What is role-playing? Role-playing games (RPG) are the most realistic type of gaming, or, in another way of speaking, a way to dive into a book or other storyline much more deeply than by reading or watching a film. Role-playing entails imagining to be someone else, like a character from your favourite book, and playing out a story together with a couple of friends. The difference to acting is that you hardly act, and there are no costumes. You usually sit around a table (or the floor, although this can have considerable consequences for your carpet if you spill a drink) with lots of crisps, jelly babies and chocolate, and each of the players imagines the story as it unfolds. One of the players is called the gamemaster. He is the only one who knows the entire story and makes decisions when something's unclear. The players know only what they are supposed to know, like their character's background, and have to check many things with the gamemaster. There is no winning or losing in role-playing; the point in the game is having a good time. The players shouldn't play against each other or the gamemaster, or vice versa. This is possible and does happen, but in the interest of the game, gamemasters should try to prevent this. A role-playing session usually takes several hours (we don't start if we don't have at least four or five) and hardcore gamers like to play through an entire weekend. A campaign can last for one evening, three sessions, half a year, or more. There really are no restrictions apart from what the players and the gamemaster want. A very simple role-playing situation could look like this: Gamemaster: You find yourself in a forest. It's dark and windy, and as you stand there, a slow drizzle of rain begins to fall. In the distance, you can make out a light. What do you do? (As opposed to some other types of games, the players do not have a limited set of options, but can do anything they like.) Player 1: We go closer and see where the light comes from. (This is probably what the gamemaster wanted them to do, but going away would have been perfectly acceptable—let's hope the gamemaster had prepared more than one encounter.) Gamemaster (knowing there is an evil witch living in a cottage whose light the players have seen—which the players don't know): Roll for Stealth. (In all role-playing systems, success or failure depend on dice. The characters have certain skills, like weapons skills, defence skills, and things like sneaking, or even acting or playing an instrument. The rules vary from system to system.) The players all roll their dice. Players 1, 2 and 3 succeed their roll, while Player 4 rolls too little, so the gamemaster decides the witch heard them. Gamemaster: Roll for Perception. (Every gamemaster should give the players the chance to get out of a dangerous situation rather than have the witch jump on the characters and kill all of them.) Only Player 3 succeeds her roll, so the gamemaster slips her a piece of paper saying, "You see an old, wizened woman lurking behind a tree and pointing a wand at the warrior (player 1).” What happens now depends on how player 3 reacts. If she's nice, she'll warn Player 1 that he's about to be fried by the witch, or she might try to overwhelm the old woman before she can do any harm. She could also choose not to tell the others anything, of course, and just risk Player 1 being killed, but usually, the gamemaster should let her act like this only if he sees that she has a good reason for it - maybe she's had a grudge against the warrior for a long time, or she's actually an evil spy that's trying to pass unnoticed within the group. Types of Role-playing Depending on what you would like to play, there are dozens of systems and rules on how to play and in what kind of world. There are High Fantasy worlds, like that of Tolkien, or fantastic worlds where you can meet hundreds of different monsters, magicians, ghosts, witches and spells. You can play in a Science Fiction universe, like that of Star Wars, or Star Trek, where you have to fly between the stars, fight aliens (or rescue them from evil dominions) or even battle pollution. Then there are cyberpunk systems, where you play hackers, mercenaries or mutants chasing each other through giant cities ruled by unscrupulous syndicates. All of these you can scale down a lot. You don't have to save the world every day in order to have a good role-playing session. Some players like to put a lot of emphasis on the action, others prefer to shed more light on character development. I usually do both. Just action without little actual role-playing in between is generally referred to as "hack and slay”, and I haven't found anyone who's never done it, but most people like to have a bit more than that. Role-playing Systems These are some of the most famous systems: DSA ("Das Schwarze Auge”): the usual gateway drug for German school kids. The major German system, very simple, very straightforward, very Fantasy. AD&D ("Advanced Dungeons and Dragons”): THE role-playing system. For Fantasy, mostly, but also about everything else. Not too complicated, but with a load of supplement material, some of which you need in order to play. Midgard: The best role-playing system invented in Germany. Not as detailed as Rolemaster, but there's hardly a better choice for fantasy role-playing than this. Rolemaster: Very detailed and supposed to be very realistic, but also very complicated, with lots and lots of rules and exceptions to all of them. Not my cup of tea. Star Wars: IMHO, the best system around. It's gone out of print, but most stores have some in stock. Its easy, ready-to-run, and very player-friendly. All the characters start from the same point, and although the rules are loose enough for the gamemaster to be pretty authoritative, the players have means of influencing even dice rolls. I haven't played anything else for years. If you're interested in role-playing but don't know how to find a group in which you can play, ask your local games store for information. Some shops have a board where you can find gamers in search of a group or groups in search of gamers. Or buy a module, invite some friends, learn how to play, and breed your own group. That's more or less what I did. (Well, all right, I had a couple of friends who introduced me to role-playing, but I went on to do my own stuff soon afterwards.) A word of explanation on certain prejudices. Ever watch the Simpsons? Know the fat, long-haired, unattractive, smart-assy bloke with an IQ of 165 who owns the Android's Dungeon? There's your typical fantasy role-player for you. He's so typical everyone who role-plays knows someone who's just like that, yet most role-players are perfectly normal people. Most of us don't own a complete suit of armour and we don't talk Shakespearean if we're among ourselves. (We don't talk Middle English either.) We don't usually dress up, we don't try to escape from our miserable lives, and we most certainly don't harm anyone. Role-playing is like any other game in that it doesn't require a certain odd disposition (for lack of a better term) to play it. It may be more intensive than other games - when you're playing the Settlers of Catan, you won't pretend being a sheep - but every sane person should know roughly where fantasy ends and reality begins, and generally, role-players are rather sane people. (There are exceptions to everything, of course.) Some people have problems with the idea that adults imagine fantasy stories and act them out (more or less) the way children do. I'm happy to tell those that role-playing was invented by psychologists, encouraging people to act out certain things their normal lives didn't let them. I can tell you that role-playing is a very healthy thing. (If only we could get round to eating less of those wonderful crisps.) Some people even think we can't distinguish between reality and fantasy anymore. This is the case with some people - just like it is the case with people who watch too much TV or play violent computer games which then cause them to go out and strike down their neighbour with an axe. There are people who can't distinguish between reality or fantasy, but computer games, TV shows and role-playing are not the cause for this. I have yet to hear the first instance in which fantasy role-playing supposedly caused someone to run amok, and I do hope I never will.