Many people have misconceptions about roleplaying games, they think that the players are deamon worshiping psychopaths, or computer hacking nerds. The problem with this theory, is that it could very well be true, for the simple fact that, roleplayers come from all walks of life, we can not be stereotyped unless you want to say that we are all a little more open-minded than average folk or "mundanes" as we like to call them. We have bankers, factory workers, the people that make your food at McDonalds, college students, Micro Computer Technicians, etc. etc. In almost any profession out there, you can find roleplayers. What is a roleplaying game? Simple. A roleplaying game is a game of imagination, in most cases you have a character similar to an actor's role in a play or movie. Your character has limitations, and his or her own goals in life. Just like an actor or actress in a movie, you pretend to be someone else in another world that can be very different than the one we live in, or strikingly similar. It all depends on the game system you are playing in (and believe me there are hundreds of them out there). The world you play in, and the restrictions of what your character can and can't do are left up to the Game Master(GM) This is usually a very experienced player who has a vision of a world that he or she would like to see come to life, Much like a director/screenwriter/producer of a movie. He has the hardest job, and, in my opinion (being a GM myself) the least fun. It's the GM's job to create a world inside his head, and on paper and describe it with such detail that the players can see it as well, The GM is everything and everybody in his world that is not a Player Character. If, for example, the player wanted to enter a city that was having a market day, and selected a young lady from the crowd to talk to about prices, the GM would have to take on the persona of that woman and talk to the Players from her perspective in life. There are two main types of roleplaying, table-top and live action. Table top roleplaying consists, usually, of a group of anywhere from 2 to 10 Players(More is too hard for the GM to keep track of) one of these is selected to be the GM, the players sit facing the GM, and the GM sits alone with all of his notes hidden behind a screen so that the players can not cheat. he then describes the scene before the players: room, field, town, weather, public voice etc. and the players act as they believe their characters would, if a situation occurs, such as fighting a goblin, dice is used to determine winners and loosers. other situations call for the use of dice as well, like walking the clothesline like a tightrope into the princesses bed chamber, you would have to role dice to see whether or not you fall. Your character is recorded on a sheet of paper, and he grows and learns through experience. Live action is similar in that your character is recorded on a sheet, however these games are usually much larger, usually from around 15 to 200 or even 300 people due to the large size of their groups, theses games are usually played out doors and have more than one GM each one assigned to a different aspect of the game world. (i.e. "This is Bob, he will be handling the midsouth region of Wales, so if your character is there, go see him. This is Jeff, he will be handling character finances. . . etc. etc.)Conflicts and situations are a little different in live action as well, instead of roling dice, you generally have a method of win/loose/tie such as Paper/rock/siscors that you play when a situation occurs. I play (or have played) several types of roleplaying games. Here is a list and brief description of the different types I have played.
Dungeons and Dragons
This is prehaps the most misunderstood of all roleplaying games. It is usually set in a world much like Conan's with wizards and warriors, dragons and deamons, monsters roaming the countryside waiting for helpless creatures to wander into their traps, it is a grand adventuring scheme with unlimitted versatility. It is a table top game with the players playing adventurers and dreamers.
Rifts
Rifts is a world set many years in the future, after a major nuclear catastrophy wiped out most of the worlds population. Walls of pure magical energy called "Ley Lines" appeared, crisscrossing the landscape, and where they met, a tear in the fabric of the universe, called a rift, would occur. These rifts could act as anything as a teleportation chamber that would send you right up the street last tuesday at noon, to an extradimensional gateway through which would spill countless creatures of vile evil and darkness,also in this world aliens have come to stay, and cybertechnology has been perfected, it is not uncommon to see someone resembling the Terminator walking down the street in broad daylight. This is also a table top game in which the players usually play mercenaries or military personel who's object is to clean an area of creatures that came from the rifts. Also the players here generally have back up characters ready because this world has a high mortality rate.
This game is exactly as the name implies, it is a roleplaying game based off of The "Star Wars" books and movies. In this RPG, you are generally part of the rebellion fighting against the empire, it can be set at various times throughout the continuum, and is limited only by the GM's knowledge of the series. This is also a table top game in which you play mercenaries and bounty hunters, star pilots and smugglers, and, of course, Jedis.
This is my favorite game I've had the honor of playing so far, This is a game that can be set at any time period the GM(s) want it to. This game emphasises more on the roleplay or acting factor and less on the hack and slash. This is a game that can be played as either table top or Live action, I prefer the later. In V:tM, you play a Vampire, and instead of classes, like fighter, wizard, or bounty hunter, you have clans. Each clan has their own stereotype of how they are supposed to act. If you have ever seen the movie "Blade" or watched the tv series "Kindred: the Embraced", you kind of already have an understanding of how the social structure works in the game. Also in this game you tend to have several GM's called storytellers because the groups that play tend to be quite large and too overwhelming for one person to handle alone.
