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Ask Slashdot: Explaining Role-Playing Games To the Uninitiated?
An anonymous reader writes "As a kid in the late 1970s and the 1980s, Dungeons and Dragons, as well as many other fine tabletop roleplaying games, figured heavily in my life. From learning about various forms of governments (theocracies, oligarchies, etc.) and Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology, to what N.B. and et al. mean, to the social glue that enabled people like me to get together, write cool adventures, problem-solve, and have a blast doing it all, role playing games were a powerful force in my life. The thing is, I still enjoy playing them. A lot. I get together once a month with friends and we play for sometimes up to eight straight hours of epic battles, puzzles, legends, lore, and camaraderie. All of this, unfortunately, seems totally alien to someone who did not grow up with RPGs and who has never experienced the sheer joy of a dungeon crawl. Have you ever had to explain to your spouse or significant other why you value gaming so much, or why it is ok to spend a hunk of time with other gamers? How do you begin to relate it all to them?"
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My UID is prime... is yours?
Dont explain it. EIther your s.o is tolerant enough or not. Thats it.
My fun involves killing orcs. Seriously, you have to explain why you play games to people you know?
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Serial improv within (usually) numerical/statistical constraints.
Please don't start with the example of "remember when we were kids, and we played Cops & Robbers?". I've heard well-meaning role-players start with this, and it just seems to me that it infantilizes the experience.
Dark Reflection
You can explain 'til you're blue in the face, but they'll never get it. You're weird, it's what they like about you. It's fun, and they'll either see you play it and be interested, or shake their heads and walk away and tell the dog they don't get it either.
Keep on knockin'
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Role Playing Games are really just a framework of rules that you all agree to in order to tell a story. One person takes on the role of Narrator (The DM) and the others take on the roles of main characters in the story. It doesn't have to be a fantasy based story, it could be anything. But the joy is in taking an initial vision and writing the story together as you all experience it. It's just a more interactive version of reading your favorite book. Almost everyone that enjoys some kind of media has wished at one time or another that they could be part of the story they are watching. Role playing games are a way to make that desire a little more real.
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It's like a child's game of 'let's pretend' for grownups who like lots of pieces of paper, dice and rules. :-)
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Instead of unrehearsed singing for your own entertainment, you're writing and acting out an unrehearsed dramatic or comedic story for your own entertainment. The DM is the director, the players are actors, and they all collaborate as writers.
But rather than explaining what it is to someone, just have them tag along. Bring a book in case they get bored, but they might just want to join in next time.
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It's like fantasy football, without the football.
That comes from the observation that fantasy football is just D&D for people who spent their high school years beating up those of us who played D&D.
If you want a more serious answer, role-playing is cooperative storytelling. The rules exist to give a framework within which the story can be told, and to help determine the outcome of character interactions.
Really, though, it's not the kind of thing you can explain to someone who doesn't get it. It's like sports. Many of us on Slashdot are baffled by sport fans. We can't imagine why anyone would want to watch the game on TV, let alone paint themselves in team colors and go sit on a cold bleacher seat to pay $7 for a cup of pisswater beer. But we each probably have someone we love who does enjoy it. Or if it's not sports, it's My Little Pony fandom, or hunting, or cycling or fixing cars or playing music. Think of something you simply can't fathom. Then assume that's what RPGs are like to your spouse or whoever. If they don't get it then there's no point in trying to make them. Just say, "It's an excuse to go hang out with my friends for a few hours every week." and leave it at that.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Its a game where you all make up a story as you go along - one person knows what the general plot is going to be and everyone else gets to make up the details as they find out more of the plot. To keep things interesting no one has absolute control over what happens. Players suggest what they think should happen and dice are used to see if it pans out exactly the way they wanted. The bits you aren't in control of are compelling for the same reason a movie or a book are compelling and the bits you do control are satisfying for same reason any creative act is satisfying. There may be more to it but anything else might be more difficult to relate.
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Why do some people spend hours playing sport on Saturday afternoon? Why do some people go to the pub on Friday night? Why do some people spend a day watching the superbowl with their friends? Why do some people spend 4 hours going to dinner and a movie with a group? Why do people go on ocean cruises? Why do people play scrabble or monopoly? Why do people have dinner parties?
I'd just tell them it's interactive storytelling. The person in charge sets down the general framework, the people in it act and react as closely as possible to how the characters they portray would act, then you use dice to help even out the ideas of chance and likelihood of something being possible. It's one of the most creative ways people can interact, since you're collectively creating stories within a world that you also partially or fully created. Or you could just tell them you're playing pretend, but its better than the way a lot of guys spend their time together.