Why I love RPG's

Introduction

For the people that know me, they know I love RPG's, whether they be computer based, tabletop, or just reading the new source book that came out yesterday. Maybe it seems a bit odd to the general population with questions like "isn't that dangerous/satanic?" Seriously, this still gets asked 30+ years after D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) was put in the same category as fictional satanic cults. But I digress. In this post I hope to answer the "why" of RPG's for me and maybe encourage you to take a look at them as well.

What is an RPG?

Anyone that's played an RPG can feel free to skip over this section. I'm including it for anyone that has no clue what I'm talking about. For the most part I'm going to be focusing on tabletop/in-person RPG's, not the computer variety.

In a nutshell, you can think of an RPG as 3-6 friends, sitting around a table for a few hours, telling a story together. That's it, the rolling of dice, rules, character sheets, etc is all ancillary to the telling of a good story together.

RPG stands for Role Playing Game. What that means is you take on the persona (or role) of a character in a story. In most games, there are 2 primary roles: the Player Character (PC), and the Game Master (GM). In some games the GM is called the Dungeon Master (DM) but for the most part they are interchangeable terms.

The GM plays the part of the world. I.e., they tell the PC's what they see, set difficulties to determine whether PC's succeed or fail at a given task, act out the part of any Non-Player Characters (NPC's), and just generally run the game. They, in most games, also spend quite a bit of time outside of the actual game session thinking up and researching the "bones" of the story and the setting.

The PC's act out the part of their characters in the game. They take on the persona of a character and generally explore, fight, and experience the setting and story.

Normally players meet in-person or in an on-line voice/video chat on a regular basis for sessions. A session can be thought of as a chapter in a book or the amount you would read in one sitting. It can last anywhere from a few minutes to upwards of an entire weekend. In my own experience, everyone generally starts getting tired and burned out after about three hours or so. In a general sense a session is the telling of a part of the story by the GM and PC's, resolving of challenges/battles, and gathering rewards to further character development.

Why I find RPG's interesting

There are a number of reasons why I find RPG's so interesting. The first of which is you're telling a story with friends that has never been heard before. Even if you're following a published adventure, what happens during the adventure is unique to your particular experience in that moment. Moments such as the classic joke "I'm attacking the darkness!" seem to come out of almost every session. On top of that, it's not just a shared story, it's a shared experience that can be touching, moving, filled with despair, sprinkled with moments of wonder, all in a single session. As humans, we have an almost primal need to tell and hear stories with our fellow companions. This is just another avenue for that. RPG's provide useful guidelines for people who aren't natural storytellers or are uncomfortable telling stories.

In addition, in our digital age of increasing isolation and fewer meaningful connections with other humans, there's something so incredibly satisfying about spending a couple of hours just talking with other people in-person about something you all, very quickly, become emotionally invested in.

The final reason why I love RPG's is they're a chance to escape. Escape from the day-to-day routine into a fantastic world where you're saving the local town from a dragon or from a killer alien. It's a chance to become epic. Which, far too often in our own world means financial status. For me, having enough money so my survival needs are taken care of is a necessity, but on some level it still feels empty somehow. If I just saved an entire town from a flood caused by the local villain, it gives me an immense sense of satisfaction. Just the same as if I were the GM and setting up this scenario and seeing my players overcome the challenges I've laid out.

Source books

Or, why a source book can sometimes be better for me than any novel.

It all comes down to potential. A novel, even a fantastic one, is already written. The story is already known, even if I haven't read it yet. A good novel for me focuses much more on the world-building aspect. While I'm reading the story and following the main characters, the rest of my brain is filling in details about the world. Everything from what's over the ridge that the characters never quite make it over, to the tavern owner that only has a paragraph devoted to her and then isn't mentioned for the rest of the book. What's her life like? What other interesting characters has she seen? Is her tavern successful or does she owe a debt to a sketchy underworld boss?

A source book provides all the world building I could ever ask for without all the pesky details of a story already written. It allows my mind to run wild, filling in any details it chooses to. Some of these have the potential to turn into adventures for my PC's. Which brings me full circle. Now it isn't just a story I've made up between the lines of someone else's story, it's now my own story. One I can share and share in the writing of with friends over many sessions.

Source books also spark my creativity to life. Whenever I'm in a creative rut, even if it's not planning for the next session for my PC's, the very act of looking through a source book can spark all of my creativity to life. No longer am I bored with photography, or woodworking, or any of the many arts I pursue. That spark has returned and I am, once again, able to create to my heart's content.