Games - Roleplaying - Desc

about dmoz | help

Top: Games: Roleplaying

A roleplaying game (RPG) is a structured method of playing "Let's Pretend", in which players create characters to serve as protagonists in a fictional world created by a game master. Although characters and plots are driven largely by the imagination of the participants, game rules are used to resolve the results of dramatic conflicts, providing the games with a necessary element of suspense. Roleplaying began with the creation of the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons in Wisconsin in 1972, but now includes hundreds of commercial systems and homemade RPGs in many languages and genres.

This category primarily covers what are often called tabletop roleplaying games (because they are typically played sitting around a table, with books and dice) but also includes its pen-and-paper descendants, live action roleplaying (where players dress up and physically act out their characters' actions) and gamebook roleplaying (system-based interactive fiction).

Archives

Roleplaying archives are web-accessible collections of game-related files, including, but not limited to maps, adventures, character sheets, and netbooks. Whereas many web sites showcase the gaming philosophy or experiences of their creators, archives emphasize quantity and diversity, collecting files from many sources and authors.

Characters

Many roleplayers develop extensive backgrounds for their characters, creating elaborate histories, game fiction, and even in-character homepages.

Conventions

Discussed gaming conventions on the topic of Roleplaying.

Developers and Publishers

Official homepages of companies producing or publishing Roleplaying Games and support material.

Directories

Sites that exist primarily to provide alphabetical or classified lists of resources about roleplaying games.

FAQs, Help, and Tutorials

Focusing on advice for basic or advanced roleplay. At this level, sites should cover roleplaying in general or multiple genres and systems.

Gamebooks

Gamebooks are a form of self-contained interactive fiction; you play the part of the hero and make his/her decisions by turning to different pages and reading different sections of the book. The genre includes Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, Lone Wolf, Fighting Fantasy, and other series.

Gamebooks are not just rule books, hints, cheats or descriptions of game systems; they are the games themselves.

Genres

This section contains sub categories for the various Genres, or areas of subject matter, that Roleplaying games seem to have broken themselves into. Each category contains pages that deal with more than one system in the genre and Systems specific to this genre.

Humor

Like any subculture, roleplayers have their own in-jokes; this category is the place to look for parodies, ridiculous rules, gaming stories, comics, and anything else approaching role-playing in a light-hearted spirit.

Live Action

Live action roleplaying (a term often shortened into LARP or LRP) is a form of roleplaying where the participants do not merely verbally describe their actions, but actually carry them out (or pretend to do so).

Live action games can be compared to improvisational theatre, where each of the participants is free to act on themselves, guided by their interpretation of the character they are playing. Although costuming and elaborate props are not a necessity, they are often employed to create an authentic atmosphere.

Several different forms of live gaming have developed independently of each other, and the games can range from quite physical 'live combat' experiences to elaborate 'free form' plots, where the games consist of discussions, plotting and emotional immersion.

Magazines and E-zines

Roleplaying magazines, publications, journals, fanzines, both online and on paper.

Mailing Lists

Discussion and collection of messages on tabletop or pen and pencil roleplaying games.

Play Groups

Gaming clubs, societies, and associations whose members meet each other in order to play games face to face.

Roleplaying in Society

Roleplayers traditionally view their hobby as one divorced from "the real world", a second life lived in imaginary worlds, with little regard for societal issues outside the game. A few issues, however, have special relevance (and history) within roleplaying, requiring gamers to deal with the issues as gamers.

The interaction of the roleplaying hobby and the society around it is more complicated than advocacy and opposition; in many cases, there are differing views among roleplayers themselves. This category collects resources from all sides of an issue, as well as media references about gamer issues.

Software

Helpful Tools for Game Masters and Players. This includes online Java, JavaScript, and CGI programs, and downloadable software for character generation, mapping, dice rolling, and any other computer program specifically intended to aid roleplayers.

Systems

This section contains a list roleplaying games that have more than one web page devoted to them. Look in Games: Roleplaying: Genres/(appropriate_genre)/ for sites about less popular games, and for a second listing of these systems, divided by genre.

You can't submit sites at this level or become an editor at this level. Go to the individual Systems or Genres subcategories for that.

Web Rings

A web ring is a group of thematically-similar sites organized into a circle through the use of standardized 'Next' and 'Previous' hyperlinks.

World Building

Resources and tools for building worlds suitable to be used in roleplaying games. These include resources such as mapping tools, discussion groups, guides to online world-building projects and invented languages.

• Open Directory Games: Play-By-Mail
• Open Directory Arts: Literature

Copyright © 1998-2008 Netscape