2.1 The Basic Activity

Roleplaying has its historical roots in miniatures war gaming, but it developed into its own creative endeavor that has a lot in common with shared storytelling, collaborative writing, and method acting, depending on your playstyle. Most of the time, playing a roleplaying game consists of two activities: listening and talking.

For this game, all of the players in your group are going to sit around a table or somewhere else that’s comfortable and has a surface for rolling dice. One player at a time gets to contribute to a story you’re creating together. The players all imagine what’s happening, and then they react to it. Most of the players are in charge each of a specific character in the story, which all together make up the group of protagonists.

Example

Here’s an example of what roleplaying might look like when two players are involved in a scene between their characters. Zoe is going to set up the scene and play her character Syjika, and Alan is playing his character Egere. If you’re curious, you can find the character sheets with all of the information for both of these characters in the attachments. Read this example as a dialogue between the players, showing what each one says in turn.

Zoe: Syjika is sitting on the wreck of the steambot, surrounded by the still smoldering ruins of the houses that were wrecked in the fight. She is tinkering with one of the gadgets she used in the battle. Next to her is an open flap in the steambot where she took out some parts.

Alan: Egere is looking up at her from the street below. He calls up to her: “We need to get going.”

Zoe: She doesn’t even look up from her little device as she bites her lip and very carefully inserts a tiny screwdriver into a crevice. She says: “Not yet. I have to fix this first.”

Alan: He looks over his shoulder in the direction of the incoming mechanical footsteps, which are shaking the ground beneath him. “No, really. We need to go.”

Zoe: Syjika curses under her breath as she breaks something inside her gadget. She says: “You’re always in a rush. Just leave me alone for a minute.”

Alan: “The city guards are coming. I don’t think they’ll be too happy to see that we turned their expensive steambot into your private workbench.”

Zoe: “Can’t you just go talk to them or something?”

Alan: Egere looks around again and takes a deep breath as the soldiers in power armor appear at the other end of the alley. “Talk to them. Sure. No problem.”

Zoe: Her large eyes look up for a moment to look into his and says: “Thanks! I really appreciate it.”

Alan: Egere just nods and heads for the guards. “Anything for you,” he mumbles quietly. Clouds of shadows form around his fists, like jet black smoke. He calls back. “Oh, and Syjika?”

Zoe: “Yes?”

Alan: “I hope you have night vision goggles in that backpack of yours.”