Ask Slashdot: Explaining Role-Playing Games To the Uninitiated? 197
An anonymous reader writes "As a kid in the late 1970s and the 1980s, Dungeons and Dragons, as well as many other fine tabletop roleplaying games, figured heavily in my life. From learning about various forms of governments (theocracies, oligarchies, etc.) and Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology, to what N.B. and et al. mean, to the social glue that enabled people like me to get together, write cool adventures, problem-solve, and have a blast doing it all, role playing games were a powerful force in my life. The thing is, I still enjoy playing them. A lot. I get together once a month with friends and we play for sometimes up to eight straight hours of epic battles, puzzles, legends, lore, and camaraderie. All of this, unfortunately, seems totally alien to someone who did not grow up with RPGs and who has never experienced the sheer joy of a dungeon crawl. Have you ever had to explain to your spouse or significant other why you value gaming so much, or why it is ok to spend a hunk of time with other gamers? How do you begin to relate it all to them?"
Re:Collaborative Story Telling (Score:4, Informative)
That's similar to how I describe it to people.
I usually summarize it as a cooperative storytelling game, with rules to help create dramatic tension and resolve conflicts. Styles of game vary greatly among different groups, but generally tend to frequently resemble characteristics of board games, other storytelling games or exercises, improv theater, acting, or video games (I usually focus on a reference point that is most familiar to the person I am speaking to in order to compare and contrast).
I tell them that each player, except one usually, makes the decisions for one character in this story. This other player will be a "Game Master" (whether D&D or not, I suggest not using the word "Dungeon Master", or other silly game-themed title) who will act as a narrator (or director, emcee, referee, etc).
I tell them that these stories take place in specific settings. For Fantasy, Lord of the Rings (which nearly everyone is familiar with the movies) is often a good example for setting. Though, I tell them that if you can find a genre in film or books, then there will be a role-playing niche for it too.
Sometimes I give a disclaimer that there is a huge variety in the way the games are played, and that while some examples of the stereotypes do exist, that it is by no means universal. In any given subculture, whether based on interest, hobby, profession, religion, or politics) there will always be members that will make the rest of the group look bad...
But most importantly... Try not to have this talk within ear-shot of one of those gamers that make gamers look bad... On more than one occasion, I have had someone show interest in role-playing games, but then get immediately turned off because some overly-opinionated gamer who decides to chime in with his opinion regarding some gaming holy war...