I. Roleplaying: Development

Where or when did roleplay develop? Some might tell you it all began with “Dungeons & Dragons” or some other similar traditional RPG. However, long before that, people roleplayed as children. Surely, you’ve heard of children “playing house” or perhaps playing a game of “Cops & Robbers” or “Cowboys & Indians”. Long before we knew what roleplay was, we were doing it.

We’ve also developed some roleplaying skill through video games, starting way back in the day with games like Super Mario Brothers. We weren’t *actually* a plump Italian plumber, who went to the Mushroom Kingdom to save the Princess. We merely portrayed him through our game choices. Jump up or go down the pipe? Get the Flower Power or keep on trucking for more coins? They were basic decisions, but still the very beginnings of roleplay.

As video games developed, they began producing roleplay titles like “Hillsfar” and “Curse of the Azure Bonds”, these followed the early ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons. You got to create a character, name them, then play in the world as that character.

Now, in the new millenia, there are dozens upon dozens of RPG titles for you to delve into, in a variety of different worlds. Yet, regardless of a video game being a RPG or not, whatever game you choose, you’re still roleplaying, believe it or not. When you play Grand Theft Auto, you’re playing the role of a car thief. You wouldn’t *actually* go out and steal a car, would you? It’s just a role you take on for the sake of the game, so you can immerse yourself in that game world.

Roleplay, at its heart, is really no different. And if you think about it long enough, you’ll discover more ways you roleplay every day than you ever thought possible. If you take that perspective, it really becomes less of a foreign concept.

Read the rest of this entry »

This blog series is a beginner’s guide to roleplay, also for those who, while they may not be interested in roleplay themselves, have often had questions about what it is or “how to do it”.  We’ll also be covering myths and mythos about roleplaying as we go along.  But first, we need to begin at the beginning…

Session One:   “The Basics”

I. What is “roleplay”?

Wikipedia defines it as thus:

Role-playing refers to the changing of one’s behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role.

In essence, when you roleplay, you are an actor and you take on the role of whatever entity you are planning to portray.

To expand on that further, and for the intents that a group like ours would use roleplay, let’s look at Wikipedia’s definition of a “Role-playing game”:

A role-playing game (RPG; often roleplaying game) is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.  Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.

By this definition, you have a more expounded view on what a roleplayer’s intentions are and that a role played within the game is purely fictional.  Characters can vary, having different skills, abilities, backgrounds, but oftentimes share some common goal, which brings them together in the game in the first place.

Roleplay was brought into mainstream primarily by game systems like “Dungeons & Dragons”, but many of us have most likely been roleplaying long before we knew what roleplaying was.  We’ll go into more depth on that subject later in this series.

Read the rest of this entry »