How did we start?
I have always been interested in role playing games but never had the oppurtunity to learn to play
or have people around me to play with. Then as these things happen, real life got in the way and
role playing was shelved.
Until a few years ago when a good friend who is an experience game master started running games for me.
Life was tricky at the time and role playing really helped me deal with some of it and practice the skills
I needed to handle the real life challanges that I was facing.
I then had the oppurtunity to work with children that did not fit in with teh mainstream education. I started
to run games for them and initially it was a way to do a little bit of maths and then experience the social interaction
of taking part in the game. It was soon evident that the game had even more benefits beyond those initial goals. So
I wanted to use the medium of gaming to help children learn real life skills; social, lietrary, numerical whilst
they went on advetures and quests!
My quest is to help these children gain important skills in a safe social setting.
What is role playing?
Role playing is a game of imagination and story telling.
You choose a setting which can be fantasy, scienfiction, real world, future apocolytic world,
an historical setting from the past. Anything you might need. You can set a game in the Roman or Greek era for example.
There are many different systems out there. Dungeons and Dragons is the most famous one. Some of the different settings
will be explained under the RPGs section.
Once the game system is chosen adn the setting is determined, players create characters with different races, abilities,
skill sets and they play the game with that persona. One person, called the Dungeon Master (DM) or Game Master (GM), runs the game.
DM is the story teller. They plan the story and give the players quests and objectives but it is up to the players to make decisions
and take part in the story. Players are the actors. DM is the director. But there is no script as in a play or a movie. The players
improvise as they take part in the story through their actions and decisions.
How do you play?
Using your imagination!
The basics you need are a set of dice and posibbly a miniature of your character.
These are not necesary. A lot of Gamemasters will have their own sets of dice they can lend out.
A lot of them will run the game as 'theatre of the mind'. They will describe in words the setting,
what the players can see and hear and sense and consequences of their actions. Some GMs will
use scenery and models to show physically what is going on. Most GMs will use a mixture of the two methods.
Players create a character on a character sheet. There is some maths involved at this stage. Characters have attributes
such as strength and charisma. These are represented by numbers. Higher the number better you are at that skill. Everytime you
want to do something (an action) in the game you use a skill. You also roll a dice that represents the luck or success element
for your action. By using your skill number and your die roll the GM determines wherther you were successful at your action.
This action can be anything from shooting an arrow, trying to persuade tradesperson to give you a deal or performing a magic spell.
You might have a low number in a skill but that doesn't mean you can have a go at performing that task because you could still roll high! In a similar
way you can be really good at something but roll badly and fail at the task. Just as in real life, it doesn't mean you shouldn't have a go!
I will provide pictures here of what I mean soon and also articles on the different aspects of the game so please come back and check the page!
For now I will provide a basic introduction and explanation of some terms:
- GM or DM
- Gamemaster or Dungeon master. The director of the adventure and the one that determines the outcome of the players' actions.
- Dice
-
d4: 4 sided die giving you 1 in 4 chance. It is mainly used to determine the damage done by a small weapon.
d6: 6 sided die. Usually used to determine damage by a medium weapon and some spells.
d8: 8 sided die. Usually used to determine damage by a medium to strong weapon and spells.
d10: 10 sided die. Numbers 1 to 10. Usually used to determine damage by strong weapons and spells.
d10: 10 sided die with numbers 10-100 in tens. It can be used with the other d10 to get a percentage between 1-100
d12: 12 sided dice.
d20: 20 sided dice giving you a 1-20 chance of being successful. This is the main die used in all skill checks in Dungeons and Dragons.
- PC
- Player character. The player creates and runs the character and makes all the decisions and deals with the consewuences.
- NPC
- Non-player character. The game master will create these characters and run them. They will be mainly flat characters that the players interact with such as shopkeepers, local riff raff and the monster.
- Fumble
- When you roll a 1 with a d20 it means you failed the task! It is up to the Gamemaster to interpret what this fail means. Maybe you slipped and fell while climbing or missed with your sword swing and hit a rock instead.
- nat20!
- Natural 20! The cause of much celebration and happiness! It means you performed your action with absolute conviction and success and amazement. Again it is up to the gamemaster how they interpret this but it does mean on a damage roll you do double damage!
How do you learn?
By playing!
Jump in there! Find a local group, contact us to set up a game, buy the book and
have a go yourself. There is lots of indormation online and you can buy the Player's Handbook
for Dungeons and Dragons or the other game guides for other systems. However, the best way to
learning is to play!
Do not feel like you have to know all the rules before sitting at the table.
Bring your imagination and open mind and willingness to have a go and you are ready
to learn how to play. Learning doesn't stop and I am still learning myself!
