ROLE-PLAYING GAME

noun phrase (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Youth Culture) A game in which players take on the roles of imaginary characters who take part in adventures in a (usually fantastical) setting. Etymology: Formed by compounding: a game which involves the playing of a role. History and Usage: The concept of the role-playing game (often abbreviated to RPG) brings together two much older ideas. The planning of real military campaigns with the aid of boards and counters led earlier this century to an interest in re-enacting famous historical battles, and even completely fictitious ones, in a similar manner--an activity known as war-gaming, which became particularly popular in the years following the Second World War. The second idea grew out of psychotherapy, which also enjoyed something of a vogue in the sixties: the technique of role-playing, devised by the Viennese psychiatrist J. L. Moreno in the forties, whereby people were encouraged to act out dramatic roles. The technique spread to other fields, and the phrase became generally familiar, so that in the later seventies, when several games appeared which allowed players to immerse themselves more fully in the imaginary setting than had been possible in conventional war-gaming, the name role-playing game came readily to mind. Perhaps the best known of these is Dungeons and Dragons, which like many such games has a fantasy setting. What makes such games distinctive, however, is not the setting--other games draw on science fiction, ancient Rome, and even gangster novels for their inspiration--but the extent to which the adventure is made as 'realistic' as possible: the setting is painstakingly created in great detail, often by a referee or Dungeon Master, and the behaviour of the players' assumed characters is controlled by a welter of rules designed to make the experience believable. Players do not necessarily 'win'--the enjoyment derives from vicariously 'living' another, more exciting life. During the early eighties gaming of this sort was consequently condemned as escapism, but it has flourished despite such criticism; indeed, the appearance of the home computer, and of software allowing still more realistic role-play, has vastly increased its popularity. With role-playing games, the position is different. The rules explain how to generate characters. White Dwarf Oct.-Nov. 1981, p. 8 CoC [Call of Cthulhu] is a classic RPG...casting its shadow over the whole gaming industry. GM Nov. 1989, p. 18