Why We Roleplay

As roleplayers we spend hours working on characters designs, equipment choices and countless other things and after all this, hand over control to a maniac with some books, often called a GM. After all your hard work you are now at the totally mercy of that maniac (GM) and no amount of for thought or planning will ever change that. So, the question is, why do we do it?

This is something I get asked a lot, mostly by my other half, but also by some of my non roleplaying friends. For a very long time my answer has simply been, because it's awesome! However, having thought about it, that's not really an answer, it neither explains why I roleplay nor does it justice as a hobby.

So, after much thought, deep thought you might say, I've come up with quite a few reasons people roleplay. Once you've read this post, have a think and post us a comment telling us why you roleplay.

RPG's Are a Group Activity
Roleplaying is a great way to meet up with friends old and new that you perhaps wouldn't meet up with as often otherwise. Games can also bring new friends together for the first time. Being social is important for everyone, its important for both you physical and mental health, so you could even say that roleplaying improves your health. Honest gov, that's the truth...

Something For Everyone
While most pre-published roleplaying games fall into either fantasy or sci-fi, by the very nature of roleplay games you can create a game about anything you want! You can Tailor each game tot he people who are playing and what they are interested in and want to play!

RPG's As Escapism

When we roleplay we don't play ourselves, or if we do we play ourselves in a completely different world. So, in a very basic way, a roleplay game is one big exercise in escapism. Now I'm not saying that I hate my life, in fact I don't really have much to moan about, but hell if I had the choice of being me or a noble knight of the realm who spent his time slaying demons to protect the kingdom I know which I would choose. Roleplaying gives us a chance to live out dreams and things you always thought would be really cool, but that you can't do, for example, I would love to go dungeoneering in the local necromancers guild, but they don't seem to keen thus, roleplay! (Please note, there is not in fact a necromancers guild in Westbury)

The Power, The Power Mwahahahaha
In everyday life lets face it, our lives are greatly dictated to us. We work, we eat and we sleep. I know there is actually a lot more, but I'm generalising, after a while its starts to feel like you just want to steal back some control of your life, enter roleplay. During characters creation, we have almost total control of our character, we decide everything from the character's name to his star sign. Once character creation done and the character is placed into the world, you then control much of what said character does, don't like the law? Break it, deal withe consequences later, or run and hide either is good. The ultimate embodiment of this reason is the GM, because well, you may control your character, but her/she controls everything from the grass to the Gods!

Brain Training

These days a craze for brain training games has arisen due to the world getting a bit thick throughout the 70's and up to now. (I don't mean that, the world isn't thick, it just seems the thickest people talk more and so get noticed more.) Anyway, while Nintendo and Sony are leaping on the bandwagon, roleplaying has been there for over 50 years! Making split second decisions, planning, problem solving and puzzling are all key elements of the game. These are great for getting the brain into top gear, I actually playing in a roleplay session before several of my A-level exams when I was college and i can tell you I was much more alert for the exam when i had been roleplaying that morning. A suggestion to the education commission maybe?

Basic Economics

Average Cinema Ticket: £12 Lasts 1.5 - 3 Hours

Average Theatre Ticket: £18 Lasts 2 - 5 Hours

Roleplaying Game Core Book: £35 Lasts forever

Need I say anymore?

So, that's what i came up with. Now, not everyone will fall into these categories, these are just my opinion. If you have anything to add, then post it as a comment below.

For those of you who have never understood why your friend or partner roleplayed, I hope this has helped you understand.

Until next time, TTFN

How To: Be a Great GM

     “To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.”

Being a GM is one of the most difficult parts of the roleplaying community. A player might spend say 1 hour before s session thinking about what they want their character to do and maybe spending some loot money, where as the GM will be spending anything from 4 hours and a whole day planning the next session.

Needless to say, being a GM is a skill that must be learned over time and with a lot of practise. However, this is not to say you have to make a complete hash of several campaigns before you reach the right stuff. These days there are more guides for GM's than players (or at least it feels like it sometimes) and while these are great, i always think they miss the important stuff. They provide you with NPC's, weather generators, name lists etc but always miss out the single most important thing, what separate a good or passable GM from a great GM?

As this rather cool looking diagram shows, the players rely on the GM just as the GM relies upon the players, his/her own notes and on the game itself. It is impossible to be a great GM without thinking about all three of these to start with.

1. GM Notes
These are your single most powerful tool. Your notes are your guide to the world you have created and the adventures within it. Now I'm not advocating writing a novel here just notes. Players will always wonder off the beaten track so don't write rigidly, allow for deviation and weird stuff. A map usually helps somewhere along the line, nothing to fancy just a basic idea of where things are in relation to other things (more on maps in a later post). Your notes should include NPC sheets, background and information on important people, places and items, an adventure outline, hooks, clues and anything else you as a GM find useful in keeping your mind in line with your created world.

2. The Game System
This sounds obvious, but seriously look at it, don't just read your chosen rules set and be done with it. Read it through a few times, make sure you are comfortable with the rulebook. Play a few games with the rules as a player to get a feel for it. Then, make sure the rules set fits with what your trying to do, if you have to re-write vast chapters of text, then this rules set isn't what you want for your game. Once you comfortable with it, see if there are any little things you think you want to change, change them and play again, has the game become more fun? If yes keep the change if no, scrap it. Make sure any changes you make you add to the campaign pack so your players know about it. last, ensure you have the rights dice and equipment for the system, sound obvious but I've been to enough sessions and people have brought D20's rather than D100's, not helpful!

3. The Players
The best thing about a roleplay game is that you get to be this amazing hero/villain in an amazing and exciting world. For many, this escapism is the reason hey play. However, as much as we want to be our characters, we will always put a bit of ourselves into them. So, pick your players carefully! I'm not saying ban someone from your group just because they play differently, but keep in mind that you have 3-6 people to keep happy and entertained, not just that one. A good example is the metagamer. He/she care about one thing, and that is creating the single most powerful character purely my utilising as many of the rules sets as possible. They care little for story line, back story or coolness. They will also make decisions based on their view rather than the characters! This is fine, and lots of fun for them, but what about everyone else? Again, I'm not saying don't let them play, just try and keep them tied in with the rest of the party as they may really enjoy playing as characterful as possible.

So, as you can see, a lot to think about. However, there is more! (Don't worry its not all that complicated really).

One massive thing to remember, NEVER BE AFRAID. As GM a massive amount of power resides in you over both the characters and the world they inhabit. You must no be afraid to use that power, even if your players don't want something to happen. Now, I'm not saying make their characters lives hell (unless that's the idea of the game in which case, go for it), but no one want to be ambushed and yet, maybe it's the start of a really cool adventure. The same is true of killing characters. As GM you are, for a lot of the time anyway, the players adversary. Your rampaging goblins want to kill, butcher, eat and rob your player's characters, not gently tickle them with their spar tips. Players should be prepare for this and shouldn't take it personally, neither should you. If a character dies, its not the end of the world, the player just writes a new one and starts again, no big deal.

Another important thing, accept this now before you go any further, you are going to slip up at some point!

Yes just like Merlin up there at some point you will slip up, forget a name, place or over estimate the party (or maybe under estimate it). Don't worry about it. Sure, the players will have a good laugh about it and probably make some fun, but laugh along, collect your thoughts and reap your revenge, I mean get the game back on track.

Being imaginative can be difficult at time, and sometimes you just don't have the energy or time in a week to plan the next session, this is where your notes save you. As you have a basic background and some hooks and adventures across your world, you can just fall back onto one of those. These can be anything from bandit Cobalts to signs of the party's nemasis being near. Ideas like this can easily fill a session or two when your aren't up to creating a new plot line but don't want to cancel.

So, those are the basics on being a great GM. I hope these tips help all those new to GM-ing and if you have anything to add, just drop in a comment.

This post is part of the "How To:" series and so will be available via the How To: page.