What is a Role-Playing Game?

In the almost 50 years since the first role-playing game appeared, much has changed. Most people have at least heard the names of one or two such games, and many, many people have played. Still, there are those who have not tried RPGs; if you are one of those people, this part is for you. Role-playing games are played by a number of players, commonly two to eight, and a Game Master, or GM (often called something else, but the job remains the same regardless of the title). Each player generally plays one character, called a player character or PC, while the Game Master is responsible for running the world, creating and managing the towns, nations, ruins, non-player characters (or NPCs), monsters, treasure, and all other things that aid or challenge the players. Dice are often used to determine the success or failure of most actions that take place in the game; Basic Fantasy RPG uses polyhedral dice, described below, for this purpose. In effect, role-playing games are just grown-up games of pretend. If you remember playing pretend as a child, you may recall having some difficulty deciding whose idea should have precedence… if one child plays a knight and the other a dragon, who will win? Surely the knight doesn't win every time. Role-playing games have rules to determine such things. These rules can range from the very free-form and simple to the very complex and detailed. This game attempts to walk the line between simple and complex, free-form and detailed. Too much detail and complexity slows the game down as players and GM spend much time leafing through the rules and little time actually playing. Free-form games with simple resolution systems demand more mental agility from the participants, and are much more dependent on the good judgment of the Game Master to maintain balance. Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game falls between these two extremes, having rules for the most common activities and guidelines to help the Game Master judge the unexpected.