What exactly is a “role-playing game?”
A role-playing game (RPG) is basically a mutual fantasy, co-created by the players at each gaming session. Each RPG has different rules and different ways of playing, but they all have several things in common: they all require one player to act as a “referee” or “game master” (GM), who devises the scenarios and acts as final arbiter of the game action; they all have highly fluid rules (to the point where they are sometimes more suggestions than rules); and they all require a high degree of imagination on the part of all participants to successfully play. The main thing that sets an RPG apart from other, more traditional games is that each player takes on a character, and directs that character’s actions, much as an actor takes on a role in a movie.
