Role playing rocks! This site is dedicated to the best past-time in the world, role playing, in particular to online role playing on your PC in persistent worlds, to the creation of whatever creative creatures and characters you can invent and to the awesome fun it is amusing, inspiring and hacking up other players and monsters and to the exploration of weird and wonderful worlds dreamed up by the creative worlds makers. we believe PC Role Playing Games are the most fun and immersive games out there and this site is here to prove it.
Role play games for personal computers are quite distinct from the traditional ‘pen and paper’ role play games that originated in the 1970′s. The term RPG loosely covers a broad range of game types some of which are not strictly speaking games in which one actively pursues the play of a personality or character. In fact many games categorized as RPG can be played either as action type games first person, as strategy type OR role play games. To achieve the truest role play you need to play online in a persistent (usually free or donation) world where the role play aspect is enforced – worlds often referred to as MMORPG or massive multi-player online role play games.
Here we focus on a discussion of the manifestation of these games as a location for role playing games on your PC, both online and against or with the computer offline, that is against the NPC’s and creatures in the pick a path type quest that comes bundled with the game. Some classic RPG games for the PC are Final Fantasy, Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Starwars Knights of the Old Republic and now as persistent online worlds also games such as The Matrix Online and The World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online. More recently games such as Second Life also facilitate the immersion in a virtual world in the form of an avatar where players can choose to act as people different from themselves. These are to name but a few.
Background to the evolution of PC Role Playing Games.
Many role play based games now exist for the PC which as a genre originated in the 1970′s as a dice game played around a table with friends, most famously with the fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons, although role play can also be set in science fiction worlds or even contemporary modern day. The key people credited with the modern evolution of role play as a form of game pastime are Ernest (Gary) Gygax and Dave Arneson, the former developing a set of war-game rules called Chainmail and the latter a role-play game called Blackmoor both around 1971. These two people who were operating independently eventually met and developed Dungeons and Dragons which was released in 1974. Many other company’s produced games through the 1980′s but the other most significant game system was released by Steve Jackson as ‘Generic Universal Roleplaying System’ or GURPS. Whilst creative play, acting for stage, drama and children playing imaginary roles has been around for centuries the modern urge to develop these games into a more structured set of formal rules can arguably be attributed to a fusion of war-games with fantasy narrative. Indeed both Gygax and Arneson developed their early games with friends in the context of frustration with the limitations of traditional ‘war-games’ which facilitated military historical encounters, but allowed little in the way of creative influence on a narrative by players.
From war games to PC roleplaying games.
Table top war games were used by the military, notably starting in modern era with the Prussians use of sand tables and figures in the enactment of Kriegspiel (War Game) as a means to train officers and consider tactics prior to battle. After the Franco-Prussian war the English military academies also adopted such ‘game techniques. This was brought to the public as something to play when HG Wells published a rule set called Little Wars in 1915. Not really gaining any broad appeal this was followed in 1953 with a ‘board’ based wargame by Charles Roberts the later founder of Avalon-Hill. The final spark that ignited a shift from war-game and use of boards to more free form role-play rules was possibly the postwar explosion of cheap paperback publishing of science fiction and fantasy stories and then in particular the unexpected popularity of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ all which fueled an interest in individual personalties such as wizards and elves and their critical role within the story and world. Also contributing to this emergent form, was the post war middle class suburban situation, where economic success meant large leisure time to indulge in the reading of paperbacks, and having long hours available to indulge in the play of these newly available games, the invention of maps and quests and sitting around into the night with friends journeying through imaginary lands.
Dungeons and Dragons and its imitators can be seen as a melding of war games and fantasy novels, as a play genre in which there is a free narrative development within the game, as historical and mythical exploration and learning where a player creates and develops development an imaginary persona with skills and abilities. just like Bilbo Baggins or Richard the Lionheart a player sets of into the world as they did to explore and have adventures, gain wealth and develop expertise, but most importantly all involved know that the outcome is not predetermined, anything can happen and your creative inspired and skillful role play CAN influence events and the universe.
PC Role Play
Often now abbreviated to ‘RPG’, role playing games were a natural for transition to computers or CRPG due to the large amount of maths and tables used to generate situations, scenarios and character statistics. Starting initially with ASCII and text on early mainframes but later developed for Pc’s based pick a path games utilizing single story book type illustrations or ‘stills’. For an excellent description of the development of pc role play games see wikipedia…History of computer role-playing games
Nowadays most computer versions vary from table top paper and dice play – known as ‘Pen and Paper’ or PnP to the online gaming community – in the extent of acting or ‘role playing’ that takes place as computers lend themselves most readily to allowing combat and action. That said many servers host persistent worlds where players debate through fan forums about the appropriate ‘in character’ (IC) and ‘out of character’ (OOC) participation in the game. That is they discuss the amount and appropriate times for staying ‘in the character’ you play, that is acting, remaining true to the world, living your characters role, speaking to other characters in the personality of your created avatar. True PnP fans don’t even consider PC games to be role play due to the restrictions of the game engine, the large amount of repetitive play and presence of non-roleplayed PC controlled characters or NPC’s (non player characters controlled by the AI) and the limited ability to direct your characters personal development or to affect the story line. Yet persistent world RPG’s are absolutely distinguishable from other genres of computer game precisely because of the participation of players in the evolution of non-linear story lines, and the fact the they ‘act’ their characters through the digital avatar seen on the screen and can play out interactions with other online players. The purchased game that comes in a box with a set of rules can typically be played against the computer and involves ‘dungeon crawling’, interacting with NPC’s who deliver scripted stroylines and allow the player to participate in a pick-a-path type quest or adventure. Moments of plot development often involves cinema like predetermined cut-scenes and a turn based approach whereas the adventuring in the wilds or caves is real time action orientated. When played online within a persistent world unpredictable encounters with other player characters or PC’s, non player characters controlled by the worlds writers or DM’s serve to enliven the action and facilitate a players ability to influence events. Different persistent worlds serve different interest groups, some cater to PvP (player versus player) duels, some to mostly action, and others to role play. The later seeking most actively the enforcement of ‘in character’ role play so that players can feel immersed in the imaginary world.
How does Role Playing Work
The basic form of these games is a set of guidelines and rules which establish the world, in Pen and Paper play these are interpreted and managed by a single ‘Dungeon Master’ whereas in PC games online a team of DM’s will be involved even if only one is online or actively present in the persistent world at any one time. Players make a character within the framework of the rules which allow a range of character types as a launching point for the personality, dreams and attitudes of their imagined character. The players character truly distinguishes itself though through the unique way it is ‘acted’ out, what it says and how it reacts as the player interact with other players encountered in the imaginary world. To create a character players choose first what race they will be, then the elect a ‘class’ or profession such as rogue, wizard, jedi, healer or cleric.
After the creation of the character or avatar, the player enters the world and story and sets out to ‘grow’ and develop his characters reputation, skills and relationships with other characters to gain treasure and special items of clothing and equipment all which will enhance their avatars abilities. This is achieved by gaining experience through killing monsters, disarming traps, or by impressing the DM’s with clever and original role play of their character.
We're ready to role play! Fighter, Warlock, Rogue and Mage.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MMORPGs for a comprehensive list of online PC Role Playing Games and persistent worlds.
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