ROLEPLAYING Games

It doesn't matter if you "disagree" with the following statement, because it's true:

The current trend in tabletop RPG is tabletop video gaming.

Roleplaying games are different from every other type of game, no matter the accoutrement or how they are played, and - despite what you have been told by companies trying to sell books or people who do not know how it is done - there most certainly is a wrong way to play them. This goes much further than the difference between "hack n slash" and "tabletop acting."

Make no mistake about it: I am a "storyteller" and "tabletop actor." It's wrong that these labels now have negative connotations, because they both describe how roleplaying games are supposed to be played. If you weren't meant to tell a story, you wouldn't need umpteen books on setting, plot, and... you know, story. And if you weren't meant to "act," it wouldn't be called roleplaying.

Now, it doesn't matter how well you act. In fact, roleplaying is not acting, per se; you can always portray your character from a distance, as it were, with tags like, "My character says this..." and "My character does that..." However, the very term "roleplay" means that you play a role, which is the most basic definition of "acting." Whether you choose to play in-character - the correct, and most appropriate way to play - or "from a distance," you are taking on the role of a character in a fictitious story told, more or less, in a round-robin fashion.

Tabletop RPG is almost all improvisation, and that is important. If you cannot improvise, you probably shouldn't be playing tabletop RPG. If you are playing, then you should learn to improvise and exercise that ability. Failure to do so means you are not playing correctly and everyone else is right to roll their eyes when your refusal to participate spoils their good time.

Do not dismiss what I say as words from a "purist;" there is a right way and wrong way to play tabletop RPG. Storytelling, improvisation, and acting are important elements of tabletop roleplaying and, without them, you are not playing correctly. Lack of these elements results in wargaming, boardgames, and collectible card games - all of which are great games with their own sets of rules that must be obeyed to be played correctly.

Video games give the players a limited set of options, and many tabletop gamers these days are so used to it that they assume the same of their tabletop games. Tabletop RPG offer almost no limitations on what characters can do or accomplish. There's nothing wrong with limiting starting characters' options to give them direction, but if you are merely dungeoncrawling to find "The Boss" before you level-up and tackle the next dungeon level, you're doing it wrong!

© C Harris Lynn, 2011