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Quite simply, RPG's are games where YOU assume the role of a different person. Then, you with other adventurers, must play that role in the setting in which the game takes place. Playing and RPG is much like acting, only you don't know what is going to come next. RPG's utilize at least 3 players. One, called the Game Master, or Dungeon Master, is the person who runs the game. He is "the umpire," who decides where the players are going and who knows everything about the adventure. The GM is a storyteller, who is relaying the story to the players, who make the decisions. RPG's are like one big Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story, only the choices are infinite. The other 2 people are the players. They are the ones who make all of the decisions in the game. For example, the GM might describe to them a room, and in the room are a desk, a shelf with books, and a rack with lots of vials and bottles. The players then have a choice to leave the room, explore the desk, shelf, and rack, take whatever they want, destroy everything, etc. Any of these decisions could result in something good to the player or bad. "Every action has an opposite and equal reaction." How do RPG's work? Basically, they are a story being told. Each player has their own character, who they are playing, or acting in the game. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses. Below is shown part of a character sheet. A character sheet is where all information on the character is shown. This includes things like reaction time, strength, intelligence, etc. CHARACTER SHEET FOR THE GAMEPLEX-AMS ROLE PLAYING GAME In this RPG, there are 7 Main Attributes. Each Main Attribute is then sub-divided into smaller secondary attributes. Here, we will describe the most important main attribute, the physical attributes. PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES: STRENGTH: The amount of power, or strength, a player has. This is a generic term, used in general. (Lifting boxes, hurting people's hands when shaking them, physical bulk, etc.) ATTACK STRENGTH: This is the amount of strength the player can exert when attacking someone. Since combat is an integral part of any RPG, this attribute is very important. This is even more important if the player is assuming the role of a fighter, who engages in combat more often than a wizard, for example. An attack strength of 1 out of 48 would not give much power, if any, when a person is attacking, but an attack strength of 48 out of 48 out surely kill, or seriously injure, anyone when hit. Attack strength does not count the skill at which the person can attack. If a person blindly swings at someone with their sword, the chance of hitting them is adjusted, from say, 50% when properly focused and alert to 10% when attacking blind. A lucky hit though, when swinging blind, would still inflict the same damage as when swinging alert. Only the chance of hitting the enemy would change. DEFENSIVE STRENGTH: This is the opposite of attack strength. Defensive strength regulates how much a person can defend themselves. For example, if the defensive strength is 1 out of 48, one hit from an attacker would kill the person. In contrast, with a defensive strength of 48 out of 48, a hit would not hurt the player very much if at all, because they can defend themselves very well. As in attack strength, skill is not counted in the way a person can defend themselves. If a person is prone and lying down, and only has their hands to defend themselves, the attacker would have an adjustment made to how they attack the person. For example, if the attacker, when attacking the person normally, had a 25% chance of hitting, when the person was prone, the attacker would then have a 80% chance of hitting. The amount of damage inflicted is still the same though, as always. OFFENSIVE TOTALS: This is a numerical constant used in determining other attributes, even those other than physical. It is also a measure used in combat, used as an adjustment in dice rolls to determine wether an attempt at a hit is successful. DEFENSIVE TOTALS: This is the complete opposite of the offensive totals. It is a numerical constant used in determining other defensive oriented attributes. It is also used in combat as a defensive adjustment in the dice rolls used to determine wether an attempt at a defense to a hit is successful. PHYSICAL TOTALS: This is also a numerical constant used in determining other generic physical attributes. For example, physical totals could be divided by five (five is the amount of dice rolls it takes to determine the physical totals) to determine the amount of time a person can carry their own weight. SIZE: Size is how big the person is. This can be rolled with dice, but usually it is a judgement made by the Game Master, according to the other physical attributes. For example, if a player's strength was 30, his attack strength 40, and defensive strength 45, his size in real life would probably be that of a large offensive lineman in football. If then size is rolled according to dice, and he rolled a 2 out of 24, which would be equal to the size of a small dog, it wouldn't make sense. Therefore, size is usually determined by the Game Master. The true size of the player above would probably be around 18 or 19 out of 24. RUNNING SPEED: This is determined by half of the attack strength. This is the top speed at which the character can run. To determine how long they can maintain this speed, you further divide it by 4. Any decimals are rounded up. For example, if the attack strength is 32, the run speed is 16. The top speed the person can run at is 16 meters per five seconds. When you further divide it by 4, it means they can maintain the speed of 16 meters per five seconds for four minutes. JUMP POWER: This is determined by multiplying the running speed by three then dividing by two. For example, if the running speed is 10, multiplying it by 3 would equal 30, and divided by 2 would be 15. Jump power is how high the person can jump and the speed at which they can do it. Speed is 2 thirds of the Jump Power, and how high the person can jump is 1 third. So, if the Jump Power is 15, it would take the person 10 seconds of run up to jump five meters. This can then be divided accordingly. PHYSICAL COMPARISON TO I.Q.: This is determined by dividing the physical totals by two. For example, if the physical total is 40, then the Physical Comparison to IQ would be 20. Physical Comparison to IQ is basically how dumb the person looks. If the person's Physical Comparison to IQ is 13, the person would look like a stereotype of "a dumb jock." If the person then has an IQ of 200, this would sometimes prove favourable, as most of the time, others would underestimate the person's intelligence. CARRY WEIGHT: This is determined by getting the strength and multiplying it by 5. This is the amount of kilograms a person can lift. This is then multiplied by four minutes to get how long the person can lift it. Above are just some of the attributes in a role playing game. As you can see, every aspect of real life is duplicated in the character a person plays. The object of the game when making a character is getting it to be as realistic as possible. After a character's attributes are determined, the game can get started. For the purposes of example, we will assume that there are 3 players in a dungeon. The game has begun. After the GM has described a room, the players are left to fend for their own. GM- In this room is a large wooden ark. The room itself is huge- painted brilliant white and gold. A couple of bones of unknown animals are scattered about the room, and on the ark. Player 1- I examine the ark. GM- A loud booming voice screams:"LEAVE MY ARK ALONE! OUR JOURNEY MUST CONTINUE!" Player 2- "WHAT IS YOUR JOURNEY?" GM- (As the voice in the ark) "OUR JOURNEY MUST NOT BE KNOWN-LEAVE US ALONE!" Player 3- I bring out my Two Handed sword and swing at the ark. GM- Ok. Since your Weapon Rating is 12, you get a 12% bonus on your chance of attack success. (rolling dice) You make your attack. The ark splits straight down the middle, releasing a green gas into the air. You all start to choke and gag. Player 2- I fall to the ground, and cover my face. GM- Ok. The rest of you, you are both affected by the gas. Make an Affect Roll to see if you get affected by the gas. Player 3- (rolling dice) I was standing 2 feet from the ark, so I get -2 on my roll. (rolls dice) Nope, the gas doesn't affect me. GM- And you? (motions to player 1) Player 1- (rolls dice) Nothing happens to me. GM-Ok. When the gas clears, a huge blue mist envelopes all of you. After that mist has cleared, 3 huge Xanthor warriors are standing before you. They stand there, solid and gleaming in their electroplate armor. They hold huge pistol gripped Electrified Swords. Player 3- I rush the one in the lead, my sword pointed out to impale him. GM- (rolls some dice) No luck. Your sword bounces off of his armor. You see a huge fold in the tip of your sword. Since it is useless from a foot to the tip, you lose 5 points on every attack roll you make when using the sword. The leader, in retaliation, crashes his sword into your shoulder. You fall back, dazed, and your shoulder bleeding heavily through your Leather Armor. You have no feeling in your right arm..... That was just a taste of what a role playing game is. As you can see, it is highly organized, as each person takes a turn, or one action, each in turn. In combat, everyone is given equal opportunity to attack. RPG's are almost self working. You just have to have a Game Master, or storyteller, with a good imagination to tell a story. Then you have the players, who are the listeners and who make the decisions. And then you have the story itself, in which the characters are based. Below is given a flow chart of how RPG's work: The RPG is not a game in the true sense of the word. There are no winners or losers. To be successful in the game, players must cooperate rather than compete. It is amusing to watch how people's personalities come out in a game. One might be always greedy, wanting more than his fair share of the gold, while one might always rush headlong into battle, lusting for blood! A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROLE PLAYING GAMES The Role Playing craze began with the creation of Dungeons and Dragons in the late seventies. People loved the idea of the game, a game where you could shed your normal skin and become a person of their wildest fantasies. The original Dungeons and Dragons game has been revamped and added to hundreds of times. Currently, there are two distinctly different Dungeons and Dragons RPG's. There is the normal, original Dungeons and Dragons, and the more advanced, realistic Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The creation of such games like Role Playing Games flowed along with the creation of the computer. Once computers got better, creators of RPG's thought they had to be one step better in order to keep up with the creation of games for the computer. How could written word and human error compare to flawless performance and never-ending challenge? Simple. The human factor. People don't want to listen to a box telling them what to do in a processed, run of the mill manner. In this way, humans speaking and creating the game as they go along make up essentially what the role playing games are based on: People ROLE PLAYING. Computers can't role play with the human factor of decisions and such things as cunning, wisdom, and even intelligence. Computers see one things-garbage in, garbage out. Information goes in, its processed, and is fed back to the user. Humans can also process information, but in such ways that computers cannot. By 1980, the only role playing game available was the original Dungeons and Dragons game, set in the stereo-typical medieval England. But there was one MAJOR influencing factor in the evolution of new RPG's. Fictional books. There are even more Science Fiction and Fiction books out there than there are people. From the ideas within a book, people have gotten ideas to make games. Why read a book and listen to the set decisions of the author, when you can jump INTO the book and create your own ending? Using this idea, the RPG market flourished when young authors combined with number crunching and acting wizards to create hundreds of new RPG systems. Also, the market of competition between RPG companies heated the fire. TSR, the company that produces the infamous Dungeons and Dragons game, still is the most popular RPG, partly because of the wide spread use of the game, its huge selection of modules (different storylines for the D&D system) and because it was the first game ever produced. When something comes out and its the best, and the first ever produced, people still tend to go to it. The first people also tend to research more to keep their product at the highest quality possible, so quality isn't usually an issue. A good example is Sony and their Walkman line. Hundreds of companies have made their own portable tape players, but people still refer to them as "Walkmen" even though they aren't Sony. The evolution of RPG's grew with the demand. Soon, it was seen that D&D didn't have every single possible module for every type of game wanted to play. So companies produced games based on Super Heroes, a very popular item in comic books, trading cards, and role models. Role Playing Games today can be found in any form, shape, size, and game type. The RPG found on the first page is the GAMEPLEX-AMS Role Playing Game. It has been designed to work with any type of module available or wanted. All RPG's have this in mind, but some tend to specialize in one area only. The GAMEPLEX- AMS System is designed so if the system itself does not cover the wanted area, for example, bowling, the module would have specific instructions on how to cover that topic. But usually, if this type of instruction were to come up in an RPG where it is not covered, it is up to the GM to adlib and make up something for it. Everything doesn't have to go by a complete set of rules. Toady, at the latest count, there are 653 Role Playing Games in existence today. Not all of them are playable or even good, but some of them are. Some are specialized for a specific area in role playing, and some are designed for wide use. A sample is shown below. Dungeons and Dragons and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: The original and still the best in role playing. Because they were the first to poke into the RPG market, they have carved their own niche and hold onto it quite well. D&D is designed to work with anything, and if that topic isn't covered, a special module would cover it. In this way, it is one of the most expandable systems on the market. There are approximately 5000 different storylines for role playing games in the D&D system. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is essentially the same as D&D, but it is more complex, and is richer in detail. More physically oriented attributes are added to AD&D, making it that more realistic. D&D and AD&D is produced by the TSR Company. GURPS, or Generic, Universal, Role Playing System: GURPS is the king of games designed to cover every single possible detail in a complete rule system. In this way, it is called universal. GURPS is designed to work with ANYTHING, absolutely ANYTHING. Games for the GURPS system range from Nuclear Holocausts to the Wild West, from Space Ships to Murder Mysteries, and from Sports Events to World War Two. GURPS is the most comprehensive package available for role players who love variety. It is highly playable because not all the rules are needed for a game. GURPS is probably the most comprehensive game on the market. Everything from biting fingernails to heartburn is covered in GURPS. ROBOTECH AND OTHER ROBOTIC TYPE GAMES: These games, are all set in the future. Robots dominate the earth and roam about freely, controlled by skilled pilots. Here, every planet explored houses robots. These robots have their own form of skills, and their physical attributes (type of metal, etc.) also come into effect. These type of games are very good for the person interested in the future and who likes combat with lasers and robots. They are basically like any other type of D&D game but in a futuristic sense. These games are produced by the Palladium RPG company, whose products are very good. They are known to keep everything simple and to mix two attributes into a single one (like running and walking) to make things easier. Their robotic system includes such attributes such as Heat Dissipation (how fast a robot can dissipate the heat from an incoming laser or bomb) Heat Sinks (the place where the dissipation takes place) to the mental power of the pilot. GAMEPLEX-ATTRIBUTE MAINSTREAM SYSTEM: Gameplex-AMS is a hybrid of many systems combined. It has the complete playability of GURPS with the endless supply of modules of D&D to the simple and easy to play form of Palladium systems. Gameplex incorporates everything into a single package. Playability is the same as in many other RPG's. The Gameplex-AMS system is based on the theory that a person's attributes should function without flux with his other attributes. For example, a 2 inch high rat would not have the strength of Arnold Schwartzenegger. This "common sense" theory is what makes Gameplex-AMS better. Gameplex-AMS also uses special specific attributes and has a no-nonsense, stick to the rules approach. There are no exceptions. CHAMPIONS, DC COMICS, AND MARVEL RPG'S: These RPG's storylines are based on comic book heroes and plotlines. Frequently, stories are taken out of comic books and then re-translated into a game, with a few changes. This is the case with the DC Comics Role Playing Game (it covers all characters and such in the DC Comic world) and the Marvel RPG (same as DC Comics but uses Marvel Characters.) The only exception is The Champions RPG System. The Champions system is a totally new concept. It wasn't developed through a comic book, or comic story, but from the mind of its creator. The Champions System uses modules which are totally original and which haven't been taken from comics. All three of the systems are highly playable, but the only real difference is the selection of modules. The Champions System is the best if you want a challenge but if you enjoy reading comics and playing your favourite super- hero, then the DC or Marvel System is for you. FIGHTING FANTASY GAMEBOOKS AND THE FIGHTING FANTASY RPG: The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks are a very popular item. They are a true RPG in a sense, but they are designed so only one person can play them. So, they are much like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure because only one person plays them and makes the decisions. Also, the decisions are altered because only a certain amount of choices is offered. For example, if there was a fork in the road and some bushes around, you would only have the choice of choosing which road to take, while in a true RPG such as AD&D and Gameplex-AMS, you would have the choice of searching the bushes, choosing which road, attack the other players, burn the bushes, etc. The Fighting Fantasy RPG is a whole different story. The Fighting Fantasy RPG is much like the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, but they can be played by any number of players like a normal RPG. The rules in FF are very simplified, as there are only 3 main attributes (compared to over 60 in Gameplex-AMS, 40 in AD&D, and 100 in GURPS) but it is the best RPG to start with if you are new to Role Playing. The modules themselves are top rate, being simplified also along with the rules. As you can see, there are an infinite number of topics on which RPG's can be based. RPG's can be written about the Titanic to the evolution of the vampire, to the future of the earth to how dragons cast spells. THE FUTURE OF ROLE PLAYING GAMES The future of Role Playing Games is bright. With the increased interest in them, and the new systems, modules, and accessories coming out, there can only be more heated competition and the product can only get better. The newest form of RPG's that has appeared within the last 10 years is the computerized RPG. With the dawning of the PC as the dominant system in the last 5 years, computer game companies have harnessed the increased power of the computers to make their product more exciting. The origins of the computerized RPG began with the crude adventure games of the late 70's. These were basically text-based adventures, with no pictures. The adventure was based on a first person view, and a typical scene would go as such: "You are walking down a dark tunnel. You can hear the water dripping down the walls. You see a huge troll raging towards you, with a huge battle-axe in his hands. The axe is dripping with blood and the troll is smiling." Then you would type in a one or two word answer, such as: "Take Axe." The computer would then respond with: "Oh, sorry. You tried to grab the axe and the troll cut your hand off. While you're looking at your hand on the ground, the troll laughs and cuts off your head. Game Over." In this type of adventure, you were basically "reading" the game. The game itself was very limited, as you could only type in a one or two word answer. Then, more advanced games sprung up. Ones with graphics, but it was still seen from a first person view. No animation was involved, but the basic premise of role playing a character was still involved. These games were very popular, because at that time, people had never seen anything like it before. No color was involved. Role Playing Games like these kept up with the "book- keeping," by that it means the little dice rolls, table checking, and book flipping involved with a normal RPG. The computer acted like the GM, and you the player. Then the IBM released its PC series. This revolutionized the computer game industry and the computer business. With the new found power in computers, software became increasingly complex. Color was a mainstay. The game themselves took on a whole new tone with animation and new, more challenging quests. People had fallen in love with this new type of addiction and they begged for more. But what about the future? Right now its bright but still uncertain. The paper RPG aspect is still going strong and selling well. The computerized RPG aspect is growing by leaps and bounds as new and more powerful software and computers pop up. The horizon seems limitless.