions: some actions are not automatically realized, and there is an element of chance to be factored in. Some players can have a visual representation of their character, a picture or even a miniature model, to facilitate the depiction of their character to other players.