RPG Page 1
What is an RPG?
Answer: An RPG is a fun way to spend a few hours exercising your mind and imagination pretending to be a character that you are not. An RPG is not a board game,but may use maps and graph papers or boards. An RPG is not a card game but may use dice or cards. An RPG is like Make-believe for children ,adults, and intelligent people of all ages.
An RPG is a Role Playing Game. It is to board games what improvisational theatre or improv comedy is to a completely scripted motion picture. There are sub categories such as Murder Mysteries and LARP (Live Action Role Playing)and others but let's keep it simple and stick to the pen and paper role playing games (which are often played in person in small groups and sometimes online or using pbem {play by e-mail})
Video games often called Role playing games are a separate subject. Some example games and game systems are:Mutants & Masterminds,Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls, Silver Age Sentinels, Big Eyes Small Mouth, Marvel Universe Game, DC Universe RPG, Star Trek, Star Wars, Buffy The V.S, HERO, Champions,White Wolf-World Of Darkness Games,many other fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and historical and Lovecraftian themed role playing games. Dice, cards and charts are used to play along with a prepared writeup character sheet for each player character. Each of the players, sometimes 2 to 10 people have at least 1 player character(pc) and are usually assigned some kind of mission or problem to solve by the Game Master / Narrator/Dungeonmaster / Storyteller/Director/ Referee (GM) who has prepared many Non-player characters(NPC's) on sheets and a campaign and scenario wherein the PC's and NPC's interact. The actions are announced verbally rather than acted out physically. The GM describes what the pcs see and what the NPCs do. The PCs describe what their respective PC's do and say. Elements of chance are handled by the rolling of dice(some 6 sided , some 4, 8,10, 12, 20, or 100 sided dice) to determine success or failure of one's actions. Audible lines of PC's and NPC's are spoken aloud dramatically, as an actor does in a play. If the player wants to say something as an aside to another player or GM he should say "out of character..."[OOC] first to differentiate his words from his character's words.
Example:
GM: The Background is:(in the previous adventure).You all live in the megopolis, Century-Metro City which is a giant urban center who's resident Super Hero Protector is "The Meta-Force Watch" . The MFW is made up of team leader: Pawley Morphe; The Unbreakable Knightbane(a Brick), Prof.Thermes(Magi) and Solariumman (the human flamethrower). MFW's main Arch-enemy is Doctor Drehd. He recently kidnapped Solariumman and is holding him in his secret castle headquarters in the Dark Forest near Century-Metro City. It is guarded by creatures, mutants and the Legion of Angry Meta Evildoers(L.A.M.E.) . Following a lead from a snitch, you are walking in you travelling gear down a dirt road path in a thick dark forest. You can see pretty well due to lumnescent fungus on some trees. You hear a sound of a deep roar in the distance, or is it right next to you? it is hard to be sure. You see nothing else. What do you do?
Player #1(her PC is Pawlly Morphe the shape shifter): Pawlly changes into the form of 9 foot lion and says: "Morphing into a Sabretooth!" She instantly changes . OOC: Does Pawlly see or hear anything now with her super sense of smell and sight?
Player#2,Prof.Thermese(Like Dr.Strange/Invisible Man): "I am turning invisible" and he does drawing out his fighting staff.
Player#3, Knightbane(like The Hulk): "I am growing to my full 7 foot tall form" OOC: He now looks like Solomon Grundy on Steroids. His normal clothes have disappeared and he has blue skin and a green mask,cape, and spandex super hero suit and boots.
GM: Knightebane, you grow and crack 5 tree branches off with your head. You are high enough tto see a black panther with a serpents tail(the tail has a head with venom dripping fangs) about 8 feet from you behind a bush. GM to Pawley: Pawley you see and smell it . It smells like cobra and panther scent mixed.
GM: to Prof.Thermese: Prof Thermese: you are invisible to everybody but Pawley, and you sense that the Cobranther "sees" you with its sense of taste. It is striking at you with its tail as it leaps over your head.
What do you do? You all get an action before the fangs make contact with the Prof's face....
The GM has charts & rulebooks and a GM Screen that gives you the chances of success of dodge, miss, hit, and attack, etc. GM's and players roll dice to see if they succeed or fail in combat versus the opponents.
If they survive they are led to the next step in the campaign script prepared by the GM. Perhaps to the Super Villains' secret HQ where their teammate "Solariummanan" is held prisoner by Doctor Drehd. The plot may be based on the genre of sci-fi, fantasy, comic-book super heroes, science -fantasy, space opera, Nightstalker/Buffy/Monster slayers,
Pulp heroes, pre 1947 heroes,JLA, Cthuluesque Universe , or any other interesting genre.
How do you know if you win? You win if you had fun and enjoyed the experience. A campaign goal may be reached, but characters may be rewarded with points (experience points) that allow advancement in skills, levels, or powers which they can use when playing the same character in future campaigns. The rule books contain the details for dice and combat. Dice and exploration. Dice and inter character interaction & other random elements.
Each campaign has specific "local world rules" such as in one campaign I played, wherein psionics did not work. Or all magic was sparse and required an activation roll to determine if it was a successful or a "dud" magic effect.
PC's have statistics , health body wound hit points, and characteristics points. Any of 3 to 10 characteristics or more are pre written on the character sheets. Sometimes a chance to be hit or Armor Class/Value, Passive defense value , Active Defense Value, Attack Value/AttackCombat Value, defense combat value, or similar dodge or armor factor is assigned to PC's and NPC's. The better the value the less likely the chance to be hit by a monster (or a Cobra Panther for instance) .The GM rolls a dice or die to see if he hits a PC. The roll is compared to the appopriate statistic on the PC's sheet. In some cases, the player may or may not get a chance to roll to see if he dodges sucessfullly. At other times only the GM rolls, depending on the rules of the particular game system.
RPG's are an exciting game of imagination and adventure, taking you in your mind to worlds of wonder and thrills. RPG's let you be creative and expressive and satisfy your desire for adventure and travel without ever leaving the living room. Super hero games like DCUniverse RPG, Marvel Super Heroes Universe, Marvel Saga,Mutants and Masterminds and Silver Age Sentinels particularly capture the feel of being in a comic book story or in a movie like Spider-Man ,Batman, Catwoman, or The X-Men.
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