This
section is intended for novice role-players. If you have
played role-playing games before, don't be surprised if
what you read here sounds familiar.
Games come in a wide assortment of types: board games, card games, word games,
picture games, miniatures games. Even within these categories are subcategories.
Board games, for example, can be divided into path games, real estate games,
military simulation games, abstract strategy games, mystery games, and a host
of others.
Still, in all this mass of games, role-playing games are unique. They form a
category all their own that doesn't overlap any other category.
For that reason, role-playing games are hard to describe. Comparisons don't work
because there isn't anything similar to compare them to. At least, no without
stretching your imagination well beyond its normal, everyday extension. But then,
stretching your imagination is what role-playing is all about. So let's try an
analogy.
Imagine that you are playing a simple board game, called Snakes and Ladders.
Your goal is to get from the bottom to the top of the board before all the other
players. Along the way are traps that can send you sliding back toward your starting
position. There are also ladders that can let you jump ahead, closer to the finish
space. So far, it's pretty simple and pretty standard.
Now let's change a few things. Instead of a flat, featureless board with a path
winding from side to side, let's have a maze. You are standing at the entrance,
and you know that there's an exit somewhere, but you don't know where. You have
to find it.
Instead of snakes and ladders, we'll put in hidden doors and secret passages.
Don't roll a die to see how far you move; you can move as far as you want. Move
down the corridor to the intersection. You can turn right, or left, or go straight
ahead, or go back the way you came. Or, as long as you're here, you can look
for a hidden door. If you find one, it will open into another stretch of corridor.
That corridor might take you straight to the exit or lead you into a blind alley.
The only way to find out is to step in and start walking.
Of course, given enough time, eventually you'll find the exit. To keep the game
interesting, let's put some other things in the maze with you. Nasty things.
Things like vampire bats and hobgoblins and zombies and ogres. Of course, we'll
give you a sword and a shield, so if you meet one of these things you can defend
yourself. You do know how to use a sword, don't you?
And there are other players in the maze as well. They have swords and shields,
too. How do you suppose another player would react if you chance to meet? He
might attack, but he also might offer to team up. After all, even an ogre might
think twice about attacking two people carrying sharp swords and stout shields.
Finally, let's put the board somewhere you can't see it. Let's give it to one
of the players and make that player the referee. Instead of looking at the board,
you listen to the referee as he describes what you can see from your position
on the board. You tell the referee what you want to do and he moves your pieces
accordingly. As the referee describes your surrounding, try to picture them mentally.
Close your eyes and construct the walls of the maze around yourself. Imagine
the hobgoblin as the referee describes it whooping and gamboling down the corridor
toward you. Now imagine hoe you would react in that situation and tell the referee
what you are going to do about it.
We have constructed a simple role-playing game. It is not a sophisticated game,
but it has the essential element that makes a role-playing game: The player is
placed in the midst of an unknown or dangerous situation created by a referee
and must work his way through it.
This is the heart of role-playing. The player adopts the role of a character
and then guides that character through an adventure. The player makes decisions,
interacts with other characters and players, and, essentially, 'pretends' to
be his character during the course of the game. That doesn't mean that the player
must jump up and down, dash around, and act like his character. It means that
whenever the character is called on to do something or make a decision, the player
pretends that he is in that situation and chooses an appropriate course of action.
Physically, the players and referee (the DM) should be seated comfortably around
a table with the referee at the head. Players need plenty of room for papers,
pencils, dice, rule books, drinks, and snacks. The referee needs extra space
for his maps, dice, rule books, and assorted notes."
