How do you explain RPGs to others?

[Psimancer]

I start out with the movie analogy:

“…Do you ever watch a movie, and just as a character is about to do something really stupid, you think to yourself, ‘DON’T DO THAT!!!’…?

“Well, when you Role-play, you ARE that character, and you CAN do something else!!!

“It’s all about telling a story; one guy is the writer, and the other guys that are playing are the characters in the story. You are one of the characters in the story!

“When in doubt as to whether or not something would work, say like a character trying to jump over a huge hole in the ground, dice are used to determine the outcome; the rules give you guidelines as to what is and isn’t possible. The characters in the story are described by their strengths and weaknesses; what one character can do easily, might not even be possible for another…”

“D&D is kind of just like ‘Lord of the Rings’; swords, dragons and magic. You can play a Hobbit like Frodo, a Ranger like Aragorn, or a Wizard like Gandalf… or something else entirely. It’s all your choice…”

 

[Zander]

diaglo on a nonD&D website/chat room/bulletin board/ forum/ newsgroup...
other users: oh crap it's him again.
diaglo: Hiya, anyone want to talk about OD&D?

crickets;;;;; Chirp:;;


diaglo: you know i could convert crickets to .. hey, where'd they go?

The same place as the Chinese scientist.

 

[Zander]

I usually describe RPGs to nongamers as a cross between a boardgame and amateur dramatics.

Alternatively, if they've played Cluedo (which I think is called Clue in North America), I use that and build upon it.

 

[genshou]

i tell them the truth.

depending on how interested they are after the first few words i go further or stop.

usual scenario...

nongamer: so would you like fries with that?
diaglo: only if i can use them as purple worms this weekend
nongamer: huh?
diaglo: you know. D&D. interested? we are getting together..
nongamer behind me in line: hey, buddy are you gonna pay or what?
diaglo: you wanna game too?

my coworkers don't even ask anymore...

coworker to the crowd: so what are you guys doing this weekend?
diaglo pipes up: i'm gaming. i'm having some friends over to kill monsters and take their things.
foreign visiting scientist from China: huh? what are monsters?
coworker: don't ask. run. run now. run fast...
diaglo chasing Chinese scientist: they are kinda like.... hey wait up. ...

diaglo, this is why I love you like the crazy uncle I never had.

 

[Kelleris]

I faced a unique challenge along these lines recently. I spent most of the summer writing a book for EN Publishing (see sig), with the result that I was unable to complete a paper rewrite I had promised my favorite philosophy professor/mentor at Baylor (from which I recently graduated with a B.A.). The rewrite was optional as they come, and I needed some money to scrape through this year, so I don't regret doing it the way I did (although I had hoped I could do both when I started writing).

But I had to explain what I had been up to instead of writing philosophy. Now, I'm positive that this professor doesn't know anything about P&P RPGs, much less the writing of sourcebooks for said RPGs. Furthermore, he's an evangelical Christian and so may have heard bad things about D&D, but also a very intelligent and reasonable person so extremely unlikely to jump to stupid conclusions. The explanation for the process of writing a d20 sourcebook I eventually gave him was as follows:

Hmm, how best to explain... The book is not a novel, although it is a work of fiction. It's a sourcebook for a paper-and-pencil roleplaying game I enjoy. P&P RPGs (gotta love the acronyms) are somewhat like collaborative story-telling thought experiments - most of the group makes a character and the last one makes a world that the characters inhabit and interact with based on a shared set of rules. The game is one of my favorite social pastimes, and oddly enough it uses some of the same "mental muscles" as doing philosophy does - it requires mastery of a sometimes-Byzantine literature (the game's required rules fill 3 300-page books with about an 8-9 point font), an ability to make a system come together (in terms of defining characters in terms of the game's rules), and a good dollop of creativity (shared storytelling isn't much fun if nobody can come up with any creative situations or entertaining solutions to those situations). Writing a (good) sourcebook for an RPG entails writing rules that interact well with the existing body of rules (don't overshadow any characters made without them and conform with the existing terminology and formatting), are sufficiently perspicuous and efficient (too sketchy and you get disputes as to how the rules play out in the game, too detailed and recreational complexity turns into work, which isn't the point at all), and are imaginative (you want people to have good ideas for scenarios to play out in their own games when they read what you've written). And then you have to produce a setting that's susceptible of modification but that grounds the rules you've written in a way that they can be expressed in terms of characters, plot, and action.

His response was that it sounded, quote, "very complicated and impressive" - this from a distinguished professor of philosophy who has published 8 full-length books and numerous articles himself. I think I may have overdone the explanation just a bit, eh?

 

[genshou]

I think I may have overdone the explanation just a bit, eh?

Yes... just a bit.

Edit: But as a Philosophy major, I'd say that's a pretty cool way of explaining it!