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Believe it or not, role playing is a very important part of day-to-day life. Kids do it when they play cops and robbers. Most people do it in one way or another in the course of a working day (most people behave differently at work or on the phone than they do normally). Psychologists even use it as an aid in their profession.
At the very basic level, role-playing games (RPGs) can be described as 'games of pretend with rules'. Some have more rules than others. Some rely more on pretend than others. But essentially they are just that: pretend with rules.
In an RPG the player usually adopts a different personality / race / gender / etc. This character is created based on the rules of the system being played. Usually, the character has a set of numbers that determine how good they are at doing specific things. Often these are known as skills. To perform a given task the player will use their character's ability with the relevant skill to see if they succeed. As the character progresses, it will develop new skills and / or become more proficient in its existing skill and abilities. It is usually the case that the character can do things that the player cannot, which is part of the attraction of playing in the first place.
In Live Action Role Playing (LARP) the player acts out the part of their character. This can involve dressing in a way in keeping with the game setting, acting differently and even talking as their character would talk. Players, as their characters, interact with each other for real. This is role playing at its most immersive.
Most games have some sort of referee who directs the action of the game and keeps it within the specified rules. This is sometimes known as the Games Master (GM). In LARP the referee may be referred to as a Ref. The referee may know the general direction of a storyline or plot, but the way the characters deal with it can lead to any number of outcomes, which the referee has to accommodate into the overall game plot. This adapting and reacting is part of the fun of gaming.
LARP can involve the use of 'props'. These help fill out the pretend world and make it more realistic. For example, when playing cops and robbers, pointing two fingers could be used to represent a gun but a toy gun makes it more realistic.
The only real way to experience the world of role playing is to give it a try. If you've ever read a book or seen a film and fancied yourself as one of the characters in it then role playing might just give you that opportunity...
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