What is Role-Playing?
Posted 27th August 2008 at 02:03 AM by Antioch
"In roleplaying, participants adopt and act out the role of characters, or parts, that may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. Roleplaying, also known as RP to some, is like being in an improvisational drama or free-form theater, in which the participants are the actors who are playing parts, and the audience." -Wikipedia
I think when it comes down to role-playing games that you generally get two camps of thought: people who think that social-RP is the only form of role-playing, and people who think that anything goes when it comes to role-playing. To be fair, I've never heard of an action-gamer refer to die rolling as the "only form" of RPing. It seems to be solely relegated to those who prefer the social variety.
Social-roleplaying is one aspect of RP that occurs when you are talking to another player or non-player character "in-character". The distinction of "social" is important because I try not to give anyone the misconception that roleplaying only occurs when you are talking or character acting. Now, everyone has their own preference on the degree of various roleplaying styles. Some people are content to more or less just play the game without going into a huge amount of character detail. For people that dont game often, or game at conventions, this appears to be a common theme.
What it boils down to is that any action taken by you counts as roleplaying, even if its a simple attack action that is resolved with a die roll. You are playing the part of another character, and thats the point. Role-playing games are still games, no matter how superior you may think they are than board games, card games, or digital games. They need rules. You cant just declare that, "I win", and have that be that. Hence, this is why I think that every situation that actually matters needs rules to help resolve challenges whether social, skill-based, or combat. If you dont include rules for social encounters, then characters can technically defeat them by the player being "really good" at talking, and thats not fair.
I think that social skills actually enhance roleplaying. First of all, they encourage a player who normally isnt good at something to try to do something new. If the character is geared for those kinds of actions, that helps a character further engage in immersive-roleplayi ng (see below). That is, a player who isnt very sociable decides to roll a bard. On top of that, she is also playing a half-elf (+1 racial bonus to Diplomacy checks). A token skill for a bard is Diplomacy, which both makes sense as far as immersive-roleplayi ng is concerned, but synergizes with a bard's role. Now, a first level bard might have around +9 to Diplomacy checks, which is likely far above and beyond the skills of an everyday person (gamer?). Therefore, this bard is a superior animal when it comes to social situations.
If this skill didnt exist, it is very unlikely that Jane Gamer is going to attempt to fast-talk her way out of a sticky situation, because in real-life she's really bad at it. Though her bard might have that sort of thing worked into her background, she cannot accurately portray the role because she isnt good at talking, singing, or casting spells. However, that is the role she wished to take on. The rules help support her in her chosen role, and that assists in immersive gaming as she is able to play her character appropriately.
Immersive-roleplayi ng (immersive-RP) is when you really, really get into character. You talk in character (voice and all), you act in character, you make decisions based solely on what the character would do and not necessarily what you think you might want to do. This can cause problems when people start using character motives as a justification to be a jerk, or to just not play along. Not that everyone who likes to engage in immersive-RP does this, but it can and does happen.
My degree of immersive RPing varies by the group I'm with and the game I'm playing. Generally it is easier to assume the role of things when people cannot actually see you. If you've played MMO games and try to immerse yourself in the game, you probably realize that its much easier to imagine a "voice" for your character despite having to type. It is also easier to assume another race and/or gender, since the people on the other end of the screen cannot actually see you (we've all heard that every female character in World of WarCraft is a 40+ year old, overweight, balding virgin). Visual aids are great for this, and thats why I like using battle mats and miniatures: it is an aid for immersive gamers.
I think that the most immersive character I ever played was Talibah, and only because both DMs insisted it would be crucial to the campaign. It really wasnt, but she definitely had a personality: likes, dislikes, fears, dreams, and all manner of in-depth information. It was fun to kick ideas around and write them down on the extensive background sheet, but almost all of it was never used. Thats a flaw of building up too much information: most of it never sees the light of day, or at best you reference it once (like Talibah's love of dwarven spirits) and then no one cares afterwards.
A final form of RP that I identified while writing this is implied-roleplaying (implied-RP). Implied-RP is the unstated character motivations behind an action. When my fighter attacks a monster, I'm not going to bother explaining the exact reason why he is doing that. Thats what I want him to do, and thats about all the motivation he or she requires. We dont get to know why the monsters are bad guys and why we have to kill them except that it adds to the overall fun of the game. I'm sure there is a reason why, but no one really cares to know, especially in a game where you end up leaving behind the rotting corpses of hundreds of "bad guys". Implied-RP to me helps ignore more questions that is necessary about your character.
You ordered ale, would your character drink ale? Maybe? I guess so, since I did order it. I didnt decide ahead of time whether or not my character drinks, but its safe to assume that yeah, she does.
You chose magic missile as one of your starting spells. Would your wizard really have done that? Its a great spell to be sure, and rather than go into heavy detail about the whats and whys, we can just move past that and play the game.
I use the term roleplaying as a general blanket statement, but I understand that many people do not. Therefore, to help maintain clarity I choose to use various refined terms to help differentiate the many different aspects of the core roleplaying definition. Remember, roleplaying is a catchall term for when you assume the role of someone that is not you, no matter how different. Social-RP is for character interaction, immersive-RP for in-depth details about your character (or when you go the "extra mile"), and implied-RP helps avoid 20 questions every time you do something.
I think when it comes down to role-playing games that you generally get two camps of thought: people who think that social-RP is the only form of role-playing, and people who think that anything goes when it comes to role-playing. To be fair, I've never heard of an action-gamer refer to die rolling as the "only form" of RPing. It seems to be solely relegated to those who prefer the social variety.
Social-roleplaying is one aspect of RP that occurs when you are talking to another player or non-player character "in-character". The distinction of "social" is important because I try not to give anyone the misconception that roleplaying only occurs when you are talking or character acting. Now, everyone has their own preference on the degree of various roleplaying styles. Some people are content to more or less just play the game without going into a huge amount of character detail. For people that dont game often, or game at conventions, this appears to be a common theme.
What it boils down to is that any action taken by you counts as roleplaying, even if its a simple attack action that is resolved with a die roll. You are playing the part of another character, and thats the point. Role-playing games are still games, no matter how superior you may think they are than board games, card games, or digital games. They need rules. You cant just declare that, "I win", and have that be that. Hence, this is why I think that every situation that actually matters needs rules to help resolve challenges whether social, skill-based, or combat. If you dont include rules for social encounters, then characters can technically defeat them by the player being "really good" at talking, and thats not fair.
I think that social skills actually enhance roleplaying. First of all, they encourage a player who normally isnt good at something to try to do something new. If the character is geared for those kinds of actions, that helps a character further engage in immersive-roleplayi ng (see below). That is, a player who isnt very sociable decides to roll a bard. On top of that, she is also playing a half-elf (+1 racial bonus to Diplomacy checks). A token skill for a bard is Diplomacy, which both makes sense as far as immersive-roleplayi ng is concerned, but synergizes with a bard's role. Now, a first level bard might have around +9 to Diplomacy checks, which is likely far above and beyond the skills of an everyday person (gamer?). Therefore, this bard is a superior animal when it comes to social situations.
If this skill didnt exist, it is very unlikely that Jane Gamer is going to attempt to fast-talk her way out of a sticky situation, because in real-life she's really bad at it. Though her bard might have that sort of thing worked into her background, she cannot accurately portray the role because she isnt good at talking, singing, or casting spells. However, that is the role she wished to take on. The rules help support her in her chosen role, and that assists in immersive gaming as she is able to play her character appropriately.
Immersive-roleplayi ng (immersive-RP) is when you really, really get into character. You talk in character (voice and all), you act in character, you make decisions based solely on what the character would do and not necessarily what you think you might want to do. This can cause problems when people start using character motives as a justification to be a jerk, or to just not play along. Not that everyone who likes to engage in immersive-RP does this, but it can and does happen.
My degree of immersive RPing varies by the group I'm with and the game I'm playing. Generally it is easier to assume the role of things when people cannot actually see you. If you've played MMO games and try to immerse yourself in the game, you probably realize that its much easier to imagine a "voice" for your character despite having to type. It is also easier to assume another race and/or gender, since the people on the other end of the screen cannot actually see you (we've all heard that every female character in World of WarCraft is a 40+ year old, overweight, balding virgin). Visual aids are great for this, and thats why I like using battle mats and miniatures: it is an aid for immersive gamers.
I think that the most immersive character I ever played was Talibah, and only because both DMs insisted it would be crucial to the campaign. It really wasnt, but she definitely had a personality: likes, dislikes, fears, dreams, and all manner of in-depth information. It was fun to kick ideas around and write them down on the extensive background sheet, but almost all of it was never used. Thats a flaw of building up too much information: most of it never sees the light of day, or at best you reference it once (like Talibah's love of dwarven spirits) and then no one cares afterwards.
A final form of RP that I identified while writing this is implied-roleplaying (implied-RP). Implied-RP is the unstated character motivations behind an action. When my fighter attacks a monster, I'm not going to bother explaining the exact reason why he is doing that. Thats what I want him to do, and thats about all the motivation he or she requires. We dont get to know why the monsters are bad guys and why we have to kill them except that it adds to the overall fun of the game. I'm sure there is a reason why, but no one really cares to know, especially in a game where you end up leaving behind the rotting corpses of hundreds of "bad guys". Implied-RP to me helps ignore more questions that is necessary about your character.
You ordered ale, would your character drink ale? Maybe? I guess so, since I did order it. I didnt decide ahead of time whether or not my character drinks, but its safe to assume that yeah, she does.
You chose magic missile as one of your starting spells. Would your wizard really have done that? Its a great spell to be sure, and rather than go into heavy detail about the whats and whys, we can just move past that and play the game.
I use the term roleplaying as a general blanket statement, but I understand that many people do not. Therefore, to help maintain clarity I choose to use various refined terms to help differentiate the many different aspects of the core roleplaying definition. Remember, roleplaying is a catchall term for when you assume the role of someone that is not you, no matter how different. Social-RP is for character interaction, immersive-RP for in-depth details about your character (or when you go the "extra mile"), and implied-RP helps avoid 20 questions every time you do something.
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