Rolka: what is a role-playing game?

Sometimes, becoming an accidental witness to someone else's conversation, you can hear about the rollers. People operate with incomprehensible terms: quarrel, posts, wagering, a roller. What are role-playing games, what are they and what exactly are these people talking about?

Our first role-playing games: hailing from childhood

In fact, we all once played role-playing games, even those who categorically deny involvement in such a frivolous occupation. However, all children play, trying on different roles: in the store, in the Indians and cowboys, in the ninja, in the mother's daughters, in the firemen and so on. This seemingly frivolous activity actually has an important function - development of the child, development of social roles.

What begins as a child's play, in fact, remains fascinating for many years. Perhaps, that is why there was such a kind of leisure as a roller. What is a role-playing game and why do adults continue to play?

Age is not a hindrance

Psychologists argue that humanity is fairly younger from a psychological point of view. More recently, the so-called age of Christ, 33 years old, was considered a kind of a frontier, beyond which old age, infirmity and wilting began. Classical literature is full of examples - an old woman who was killed by the ax of Raskolnikov barely celebrated her 42nd birthday. Pushkin called Karamzin an old man for 30 years. Now, at this age, the most interesting thing in life begins, and no one is going to look at the nursing home.

Instead of playing in a life of uncharacteristic roles, many of our contemporaries decided not to limit themselves. Do you want to be a wonderful elf? Be it! Many remember the first Tolkienist meetings, when groups of young and not very young people gathered in forest clearings and arranged for their own pleasure theatrical performances. They got used to playing Stanislavsky's precepts, they made swords from sticks and elven cloaks from the curtains, arranging their own Middle-earth in some Rostov region.

Now, in the age of the Internet, there is another opportunity to feel like a different person, or anyone: a magician, a thief (without a real conflict with the law), an elf or a pirate. This is a roller. What is a role-playing game on the Internet, and are there any differences?

Roller, role-playing or role-playing game?

What exactly is it about, the game on the Internet, in reality, or is it talked about psychological practices? The boundary is very conditional, the meaning of the words "roller", "role" and "role play" are related, the first two options are slang rather than individual terms.

Indeed, there is such a psychological practice as a role-playing game. It helps to better understand other people, to understand difficult life situations. Participants try on other people's roles, understand the motives of actions and desires more deeply. But rolevuhoy often called entertainment, when the participants, conditionally, are going to run around in the woods in armor. This is an entertaining role-playing game of live action, within which a story or a complex quest can be played out.

Roller usually refers to the same action, only on the Internet, and in the overwhelming majority of cases it is a text game. Instead of real running around ravines and copses, the participants of the game can even fly into space, it does not bear any risks of additional expenses, it requires only imagination, inspiration and the ability to write. Forum roll - what is a text role-playing game? This entertainment has its own rules and possibilities.

What is a roller and how to play it?

Forum role-playing is a game of literary character, where each of the participants is a co-author of the story with an unpredictable plot and ending. To participate in the game you just need to find a forum with a suitable story, register, come up with a character write a questionnaire. The template for the questionnaire with the mandatory items is the administration of the game. Usually it is enthusiastic players who have decided to create their own world, and the world can be either based on a popular film or book, or completely authored, with original conditions.

The game post is prescribed according to literary rules. Here is the simplest example:

"Edwin entered the tavern, wearily brushing dust from the cloak. He was hungry and angry, but the warmth of the hearth and tasty smells from the kitchen had already subdued his heart. Yes, and innkeeper, seeing the client, immediately rushed to meet with a mug of beer.

"And fried meat," Edwin immediately ordered, sat down at the table and squinted at the rest of the guests. The society was notorious and should be more careful. "

Usually the gaming post takes about fifteen lines, but there are unique ones who write posts of two or three pages. The next player reacts to the post of the previous one with his post, gradually the story grows in details, and this gives pleasure not only to the players, but also to ordinary readers.

If before the rollers were fun for teenagers, now many role-players have grown, but have not abandoned their original leisure. They continue to write, think through new twists of the plot. Since participation in the game in most cases anonymously, you can not even guess how many around the fans of forum rolls.