- - - - - - - - - -

Role playing games, known as RPG's, are still relatively new to the world, and some of the uninitiated may not understand them. Even those who have played one or more RPG's may have difficulty describing a phenomenon which appears at first blush to be completely unlike anything with which we are familiar. This in fact is not true. RPG's are very like at least two other kinds of experiences which will help both seasoned players and novices better understand how they work and why they work, and further why they appeal to so many people so deeply.

The role playing game is like a book. The referee and the player (for simplicity, one player in this analogy, although the number of players only enhances the result) are co-authors of the book. The referee's task is to provide the setting. The setting includes the milieu--are we in a medieval castle, an American western, a spy thriller, or a spaceship--but it goes beyond the mere backdrop. He is responsible for all the secondary and minor characters, including villains, resource people, associates, motivators, monsters, and any others. He establishes where the action begins, who is there, and what props are available. The player controls one character, the hero of the story. As the hero enters the scene, he explores it, reacts to it, and ultimately acts purposefully within it. The referee reveals the world as the hero explores it, and ultimately reacts to the hero's actions. The story is created.

It is more interesting, more suspenseful, than writing a story alone, or even than collaborating in a story, because the player does not know what the world holds until his character manages to uncover it, and the referee cannot predict how the hero will act until those actions are announced. Thus, neither of our cooperating authors knows what the result will be or how it will be accomplished. In fact, even if the referee created a world with a clear specific objective and the player decided that the hero would pursue that objective, neither has any guarantee that the objective will be reached, or that the path will be without surprises. Since the referee and the player follow their own respective tasks as they progress, the story unfolds in ways unexpected by either of them. So the game lets you enjoy an entirely new story, and as it progresses we enjoy further new stories with our favorite hero in them, someone we relate to because we as players created him.

But the role playing game is still a game. It is tempting to think that it is an entirely new game. It in fact owes a great deal of what it is to the very complex simulation games which preceded it; but it is less like those and more like a more familiar game all of us once played.

Think back to when we were young--younger than that. We use to play role-playing games of various types. Cops & Robbers, Cowboys & Indians, and Spies were popular among the boys of my neighborhood. (The girls played House, which is also a role playing game, but is less useful for this illustration.) All went well until you shot somebody and said, "I shot you; you're dead"--only to have him say, "No, you missed", or "I'm wearing a bullet proof vest", or "You were out of bullets". Then the game failed, because you realized that there was no way for anyone to win as long as no one else was willing to lose: whatever happened, the other guy was not beaten until he decided he wanted to lose, so you couldn't win. After that realization, you stopped playing.

RPG's let you play again. Now you can pretend to be the cop (or the robber), the cowboy (or the indian), or the spy, and when you shoot, you no longer argue about the result. There are clear rules to identify hits and misses, the presence, absence, and effects of various protections, the number of shots in the gun, and any other variable which affect the outcome; there are dice which control which shots hit and which miss so that the player doesn't always get his way but doesn't always fail, and the decision is random without being arbitrary; and there is a referee, an individual with no special interest in whether the shot is successful or failed (after all, the non-player characters may be within his control, and he may even be fond of them, but they are not his in the same sense that the player characters belong to the players) who can fairly determine what the outcome is both when the rules clearly do apply and when there is some uncertainty as to whether or how they apply. So the game resumes, and you are a kid again, playing in your own back yard but far away in another world. We have returned to the best summer days of our childhood.

That is what a role playing game is, and that is why the good ones are so enticing, so involving, so exciting. We hope that your experience in the Multiverser® will be all of these things.

- - - - - -

Single Player Roleplaying Games

Single player RPGs are games that are played by no more than 1 person. Usually, single player role playing games allow less creativity on the part of the player as they must conform to the rules that were defined by the game developer. Namely, it is less likely there will be a gamemaster to monitor play and create customized interactions for a single player. More likely instead,the player will be able to choose from a limited set of solutions to various problems through which they are able to play out their role. A few examples of single player games are:

* Choose your own adventure books
* NPC Based RPGS

In both of these instances the player interacts with predefined characters that are included in the game. In the latter, Non Player Characters (NPCs) who act out roles defined by their triggers. For instance, an NPC vendor could allow the player to purchase and sell items for use within the gaming adventure.

- - - - - - -

Multiplayer Roleplaying Games

Multiplayer RPGs are games that are played by 2 or more people. The complexity of these games tends to increase quite dramatically as the number of players in the games also increase. Multiplayer role playing games often require a more triggers to monitor the game to insure rules are applied and also to add new fantasy scenarios for the players to work through. In the case of Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), the fantasy worlds are often persistent as open rpgs and require multiple triggers to insure the game runs smoothly. Multiplayer RPGs can be further broken down into the categories shown below.

* Same Place: We define same place gaming where players are interact with each other on a face to face basis. While LAN gaming can take place in the same area, we wouldn't consider this same place gaming as the players are connected with each other not directly but through a local area network. More than one person using the same computer together to play an RPG would be an instance of same place RPGing.
* Different Place: Occurs when gaming occurs between players that are not interacting face to face.
* Live (real time): We have defined a roleplaying game as being live if a game continues to progress in Real-Time regardless of whether all players are present or not. The game can be stopped and continued at a later date if players agree, the important point is that while engaged, the game will progress regardless of player interaction.
* Not Live (turn based): A game is considered not to be live when it can continue forward with starts and stops. That is, there is no fluid real-time progression from one point to another. Another way to think of this type of game is as turned-based, such as Dungeons and Dragons

The RPG check-list v1.2!

• Intriguing and dynamic storyline.
  
• Missions / Quests.
  
• Side-Quests.
  
• Variety of enemies.
  
• Enemy AI (Bosses using spells and what not).
  
• Items.
  
• Spells / Abilities.
  
• Levels (If not getting stronger then spells becoming more effective, etc.).
  
• -Perhaps- a battle system. Emphasis on the perhaps as battle systems are some times not necessary.
  
• Enemy spawns.
  
• Towns / Cities.
  
• Puzzles.
  
• Action always going on (For instance: You'll be walking around the map and see a human battling a zombie or a group of survivors going on a killing spree, etc.)
  
• With the above idea: Reputation (With higher reputation the more the computer ally is inclined to fight for you and deliver supplies / items, etc.).
  
• Perhaps two enemies who are at war with each other (Who doesn't want to see two enemies going at it just to swoop in and take the kill, or let one faction attempt to erradicate a boss attacking the main town?)
  
• Options (Easy, medium, hard, etc.).
  
• An introduction movie (Maybe).
  
• Don't sacrifice content for humor.
  
• Dynamic characters.
  
• Story-driven gameplay.
  
• Variety of choosable characters all with unique spells (And a lot of them, too, because no one likes casting the same spells over and over.). Combine the spells for realism. Unique to the extreme is too unrealistic, and inconvienent.
  
• Cutscenes and / or cinematics.
  
• Environmental Interaction (See one of my topics from a while back in this forum.).
  
• ABSOLUTELY NO HACK AND SLASH. PERIOD. Okay maybe a little bit .
  
• No genericness (IE: OMG GUISE TEH PRINSEES HAEV BIN KIDNPAED, SVAE H3R!)
  
• Dynamic allies.
  
• Dynamic enemies.
  
• 0% APR Financing!
  
• Vehicles (This all depends on the map. If it's medieval, perhaps you can ride a horse. If it's modern, perhaps drive a tank or pilot an aircraft.
  
• Vehicle abilities: Aircraft can bomb, etc.
  
• Non-generic names for enemies (IE: Instead of "Troll" do something like "Aggressor" or "Reaper".)
  
• Be the bad guys for once! This is not necessary, but I'm tired of always being the good guys in games. BE A LITTLE BAD!
  
• Perhaps if you ARE bad you can use evil tactics like taking an enemy hostage (They will be constantly moved to you, your main character will be invincible, the hostage won't attack, and they'll take hits until they die, where upon the player becomes vulnerable again.).
  
• A character named your's truly: lil-Inferno :-D.
  
• Variety of shops (IE: McDonald's, Pharmacist, etc.)
  
• Minor things (IE: You can use the toilets in the game. I mean, when you see a toilet in a game you WANT to use it, right?).
  
• Epic battles.
  
• No "killing some guys and running back to heal" shit.
  
• Have a little humor when needed, but like I said; don't sacrifice content for humor.
  
• Strong dialogue. You could spend ten minutes a line re-calibrating it to maximum AWESOMENESS!
  
• Enemy dialogue (IE: Aggressor: Shit! Fall back men, the heros of Listuanio have arrived! Man your positions...*The enemies fall back in a tight group behind fortifications*.).
  
• Man this list is SO long!
  
• Extended terrain (THIS IS BY NO MEAN NECESSARY AT ALL, ONLY WHEN NEEDED TO CREATE A FLASHY EFFECT OR TO HAVE BACK-RAMPS.).
  
• Have doodads, but not enough that I can't move around without stepping on a flower.
  

I think that about covers it .