One way to describe D&D...

[MichaelSomething]

Well, you know how most TV sitcoms work right? A writer makes a script and the actor acts it out. Everyone knows before hand how everything will turn out because everyone knows exactly what's suppose to happen and it's all about presenting that to the audience.

Reno 911 is different. While the actor does take the role of a character like in TV sitcoms, they aren't given scripts at all. They're expected to improvise and act as if they were their characters, with just vague guidelines to use as a launching point. They're just tossed into a random situation and the actors will just have to make due with whatever ideas pop into their heads.

D&D is like that, except you get to create the character you play as, and I'll be the one putting you into random situations!

 

[Umbran]

Reno 911 is different. While the actor does take the role of a character like in TV sitcoms, they aren't given scripts at all. They're expected to improvise and act as if they were their characters, with just vague guidelines to use as a launching point. They're just tossed into a random situation and the actors will just have to make due with whatever ideas pop into their heads.

Not the worst analogy, but if you're talking to someone who knows improv comedy, be careful. While improv doesn't have a script, it does have a pre-set plot, and rehearsals. The actors *can* change from what they did in rehearsal, but only in the details, not in the flow of events.

 

[Ulrick]

Unless you are familiar with tabletop RPGs, D&D isn't like anything you've played before. It is an interactive storytelling experience. I can describe it, but no words can do it justice. You have to play it, experience it, to understand.

At least that's what I tell people before describing how one person, the DM, provides the basic story and everybody else interacts with it around a table.

 

[Viking Bastard]

The Icelandic term for RPGs is "spunaspil" which translates directly to "improv-game".

The generic term for a gamemaster is "spunameistari" ("improv-master"), which in a funny twist of fate, has in recent years also been coined as the term for a spin doctor.