<b><u>Roleplaying Lessong 0 - What is Roleplaying?</b></u>
So here we start off with the biggest question of all. What is roleplaying? Who invented it? How come I've never heard of it? These are all common questions, and many people believe it or not have the wrong idea that roleplaying means to 'cyber sex' online. It's true you mention roleplaying and the first thing they say is ewww or 'you do that?', they can't seem to grasp what it truly is.
But if not that, then what is it? To put it simple, just say the name. Roleplaying, to play a role. To act out a life, to bring yourself into fiction. Many meanings, but one goal.
It is as it says, to play a role. But now that we know what it is? We ask, where did it come from?
I don't know the full history of it myself or who created it, but I do know it originates from make believe games. Yes, exactly as I said, make believe games. When you were a child and played house with mud pies and tea sets, you roleplayed. The house was your setting, the character was you, and you acted out someone different. Counselours! Use roleplaying, military, uses roleplaying. It originates from more then just make believe. Although make believe is the basis of it.many other people have used it without knowing what it truly is. Play's are a form of roleplaying. The difference being, in a play you have your script made out. In roleplaying you act it as you think it up. Like a story but with many other people involved.
But instead of getting into that, we will be discussing the 3 types of modern roleplaying. Board Games, Video Games, and Text-Base .
<b><u>Board Games</b></u>
When talking board roleplaying, what comes to mind? How about the old school dungeons and dragons? Take on a role as a magic user or knight or something else. I personally havn't played it myself. But this is the number one known and most used example of a roleplaying board game. The rules of these games are slightly different then the text based ones we have now. It usually involved, dice, mini sculptures and/or cards. Instead of writing or typing their actions or thoughts, they took turns and said them out loud on their turn. The person known as the 'game master' described the story, setting and actions of the surrounding places and NPC's and the other people described the actions and speech of their characters. The dice was used when they wanted to determine battle actions, wether or not a sword slash hit the opponent or not, or wether they were to enter a cave or not.When keeping things such as equipment, stats or levels they either remembered them or wrote them down on a card. Though not played very much now, these are still played sometimes in Japan, I've read.
<b><u>Video Games</b></u>
Here we have the virtual roleplaying, and many many many examples. The Roleplaying Videogames or 'RPG's' as people call them, are well known and played throughout the world. These games have all the classic aspects of roleplaying but in a more easy manner. In virtual roleplaying you have two different times. RPG's, roleplaying games that involves a story already done with a characters already chosen, or MMORPGS, Mass multi player online roleplaying games, which involve either the story already made but custom characters, or custom characters and custom world like a real life or fantasy setting with many different choices.
For RPG's, it's normaly an already made story. Such as Final Fantasy, and Pre-made characters, that you start off with. You may get to rename them but you don't really have any choice in their apperance. This type is the most common one. Your battle system is virtual and you gain stat upgrades everytime you defeat an opponent, eventually leveling up, you walk around a virtual world and play the plot/story as you go, you interact with NPC's (Non Player Characters) and either help them or battle them or let them join you. You buy your equipment with money you gain, and you play the story as you go.
The other type is MMORPG, you sometimes have a premade story, but you get to have custom characters. Choosing their name, apperance and such. And other times, the world is premade, but you get to choose your characters story, job, life, apperance depending on what type of world your set in. A few good examples of these are Ragnarok, Runescape and Furcadia. Most are known to be online.
<b><u>Text Based</b></u>
Text based, after RPG's, Text based is the most known roleplaying throughout the internet. It involved typing your actions, speech and thinking as you go. Online you have 3 different types, Multiple Choice, Forum and Chat.
The first is multiple choice, these rp's are already chosen on everything, and you don't create characters for them. A way to describe these are, a short version of those choose your own adventure books you can buy.
The Seconed is Forum, forum rp's can vary to wether 2 kinds, the RPG where worlds are premade in different threads and you travel thread to thread to do things, or the RP where it's one thread and you type out everything you do. Either one, they have two different modes, the classic script format. (See Roleplay formats) or the Story Format. Either format depends on your grammar and story skills. But Forum based rp's themselves involve typing out everything. From the way your character looks, to what they do, to what they say and how they react. Though not all do it, there is usually a description of the scenery and such to, if the one starting the roleplay, the 'RP Creator' describes it. The RP Creator is sort of like the gamemaster in board RP's. They decide the story line, what the surrounding plot is, and the whole work around of the rp. Though the RP Creator does this, there have been rp's where everyon contributes to the plot, making everyone the 'game master' in these events.
After that, is the third. Chat RP's. These normally involve 1-2 people, or even an rp group. RP Groups are very common on instant messaging clients such as AIM. These RP's are very much like the forum rp's sometimes script and sometimes story, they involve the creating of characters and story, but normally do not have a leader. Instead each member conributes to the plot by thinking it up as they go along, keeping the story going. Normally before entering the chat room to roleplay, the members of the group would decide on their characters and story line before entering.
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Well, now that you know what it is, and how do play it, we'll look into the different parts of it to become better at it, and terms used in roleplaying.
Hope you stick around.
-Hikaru-