Joey thinks about table-top role-playing games

So, I've been thinking.  I play a lot of table top role playing games, and introducing people to RPGs is always tough.  It's not hard because I'm ashamed of my hobby.  It's hard because no one really knows what it is.  If I say I'm into RPGs, most people assume I'm speaking about video games.  Even if I lead off with "Have you heard of D&D?" most people say yeah, but they've only kind of heard about it.  They don't really know what it is.
     I think it would be helpful if two things happened.  First off, we could decide on a clearer terminology for distinguishing between table top RPGs and video game RPGs.  Second, I think that Roleplaying games in general deserve a wider audience.  There's no reason for them to be so niche.  Sure they're tougher than video games, but they're tons more rewarding as well.  Video games cannot give you the same satisfaction as RPGs.
     Anyways, this isn't really about what we can do for RPGs, its discussing what RPGs are, which is kind of something I can do for RPGs, I guess.  RPG of course stands for Role-Playing Game.  So lets dissect it.  First of all, its a game.  That was easy.  Then there's the role playing part.  To understand exactly what role playing means, we need to look a little bit at the history of it.
     Gary Gygax was an avid war gamer.  Basically he played a type of game called wargames, wherein you had miniatures representing your armies, and your opponent would have miniatures representing theirs, and you'd follow established rules and have your armies fight.  Gygax designed a particular wargame called Chainmail.  Chainmail was wargame like the others, but it was a fantasy game, based loosely off of Tolkien s Lord of The Rings, with orcs, elves and dwarves, as well as dragons and whatnot.

That guy on the horse is so screwed.

     He played and worked on that for many years, and eventually came up with an interesting idea.  Instead of controlling an army of elves or orcs, why not just play as one?  After all, there was mass war combat in the Lord of The Rings, but there was also an adventure with a small party.  So he sat down and started designing a game where'd you'd play as a single character.  He worked with a good friend of his named David Arneson.  Together they designed the first role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons (now referred to simply as basic).

Left Gygax: Right Arneson.  Obviously in their later years.

     So, what made it so radically different from other games was that you took on the role of a single individual.  You pretended to be Kael' Thas, the Elf Fire-Mage, or Deorn, the mighty Dwarf Fighter.  You took on their persona, and acted out in the game world.  You pretended to be a hero, just like when you were a kid, only now you were doing it as an adult, with other adults.  And the best part is discovering that its still as much fun as when you were a kid.  At it's heart, RPGs are a game of make believe.  We make believe that we're a hero, and that we're on a noble quest.  In my opinion, there are few things better to spend your leisure time on.

And some much, much worse...

     So, we understand the name, and the very heart of the game, namely, role playing.  But what is the game really like?  Well, lets talk.  So, I'm sitting at a table.  I'm at the head of it, and four of my best friends are sitting around it with me.  A laptop is in front of me, on it is a program I use to run combat, as well as a website to help me look up rules quickly.  Everyone has a character sheet in front of them (That being a sheet with all the quantified abilities of their character, as well as a general description).  Everyone has a stack of dice and a pencil too.  The mood is quiet, maybe even intense.

Note the intense mood.

     I describe the environment:  "You're in a pitch black room.  The walls, writhing in shadow cast by your guttering torches, seem to close in on you.  A sound behind you and you whirl to see only a mouse.  Just a mouse.  If the ancient Dwarf's information was correct, than behind this door awaits the ancient necromancer, entombed in his own fortress."  Now at this point comes the important part.  I say "What do you do?

I just wanna go home.

     The team takes a moment to confer, wherein several plans are put forward and dismissed, finally the Rogue offers to pick the lock and scout ahead on his own.  Well, what happens?  The door contains a deadly trap that will decapitate the rogue, and sets off an alarm, which will raise guardian undead to fight off the intruders.  Will the Rogue set off the trap?  Will he detect it and disarm it?  Well that's mostly up to the Rogue's player, but also somewhat to chance.
     The second most important part of the game is what we refer to as the "Core Mechanic."  Basically it means rolling a d20 (twenty sided die), adding it to the rogues perception skill, and seeing if that's higher than the difficulty class I set for the trap earlier.  If its higher than he detects the trap and may try to disarm it.  If its lower than he opens the door, happily ignorant of the trap seconds before a scything blade neatly decapitates his happy head and his team is torn to shreds by hungry undead.

For about two second I pitied that Rogue.  Now I envy him.

     However the scene turns out, the game keeps going.  Either the team succeeds, and they kill the necromancer and loot his corpse, or they get a TPK (Total Party Kill) and make new characters, hopefully trying something easier this time, or at least learning from their mistakes.  Whatever the case is, the game continues.
     I love RPGs.  I love the idea of them, and I love the reality of them.  I've never had someone play in my games, and really give it a fair shot, and come out not liking it.  Most of them who were skeptical ended up loving the game as much as I do.  And some of them I still play with from time to time.  We still remember great moments in the game together.  Like the time a single deranged hobo managed to incapacitate an entire team of skilled investigator.  Those are great memories, and there will be more great memories made with new friends.  After all, the road goes ever, ever on.