Role-playing games are really just an advanced form of regular board games. In fact, they are so advanced that they no longer use a board. Some of the elements are still the same; you still need paper and pencil, dice and players. But the main thing you need to play a role-playing game is IMAGINATION.
Let's take it a step at a time.
Imagine the Scene
Picture a basement: There is an open step staircase leading down. The walls are covered in an age tarnished, white paint, with large cracks, chips and blotches revealing the red brick underneath. If you turn to look directly opposite from the stairs, the whole basement lies before you. An automatic washing machine and dryer are along the left wall, with water hoses connecting the washer to the large laundry tub and sink next to it. Directly across from the appliances looms the huge iron belly of the gas furnace; its large, old-style heating pipes weaving across the ceiling/floor like tentacles. Storage boxes, old ewspapers, rags and dust covered jars, lean against the walls in scattered stacks. In the far wall is a small pantry, a tool shed/workroom and a large, old coalbin. A glance at the solid, glass block windows
that rim the right and left walls shows that it's getting dark outside. Can you picture this scene? Try to keep the mental image in your head. Don't worry if you for get the details; one of the great things about role-playing is the way your memory is improved with practice. Now you are ready for the next step.
Imagine the Setting
A foul odor is mingled with the musty basement air. The coalbin door, which is always kept locked, yawns a foot and a half open. Beyond the door is only blackness. Suddenly, a hoarse, inhuman chuckling begins to rise from below the steps. Like a cameraman in a film, the scene is established, and now our attention is focused to a specific setting, the stairs. We have also established an atmosphere and the beginning of action. Got all that? Good. Now let's figure out where you, the player, fit
into this.
Imagine the Character
Now here comes the tricky part. YOU are not in the basement, but there is somebody whose eyes you see through. That person is your character. An imaginary individual that is your playing piece in this game. Just like an actor assuming a role for a movie, you play a fictitious character in the game. It is your
imaginary character who is standing on those basement stairs. It is your imaginary character who has psychic powers and who reacts and interacts with the other playing pieces, the other characters. Normally, you will spend an hour or more developing a new player character. Once the character has been created, you will probably continue playing the character for many weeks, perhaps even years.
In our example, your character is standing on the lower steps to the basement. The sun is setting and a chilling laughter is softly coming from below the very steps he (or she) is standing on. (Remember the scene, the setting? See how it all comes together now?)
Imagine the Action
Actually, you need one more important ingredient to make a role-playing game work, the game master . The game master (G.M.) is another player (a real person) who controls and acts out all the characters in the game which are not the characters of other players. It is also the game master who, like the director
of a film, establishes the setting, introduces antagonists and 31 keeps the action moving. This means the game master will play/act out the friendly police officer, the grumpy old man, and the hideous thing under the stairs. In this case, you are the only player and I am acting as the game master (G.M.). The game master says to you: "You hear this hoarse, rasping laugh coming from below the steps you are standing on. You realize that on open steps it can grab your ankles. What are YOU (your character) going to do?"
At this point, you must decide what your playing piece, your character, is going to do. Does he slowly bend down to see what's under the stairs? Does he try to run up the stairs? Perhaps he leaps down the last few steps and trys to run to the tool shed to get a weapon and bar the door. The decision is yours. The game master will have your opponent(s) respond to your character's actions. Like improvisational theatre, you, your fellow players and the game master, are all building an adventure, a story. When the game is over, you'll have a complete chapter of a larger story forever locked in your memory. A story that you helped create.
In a role-playing game there are no simple answers. There are also almost no limits to what you can do. The only restrictions are that you can not go beyond the physical, mental and emotional limits of your character.
What You Need to Play
Other than imagination, 2 or more players, and a game master, you will also need the following:
1. Dice: 2 four-sided, 4 six-sided, 2 eight-sided, 2 ten-sided, and
2 twenty-sided.
2. Plenty of pencils and paper.
3. Character log sheets can be xeroxed from this book or simply use paper.
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