Tabletop role-playing game

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Tabletop role-playing games, also called pen and paper role-playing games, are a form of interactive and collaborative storytelling. The term tabletop refers to the accessory materials usually used for such a game. Pencil, paper, dice, and rulebooks are standard, and such game are typically played with all participants seated around a table. Some groups of players add pewter miniatures and graphical terrain grids to illustrate the action, though many others do not; comparatively few games require miniatures. This practice is part of the genre's historical debt to wargames.

Simple forms of role-playing exist in traditional children's games such as "cops and robbers," "cowboys and indians," and "playing house." Mature role-playing game participants are more sophisticated. Unlike a child who just wants to feel like a cowboy for a few minutes, a group of adults in a Wild West role-playing game will generate specific characters and an ongoing plot. Their goal is to reproduce the enjoyment of a Western film or a Western novel. Like the serial Westerns of old movie matinees, these episodic games often have weekly sessions that continue for months.

A crucial difference between role-playing games and traditional fiction is interactivity. Whereas a viewer of a television show is a passive observer, a player at a role-playing game makes choices that propel the action. Such role-playing games grow out of an older tradition where a small party of friends collaborates on a unique adventure. It is those sophisticated role-playing games that are the focus of this article.

Game mechanics

In a typical role-playing game one participant assumes central responsibility. This is the gamemaster. Alternate terms for a gamemaster are narrator, referee, storyguide, dungeon master (DM), or storyteller. In all cases they serve the same function. The gamemaster will establish a fictional locale such as a Wild West California gold rush town. The gamemaster decides where the gold is hidden and populates the area with minor figures such as merchants, saloon owners, and claim jumpers. Then the gamemaster generates events that move the plot.

Each of the game's other players creates one character. Each records that character's possessions, abilities, and vital statistics. In many games, characters begin weak and improve over time. The player imbues a character with a fictional history and personality, essentially acting that role during game sessions. Most role-playing games are conducted like radio drama: only the spoken component is acted. Players step out of character to describe action and discuss game mechanics. With the exception of the gamemaster, all players form a single team. They can choose to become a group of gold prospectors or a group of outlaws. A typical campaign includes characters with complementary skills. A party of four in the scenario described above might have two gunfighters, a doctor, and a traveling peddler.

The gamemaster presents opportunities and obstacles. In a game session where the party meets a local rancher, the gamemaster acts as the rancher and offers a job hunting mountain lions. The players might decide to accept the job, woo the rancher's daughter, or try to steal his horses. Participants enjoy these open ended situations. Some powerful antagonist often drives the story; in our example, a corrupt sheriff may be trying to force all the small miners off the land.

A shared understanding shapes the campaign. The gamemaster usually has final arbitration power. Commercially produced role-playing games offer a variety of environments and guidelines for enjoyable adventures. Each individual campaign, however, creates its own unique story.

Some tabletop gaming terminology

• Adventure: A single game scenario.
• Campaign: A series of adventures connected, if only loosely, into a single cohesive whole. Campaigns may play out over years of real time.
• Character sheet: the written record of a character's vital statistics.
• Character class: A general archetype into which player characters fall, which, to a greater or lesser extent, determines their abilities.
• Character generation: the process of creating a new character (usually refers to PCs).
• Character race: Human, Dwarf, Elven, or any other being a player might assume as a role.
• Experience points (EP, XP): an accounting system for a characters' life experience.
• God killer: an extremely powerful player character, so named for the fantasy genre tradition of pitting extremely advanced characters against fictional deities.
• GM: gamemaster
• Hit point: In some game systems, a numerical expression of a weapon's damage and of a character's ability to withstand damage.
• Level: A character's expertise in a chosen field, ususally corresponding to a certain number of experience points.
• Metagaming: the misuse of player knowledge, making character decisions based on information the character cannot know but the player does know.
• Monster race, NPC race: any creature too different from normal society to be played by a player.
• NPC: non-player character, any character played by the gamemaster.
• PC: player character, a major story character associated to a particular player.
• Red shirt: an expendable NPC, synonymous with cannon fodder. The term is inspired by the original Star Trek television series.
• Roll Playing: pejorative term for unimaginative role-playing that relies too much on rules and dice.
• RPG: role-playing game
• Session: A group gameplay meeting. Each game session works out a chronological part of the plot. A single Adventure may take multiple sessions to play through.

See also: Category:Role-playing game terms.da:Bordrollespil de:Pencil-and-Paper-Rollenspiel fr:Jeu de rôle ja:テーブルトークRPG zh:桌上角色扮演游戏 ru:Настольная ролевая игра