On Roleplaying

I advertise this site as "RPGs, Trains, Music", but I realise while I've posted several lengthy railway and music-related pieces, I've had little to say recently about the world of roleplaying games. Perhaps it's because much of my RPG-related writing is the actual games themselves, after all, I'm running three internet-based games, two on Dreamlyrics and one on The Phoenyx, as well as playing in a couple more.

I know roleplaying games are even more uncool than trains or listening to prog-rock, and I get enough flack for them. And if you think such things are too nerdy, what are you doing surfing the web? You should be down the pub, or playing football!

What are roleplaying games anyway? Those that know can skip this paragraph; those that were originally here for the trains or the prog-rock, read on. I would describe it as a cross between co-operative storytelling and wargaming; a group of players each take the part of one major character in the story, while one (called the Games Master) takes the part of minor characters, and controls the setting. Most games use a set of published rules that define character's abilities, and some mechanisms for determining character success at doing things. Games can cover all sorts of fictional genres, with action-adventure themes always the most popular; published rules cover things Tolkein-style fantasy, 50s style science fiction, comic-book superheroes in spandex costumes, vampires battling against werewolves, or angels battling against demons.

So what attracts me to roleplaying games? Unlike a lot of gamers, I didn't discover RPGS until my 20s. I was never the sterotypical teenage munchkin acting out his adolescent power fantasies. One thing that I really love is the worldbuilding aspect; there's something about creating an entire imaginary world, with it's peoples, places, cultures, religions and even languages. And persuading other people to explore this world with their equally imaginary characters, for me, makes it all worthwhile.

I love games with rich, detailed settings, a style of gaming which has gone out of fashion in recent years. My own Kalyr setting is a case in point; it's been written up and developed over a period of many years. One of my favoutite settings is has to be Glorantha, developed over more than 25 years, originally the setting for Runequest, now the setting for a new game, Hero Wars.

At the moment, I'm not in any long-term campaigns since I moved away from my original group. All my gaming is either one-shot games at conventions, or internet-based, either email or message board.