Roleplaying

We generally do some kind of roleplaying every couple of weeks at the outside - keeps the old mental faculties honed as well as being a great outlet for the work week's stress, and FUN to boot.

So what is roleplaying?

Roleplaying is acting out a story - any genre, design your own characters - without once getting up from your chair. Decisions are arbitrated by the Gamemaster, one of your group who has at least a vague idea of where the story you're all in could go. Your character's success and failure at actions within the Gamemaster's scenario can be dictated by using dice to simulate chance, just like it does in board games.

Your characters could find themselves in 19th century England, drawn into a puzzling murder investigation. Or they could be situated in feudal Japan, trying to walk the thin line between retaining personal honor and carrying out the wishes of their Daimyo for the good of the clan. If you can imagine it, you can roleplay it.

Another view: What is roleplaying?
Monash Uni Roleplayers speak out - October 1986 (large image)

Current roleplaying systems we're playing

  • Unknown Armies - dark modern day, where obsession can lead to magic, and the magical subculture is policed by a shadowy group, with seemingly endless resources
  • Legend of the Five Rings / Sengoku fusion - fantasy Japan where incursions by Oni are as real as clan machinations against the Emperor

Roleplaying systems / settings of interest

  • Hong Kong Action Theatre (pre-TriStat) - play actors / characters in HK films
  • Underground - dark, not-too-far future, where you play bio or mech-enhanced ex-super-soldiers with problems adapting to civilian life
  • Castle Falkenstein - steam-tech meets fantasy in the Victorian era
  • Cthulhu - 1890s, 1920s or present day reality with something unspeakable in the closet, based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft
  • Runequest - well-realized fantasy world where the gods of myth still pervade everyday life
  • Stormbringer - doom-laden dark fantasy, based on the work of Michael Moorcock (note Darcsyde Productions is releasing supplements for this system at this time)

Roleplaying conventions

A place where a sizable group of like-minded people get together to meet, hang-out and maybe even play games together. In my opinion, the more loosely organized the events are, the better.

In May 2001 I went to Tentacles. It was enormous fun. You can read what I wrote about it.

More links

See also the roleplaying links in my cool links section.