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The set of rules of a role-playing game is known as its game system; the rules themselves are known as game mechanics. Although there are game systems which are shared by many games, for example the d20 system, many games have their own, custom rules system.
Many role-playing games require the participation of a gamemaster (GM), who creates a setting for the game session, portrays most of its inhabitants, known as non-player character (NPCs) and acts as the moderator and rules arbitrator for the players. The rest of the participants create and play inhabitants of the game setting, known as player characters (PCs). The player characters collectively are known as a “party”.
During a typical game session, the GM will introduce a story goal for the players to achieve through the actions of their characters. Frequently, this involves interacting with non-player characters, other denizens of the game world, which are played by the GM. Many game sessions contain moments of puzzle solving, negotiation, chases, and combat. The goal may be made clear to the players at the outset, or may become clear to them during the course of a game.
Some games, such as Polaris and Primetime Adventures, have distributed the authority of the GM to different players and to different degrees. This technique is often used to ensure that all players are involved in producing a situation that is interesting and that conflicts of interest suffered by the GM are avoided on a systemic level.
Games rules determine the success or failure of a character’s actions. Many game systems use weighted statistics and dice rolls or other random elements. In most systems, the GM uses the rules to determine a target number though often the targets are determined in a more principled fashion. The player rolls dice, trying to get a result either more than or less than the target number, depending on the game system. Not all games determine successes randomly, however; an early and popular game without random elements is Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game by Erick Wujcik (1990).
Most systems are tied to the setting of the game they feature in. However, some universal role-playing game systems can be adapted to any genre. The first game to feature such a system, GURPS, is accompanied by a number of sourcebooks which allow games to be created in different genres. The d20 system, based on the older role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, is used in many modern games such as Spycraft and the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.
In practice, even universal systems are often biased toward a specific style or genre and adaptable to others. For example, although the d20 system has sourcebooks for modern and futuristic settings, most published d20 system material stays within Dungeons & Dragons’ combat-focused fantasy milieu.
The challenge of producing a video game with which players can interact through role-playing, rather than simply a framework within which they can interact with each other, is yet to be answered. Within the computer industry, the term “RPG” instead refers to role-playing video games. It has so far proved impossible to recreate the flexibility, characterization, and depth of traditional roleplaying gaming.
Nonetheless, computers and other electronic media are not unknown in role-playing. Computer-assisted role-playing games blend elements of traditional role-playing with computer gaming. Computers are used for record-keeping and sometimes to resolve combat, while the participants generally make decisions concerning character interaction. This may include tools used to facilitate traditional pen & paper games to be played over the internet. Such tools may be nothing more than an IRC program, but there is also specialized software which includes built-in functions for dice, character sheets, mapping, and such (e.g., OpenRPG).
Some role-playing games use the internet as their medium. Online text-based role-playing games, in which players interact through a text-based medium rather than face-to-face, are popular on the internet. Some games are played in a turn-based fashion, whether play-by-mail games using email, or play-by-post games on internet forums. Others are played in a more real-time way, similar to offline games, over TELNET or IRC; these are known as MUDs. Finally, some people use internet chat clients or dedicated virtual tabletop software to play what would otherwise be a traditional RPG.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games are also a popular form for computer role-play, as it combines the benefits of both computer role-playing games, and text-based role-playing games.
The upcoming Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is slated to make use of an online Digital Tabletop and numerous online tools to expedite play of the game as part of their D&D Insiders program.
The assumption of roles was a central theme in some early 20th century activities such as the game Jury Box, mock trials, model legislatures, and “Theatre Games”. In the 1960s, historical reenactment groups such as The Sealed Knot and the Society for Creative Anachronism began to perform “creative history” reenactments introducing fantasy elements, and in the 1970s fantasy wargames were developed, inspired by sword and sorcery fiction, in which each player controlled only a single unit, or “character”. The earlier role-playing tradition was combined with the wargames’ rule-based character representation to form the first role-playing games.
Dungeons & Dragons, published in 1974 by Dave Arneson’s and E. Gary Gygax’s TSR, was the first commercially available role-playing game. TSR marketed the game as a niche product. Gygax expected to sell about 50,000 copies total to a strictly hobbyist market. After establishing itself in boutique stores it developed a cult following.
Another early game was Traveller, designed by Marc Miller and first published in 1977 by Game Designer’s Workshop. This was originally intended to be a system for playing generic space-opera-themed science-fiction adventures, in the same sense that Dungeons & Dragons was a system for generic fantasy adventures, but an optional suggested setting called the Third Imperium was detailed with the publication of following supplements and since then this setting has become strongly identified with the game.
Dungeons & Dragons was a subject of controversy in the 1980s when well-publicized opponents claimed it caused negative spiritual and psychological effects. Academic research has discredited these claims.[4] Some educators support role-playing games as a healthy way to hone reading and arithmetic skills.Though role-playing has been accepted by many,others continue to object.
Due to the game’s success, the term Dungeons & Dragons has sometimes been used as a generic term for fantasy role-playing games. TSR undertook legal action to prevent its trademark from becoming generic.
Games such as GURPS and Champions also served to introduce to role-playing games game balance between player characters; later, Vampire: The Masquerade and similar games served to emphasize storytelling and plot and character development over rules and combat. In recent years, rules stringency has been combined with literary techniques to develop games such as Dogs in the Vineyard that stress player input into a tense situation to give players moral agency in the course of the emerging story.
Competition from computer role-playing games and collectible card games led to a decline in the role-playing game industry. The financially troubled market leader TSR, Inc. was eventually purchased by Wizards of the Coast.[9] To better cope with the economics of role-playing games, and to combat growing bootlegging problems, they introduced a new regime of open gaming, allowing other companies to publish D&D-compatible supplements. Meanwhile, self-defined “Indie roleplaying” communities arose on the internet, studying role-playing and developing several forms of role-playing game theory such as GNS Theory, and critical reflection on role-playing games has become popular in Scandinavia leading even to a yearly academic conference.
In thirty years the genre has grown from a few hobbyists and boutique publishers to an economically significant part of the games industry. Grass-roots and small business involvement remains substantial while larger projects have attracted several million players worldwide. Games industry leader Hasbro purchased Wizards of the Coast in 1999 for an estimated $325 million.