Independent Study Project On Role Playing Games Essays -

Independent Study Project on Role Playing Games What are Role Playing Games? 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