First, let me explain role-playing. This is a form of entertainment that became widely popular in the 1970's with the introduction of Dungeons & Dragons. The essence of such games is a form of cooperative storytelling. The players work together to create an entertaining story in which they are both the authors and the main characters. Such "gaming" is very different from more "traditional" games which have distinct winners and losers. Role-playing has more in common with acting than Monopoly or chess.
Most role-playing games designate one player as the game master. This individual is responsible for providing a setting, a plot, and a cast of supporting characters. Each of the other players will design a character to go into the plot. Using these alter-egos, the players move through the story and interact with the game master's world. It is in acting out these "roles" that the term role-playing originated.
For example, a game might be set during the Vietnam war. The players might be acting out the parts of a squad of soldiers separated from their platoon. The game master tells them that they are emerging from the jungle. A wide field of rice paddies is spread out before them, and a village is on the far side. The players must decide whether to approach the village, attack it, or slip around hoping to avoid detection. "Does everything look normal?" asks one player. "That is, are there people working the fields, signs of commerce and activity in the huts?" The game master responds, "No, everything is quiet. A few old natives are sitting in the village not doing anything." The players become nervous, but they conclude that they need supplies. They describe how they approach the village, and the game master decides how to respond. If the need arises, he will hold up the other end of any conversations they have with the villagers. Should they trigger an ambush, he will coordinate the actions of the enemy soldiers. Most role-playing systems provide mechanisms involving dice and tables to handle complex activities such as combat.
Such games have remained extremely popular over the years with both teens and adults. They exist in virtually every genre of storytelling, but fantasy has always been the most common. Admit it, though, don't you secretly wish you could throw fireballs at people who annoyed you?
While role-playing is fun, many people found that it lacked something they desired. In general, such games involve sitting in someone's living room talking and rolling dice for a great many hours. Hoping to get their blood moving, people began working out ways to take these games to a more physical plane. A veritable host of such systems have been designed, and they are all highly different. There are some common elements to them, however.
A live-action game (as the name implies) is actually acted out physically. Rather than saying "I run across the field and hide behind the bushes for cover", you actually run across the field and duck down behind the bushes. The game master is usually backed up by a staff of players in supporting roles. Rather than play out their own goals, they have been assigned a particular role and briefed on how to react. Combat is usually handled with such deadly weapons as padded "swords", squirt guns, water balloons, etc.
Obviously, this is a very different experience. It has distinct strengths (direct involvement, adrenaline, no dice) and weaknesses (magical or high-tech abilities may be hard to simulate, limited scope due to physical playing area). This is probably why both continue to be so popular.
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Last modified: Tue Sep 2 17:43:59 CDT 1997