Talk:Roleplaying

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Contents

[edit] The Online Section

The Online rp section of the article has a lot of extraneous characters that need to be cleaned up. They may be an attempt by someone to use html codes where they should have used wiki codes. I don't know html, so I'll wait for someone who does to fix the section. The Bearded One 23:01, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Free Form RP?

O Bearded One: I am familiar with the terms but they are pretty arcane and specific to only a few groups. I added a new graf that condenses the info below into less-dense, more generalized terms by talking just about freeform RPGs. Fairblonde 15:03, 12 September 2007 (UTC)


I removed the following two paragraphs:

Free form Roleplaying is a different aspect to online roleplaying. In a freeform roleplay, the roleplay characters are original creations that inact in a turnbased stle either over forum or chat, using one of three styles. These styles are T1, T2, And T3. T1 is a paragraphical roleplay and many consider it the hub of all freeform, as its players judge the skill of each other by both their play with words, their content, and the quality of their paragraphs in the turnbased system. Those who practice T1 are said to be the gods of the chat, and such things as typing skill, grammar, and fontsize are its culture. Large font and poor grammar, such as the common usage of 'u' and 'r' instead of you and are, if highly frowned upon. Elitests, the largly higher and more skilled players dominate the chats, where as the noobs, or newbies, are forsaken and outcasted. The Mystic Tavern is one of the oldest and most established T1 free-form RPGs still in existence.
T2 is the speed devotion of Freeform, only carried out on chat servers, where a player must type out his or her posts as fast as possible, in a combattive position. These posts consist of attacks and defenses, played out with word limits. 7-10-7 for example, is a layout for 7 words of attack, 10 words to connect, and 7 words for counter. T3 is this same system, save without rules.

Is this common parlance in online RP? I've never heard of these T1, T2, and T3 RP styles before. Can anyone confirm? The Bearded One 06:10, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

I've been involved in role-playing, stricly online, for about two and a half years now, I believe I've heard those terms once -- and, if I recall correctly, that was only when searching the bowels of Internet for more 'in-depth' information on it. It's definitely not common terminology, at least in the circles I've frequented. It should stay deleted. Antipode 23:16, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I've heard of all three of the types of role playing. Of course I role play everyday. The definitions of t1, t2 and t3 are all correct. Even though they are not commonly used I hear them every day.

[edit] What makes role playing interesting

I read the wikipedia post about Role Playing Games (RPG) but did not find a discussion of what actually makes RPGs interesting, so I thought I would add this post as an initial discussion of the topic. That so many game genres have spawned from the original seeds of Dungeons & Dragons (the first rules set for RPGs that came out in 1976), including P&P alternates (Vampires), MMORPGs (EverQuest), Computer RPGS (Ultima VII), not to mention movies, cartoons, magazines, conventions and other offshoots, there is an obvious fascination with the RPGs that bears some discussion.

[edit] Player Interest

For a lot of players role playing is something just slightly more than a game. With games like Monopoly or Chess you play them, win or lose, and then the game is over. With RPGs it is often the case that players do not 'end' the game, but instead carry their character forward through a series of games that can last anywhere from a week to 20 years. I know of some characters in a few worlds that are literally that old, and still 'in play'. What makes this work is the fascination players develop for their alter egos. Another basis of interest, in fact one might say the opposite side of the coin in terms of interest, is the exploration of another 'world'. The GamesMaster (GM) is typically an author of 'other worlds', sometimes very bizar other worlds, sometimes not-so bizar, yet nevertheless, from a science fiction or fantasy aspect, still fascinating. The creativity that a GM brings into the creation of their world is often expressed in terms of the history, politics, and sociology of the world, and often it is these aspects that make the game fun for the player, and the GM.

An important aspect of interest for Players should also be considered: Myself as the Hero. Players enjoy having an alter-ego that is off on wild adventures in other worlds where they can act the part of Hero. This is something most people do not risk in 'the real world' but happily engage in in the 'fantasy world'. For one thing, Adventuring in the 'real world' can get you killed, whereas in most cases playing in a 'fantasy world' will not, even if the character should die in the course of their adventures. This aspect of the fun of role playing probably ranks fairly high. Another aspect of interest is that players enjoy getting together with other players and forming teams that work together to accomplish great deeds in the fantasy worlds they occupy.

[edit] GamesMaster Interest

A great deal of time and devotion can (and should) go into the creation of an RPG world. The GM often spends a lot of that time creating maps of the world, histories, and other essential elements of 'background' for the adventures. Many take their lead from Tolkein's 'Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit', which presented the reader (for the first time?) with a completely imaginary world including maps of 'Middle Earth', and extensive history of races and conflicts and the deities that populate the Tolkein Universe. As such many GMs strive to imitate this kind of world creation for their own worlds. In this sense the act of a GM during world creation is not dissimilar to the effort a science fiction or fantasy author might put into the creation of a novel.

[edit] Benefits of RPG

Something that is not generally discussed (I plan to publiish a more thorough paper on this topic eventually) is the real world benefits derived from traditional P&P Role Playing. It has to do with the lessons gained related to sportsmanship, planning and organization. Many a GM may snicker to remember what happenned to such and such a party on an adventure where they neglected to plan in advance and therefore forgot to bring along a necessary item with them (something so simple seeming as a length of rope could mean the difference between being able to extricate a character from a hole, or being forced to leave them there - darn). Such lessons are rarely lost on players. The nice thing about RPG lessons are that they can be very useful in the real world too. I often find that the lessons of my D&D experiences have aided me in a variety of ways in the real world, in just those categories: planning, organization, and good sportsmanship. There are other benefits that I may elaborate on further later on, but they include the exercise of imagination, the confidence building aspects of improvisational theatre, and the perspectives that can be gained by Role Playing characters that are not familiar to ones culture (such as playing a Serf in medieval times - ow, they had it rough).

-- GreyFalcon, GM at Large

[edit] Article Expansion

I'm thinking of re-working the article a bit, but (partly as I'm new to this business) would appreciate some ideas into my direction. Specifically, what I had in mind was a paragraph or two about the more obvious forms of role-play: stage theatre, mystery dinner theatre, cinema, audio drama, et cetera. Along with, of course, a smattering of information across the article, as this has been a subject I've put a lot of heavy research into since becoming involved with it. (Possibly even reinstating part of the information from the 'Free-Form RP' paragraph that was too cluttery to be practical.) (And, of course, clearing up the 'role-play'/'role play' discrepancy that's still here.) Any objections to the lot? Antipode 23:24, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

  • Sounds like a great idea. No objections. Be bold. GRuban 02:36, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I like it! --InShaneee 21:34, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hello?

is there any problem with the definition ,guys ? I'm seeing our definition deleted. If something's unclear I and my co-workers can clarify for everyone. I've read of our definition being deleted while called "personal rant" by this Irishguy figure... I find it very disrespectful towards people and the researches being made, which sole attempt is to aid understanding for everyone. Needless to say i demand an apology on behalf of me and my colleagues. Gylfi 22:15, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Cheers

First of all, please sign your posts with four tildes ("~~~~") whenever you post on a talk page. Secondly, unless you can point to somewhere this information has been published, it's considered 'original research', which is not acceptable. Either way, wikipedia is not the place to publish research and/or views and opinions. --InShaneee 22:03, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll take care of fixing this post, but first let me point out for you that the "accepted" definition is already encumbered with "opinions" you "like" more as they're probably written by your friends or yourself.Gylfi 22:29, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Please remain civil. The rest of us are simply following established wikipedia policy. And again, make sure that you sign all of your talk page posts. --InShaneee 22:21, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Forgive me for being upset of seeing our own commitment and work trashed, my friend... a person above said "I did a lot of research for this" , and now You say There's no space for research. Well since You and your gang seem to "patrol" this area can You please tell me where can i post our definition so We can go away, ?Gylfi 22:29, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

As I said, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a scientific journal, so I'm afraid we don't accept original, unpublished research anywhere here. And again, please do not refer to other editors as a 'gang'. --InShaneee 22:36, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

My apologies. Are you saying every statement in the definition is an excerpt of other definitions ? and it's in policy that a person trashes one's statement calling it "personal rant" ?

In a word, yes. Please see WP:VERIFY, which states that all information posted on wikipedia must be independantly verifiable. And no, it wasn't right of that user to describe your passage as a rant. --InShaneee 22:49, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Alright , then. Thank you for your patience, We'll find a source to backup our definition ,verifying it.. I'll post the link here before re-adding the (modified) definition. We at the anthropology department apologize for ignoring the policy. Thanks again.Gylfi 23:04, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Definition paragraph

Moved to Talk:Role-playing game#New Definition paragraph by Percy Snoodle 13:04, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proper spelling: "Roleplaying"

FYI guys, the proper spelling of the word appears to be "roleplaying", not "role-playing" or "role playing". All or almost all the major gaming companies use no hyphen in the word in their official products, and a quick search on the web will reveal many more instances of "roleplaying" compared to "role-playing". Thus it appears that the hyphenated version is an informal variant spelling.

Unless a more automated process is developed, I'll start correcting the spelling on the word in the various roleplaying articles manually as I find them. Of course, if someone has good evidence or reason to use the hyphenated version, please feel free to let me know. The only reason I can see at the moment would be if a specific product happens to officially use the hyphenated version of the word in its product title (eg. The title of a book is literally "Bob's Role-Playing Guide"). Otherwise, the word should be spelled "roleplaying" to be consistent with the apparent industry standard. Dugwiki 16:36, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Attempted to move the page manually, but I don't think it took properly. Submitted to move request page for administrator assistance. Also note that the "Category:Role-playing" likewise should be spell corrected to "Category:Roleplaying" Dugwiki 17:14, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

As far as I am concerned, "roleplaying" is not in the dictionary, therefore it is not a word. It should be two hyphenated words. Or, even more correctly: Rôle-playing :) EuroSong talk 19:48, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

"Roleplaying" does appear in the dictionary (see [1] as a reference). Also note the use of the word "roleplaying" in the Wizards of the Coast D&D products where they refer to the game officially as the "Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game". Another example is the City of Heroes Roleplaying Game, which uses the word "Roleplaying" on its official product description, name and on the cover of the manuals. So it appears that you are incorrect that "roleplaying" is not a word; many of the actual games I've looked up spell it "roleplaying" (as opposed to just Wiki articles about roleplaying). Dugwiki 20:13, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Agree (with both the category change and the page change): 1) the trend to re-Germanize (make hyphens less obligatory) English is gaining speed in most publishing houses; 2) this is the actual term used by experts; 3) the hyphenless version is in several of my dictionaries. --Cultural Freedom talk 07:57, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Agree with both moves Hyphens are rarely used here in my experience. ais523 11:41, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Quick follow-up - The category move I recommended was turned down because it failed to reach consensus. Some people agreed with renaming the categories, others didn't. Which is fine; a move of that magnitude deserves consensus. In case you're interested in the discussions about "Category:Roleplaying" versus "Category:Role-playing", I summed up and posted a link to the discussion at Category_talk:Role-playing_games#Spelling:_Roleplaying. It's looking like the word usage has evolved over time, with a bunch of games and gaming companies that used to spell the word "role-playing" now spelling it "roleplaying". A partial list of them is in the linked discussions.

Also, thanks to the admins for correcting the "mess" I made when I cut and paste the article previously. Apparently messed up the article history. Sorry about that guys; still a little green at that sort of thing. Anyway, looks like the admins moved the article and fixed the error from the cut-and-paste.

Later guys! Dugwiki 23:08, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Another way of understanding.

I find that the hardest thing to explain about Roleplaying, or rping as commonly refered to, is what you actually do. After running a few groups myself I've found that most people understand best if its described as interactive story telling. The person who is in control will try to lay down the basic plot but its the other characters who decide for themselves what they are going to do.

An author roleplays out the entire cast for his book.

A phycologist roleplays out what their patients must go through.

A teenager will roleplay out a date to decide what he should or shouldn't do.

Most everyone takes on the role of someone else, or themselves at a different time, to better understand what may happen. Its the purest form of philosophy we can understand and the one most commonly used.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope this adds.

(Hytoshu (talk) 06:17, 27 November 2007 (UTC))