What is Roleplaying?
Roleplaying is getting together with friends to write a story. It is being creative and having fun. Role-playing games are stories. You create one of the main characters, and you create a story around your character. The rest of the players also create stories around their characters. Most of the time, the stories of two or more characters will bond together, which creates a harmonic interaction.
In most role-playing games, one person plays the “referee,” who can be thought of as the “Editor” of the story. The Editor will, with input from you if you desire to give any, describe a world or setting. You and your friends, as Players, will take a character and protagonist in this world. You will guide your character through the story that you and your friends are creating. Each player takes a different character, and each character interacts with each other character. Role-playing, in this sense, is very much play-acting in the mind. You imagine what the Editor describes. Then, you imagine your character’s response to this situation, and describe that to the Editor and the other Players. They, in turn, each do the same with their characters.
Most of the time, characters are involved in adventures, adventures of the type that are immortalized in adventure movies and serial novels. In one game, the characters might be a group of secret agents trying to save the world from nuclear destruction. In another, you might play a rebel force, trying to overthrow an evil star-spanning empire. You might play a group of warriors in eleventh century Europe, or King Arthur’s knights, or Superman, or Batman, or an original character you create, in any world you choose.
You can get involved in a roleplaying game by either finding some people who are already playing, or you starting a game yourself. The former is recommended, but either way is fun. The first thing is to figure out what you want to play. What kind of movies or books do you want to copy? That’s what you want to play. There are games that deal with H.P. Lovecraft’s novels, Michael Moorcock’s novels, the middle-earth of J.R.R. Tolkien, among many others. There are also generic games that cover whole genres--espionage, detective, super-hero, swords and sorcery, space opera, and the old west, for example.
Basic Terms
RP: Roleplay/Roleplaying
OOC: Out of Character
IC: In Character
Meta gamer: A person who uses OOC knowledge while being in Character. For example, Chara A knows Chara B's thoughts without Chara B showing any sign of it.
Mary Sue: A stereotypical female character with no flaws.
Gary Stu: A stereotypical male character with no flaws.
Goddmodder: An RP'er that makes his/her character invincible or too strong.