Pen-and-paper RPGs are one of  Dragonslayers' oldest and most popular gaming activities; in fact Dragonslayers itself was founded as an RPG society by Queen’s gamers in the 1970’s. At its core RPG games provide a great social atmosphere where people sit around tables with sheets of paper, a pile of books and some funny-shaped dice; sometimes they yell at each other.

To the uninitiated, table-top role-playing games can seem complicated and arcane. The rules can occupy several hardback volumes and many people wonder how can anyone know all that stuff?

Actually, anyone can start to play with almost no knowledge of the rules. Every child knows how to play "let's pretend", taking on the role of their favorite TV characters, and role-playing games (RPGs) are just an extension of that. All you need to do is imagine your character and decide what they will do. The Game Master (the referee) will tell you when you need to roll some dice. The rest you can pick up as you go. It's easy - join a group and try it!

Fantasy Genre RPGs are probably the most popular at Dragonslayers, including the granddaddy of all RPGs: Dungeons and Dragons; and its spin-offs such as Castles & Crusades. Other Genres include cosmic horror (Call of Cthulhu), science fiction (Gamma World, Traveler) and superheros (Infinite Mayhem).

So you sit down around a table with some other players and the Game Master (in fantasy RPGs the GM is often called "Dungeon Master" or DM). Usually the first thing you need to do is write down details of your character on a piece of paper or "character sheet".

Typically you will roll some dice (the DM will tell you which ones) to determine attributes of your character such as strength, agility, intelligence and so forth. Choose your character's race (human, elf, dwarf?) and class (warrior, wizard, priest?), flesh out a few details (like choosing a name) and you are good to go.

Oh yes, those funny dice. Most things in a RPG are decided by your actions (Do you choose the left door or the right door? Will you pull the mysterious lever? Can you persuade the city militia that you didn't assassinate the local barman?) Lots of other things, particularly during combat, must be determined randomly. As well as the usual six-sided dice (affectionately known as a d6), many RPGs use other shapes. Probability geeks know all about the platonic solids (4-sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 12-sided and 20-sided dice). 10-sided dice are usually included as they can be used to generate random percentages (roll a d10 once for the tens and again for the units). RPG gamers tend to become strangely superstitious about their dice after a while and if you play regularly you'll want to buy a set of your own. (I recommend GameScience dice as they have better entropy!)

So, now we are ready to play. The DM has the job of creating the world that the rest of the players play in. He will describe the city or the castle ruins, handle the dialogue for the bit parts in the story (the "Non-Player Characters") and keep track of the monsters or other opponents during combat. The rest of the players play their characters. What you choose to do is limited only by your imagination. There is no "winner" in a RPG, although you can increase your
character's power or wealth. Probably the best measure of winning is how much you are enjoying the game.

Sometimes you will hear RPG players shouting in ecstasy: "Ha! Take that wizard scum!" or wailing in anguish: "I died!", "That £$^&*! ogre mage killed me!" and so on. This can be rather disturbing to the uninitiated, but, in most cases, these phrases refer to their characters' actions in the game and not their real lives.

If you play computer-based MMORPGs, perhaps you are wondering what a pen-and-paper RPG has to offer. Well, it's like the difference between a film and a book. If you watch a film, you get visual spectacle, but when you read a book, you get to exercise your imagination. There is also a social aspect to tabletop RPGs. If you are lucky, someone in your group will bring in a box of chocolate brownies to share.

GMs will run one-shot games from time-to-time, but most games are played as an extended "campaign" lasting many weeks (or even years!) Each week, the game is picked up from the point it finished the previous week, so it flows best if the same group of players shows up from week to week. This implies a certain amount of commitment by the players, but most groups can accommodate a new player who just wants to try the game out for a week or two.

If you have never played a pen-and-paper RPG and would like to give it a go, have a chat with one of the GMs at Dragonslayers. Probably they'll tell you to pull up a chair, grab a pencil and a sheet of paper and roll a few dice. Half an hour later it could be you who saves the village from the Hobgoblin Horde.

For those curious as to how an RPG group forms, how a game begins and how an adventure plays out we recommend listening to the Penny Arcade D&D podcast where three players ranging from a newcomer to an expert play their first game of the new 4th edition. It’s well worth a listen for comedy value alone and you might find that you'll want to take up pen-and-paper RPGs after listening.

The first episode of the podcast can be found here.