Here I will display the active dialogue of a D20 system role playing game. Loosely fitted to the Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebooks 3.5 and arranged in an impromptu world based in the imagination of those involved.
I find it necessary to discuss the nature of the role playing game. I always tell people that the game is very similar to storytelling, in and that, I am telling a story and he/she gets to play a role in that story. It is because of this that I often refer to it as Active Storytelling. While playing the game, we attempt to personify our characters to give more of an illusion of their depth. This may sound silly or even horrifying to some people; it is simply a pretext that can result in useful dialogue for the story. In the general sense the game goes like this: the players are put in a fictitious arena where they are free to do as they please. Behind this initial state there is a GM or Game Master, hence forth called the GM because Game Master sounds completely ridiculous. The GM is essentially playing the world, any situation that our player encounter is more or less the GM trying to kill or confuse them.
Some people may have an aversion to the idea of pretending to be someone else. The irony is that modern psychiatric study has proven that a form of catharsis is quite healthy for most people. There is a concern with some people that they may get completely lost in their characters and use them to escape reality. As the GM I watch carefully for these behaviors, as they are dangerous for both the individual and the game. Our purpose is not to divide ourselves from reality, but rather to have a good time hanging out with some friends for two or three hours.
The PC or Player Character is essentially based in the imagination of the player. The players are given choice of race and class as well as an abundance of skills, feats, equipment, and (in some cases) spell craft. A Dungeons and Dragons Character sheet is basically just a very large math equation with specialized spaces for note taking. The Idea is to let the player invent the character as he/she desires and then earn improvements for that character. The reason for this is that the player is asked to provide the depth of the character. And the Character is then asked to resolve the imaginary situation created by the GM.
There are two things that must be understood. In the generic RPG campaign the players are most likely a group of heroes who must diffuse some evil plot to destroy the world. On a closer level characters must carry out smaller mission style encounters and tasks. “Escort so and so to such and such place and find out whatever.” Through these little escapades they discover and vital clues and innuendoes about the true goal of their campaign.
In these games the GM acts as everyone and everything that is not a player character, these characters are referred to as Non-Player Characters or NPC’s. NPC’s must fill the void of people who inhabit the imaginary cities and country sides. They are the creatures that would kill the PC and the allies that could rush to their aid. They are the villains who would destroy everything or those that would entreat the PC’s to stop them.
These are the standard paths of any RPG, but this does not mean that they must remain as such. Players can be troublesome; they can meander about and do nothing or set out to destroy the world themselves. The option is theirs to take.
As a writer these games provide the critical subflooring for a good book or short story. Through the game that I am inventing for my players I hope to discover and develop an enjoyable fantasy story about a group of people and their quest. My process will be to take the events that we create in game and transcribe them into an episodic novel.
