Unfamiliar territory?

Yeah, I'm new here...
For the person just learning about the Role-Playing Game (RPG) culture: congratulations! Whether you stumbled over the system or it was recommended to you, you are about to step in to a larger world.

What exactly is a role-playing game? It's organized pretending. Remember when you were a kid? You might've played "cowboys and Indians", "cops and robbers" or even "house"? It is manifest imagination. Can you, as an adult, role play? You probably already have – and as you grew up, so did role playing.

Role-play is a common tool in education, psychotherapy and strategy. It is the stock-and-trade of professional actors, whether they are on Must See TV or undercover for NYPD. Attorneys prep witnesses for cross-examination by simulating what questions they'll face (and how). Marketing departments second guess consumer reactions. Psychotherapists have patients reenact tragedies as a method of recovery. Perhaps the most prolific role players are the military. Training relies on simulating situations, and that, in turn, makes ordinary kids think like soldiers. The first time they crawl under barbed wire while explosions rattle their teeth in basic training, they're role playing. If the soldiers go the Special Operations route, they may get a shot at attending the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) schools, some very serious role playing.

From the tactical level to the strategic, table-top war games predicting the Cold War fate are forms of role-playing. From the CIA to the State Department, where folk try to second guess foreign reactions, role-playing has a hand in defining National Policy. Your own game might be a little smaller in scale – but it might not.

During a game, most of the experience will be in your imagination. One person (the "Referee") will describe a setting, maybe showing a picture or two to illustrate. The other players will make decisions based on what they visualize. High-action scenes will likely be sketched out on some scratch paper.

How does it work? Let's start from the beginning: a person, maybe you, picks up the game and decides it could be better than anything on cable tonight. You know a few people with similar interests, so you call them and tell them all about it. Curiosity is piqued, beer is bought and pizza delivered. Congrats. You're fully staffed and equipped for an introductory adventure.

Before everyone builds a character, their alter-ego for the game, it's time to pick an odd man out: The Referee. Not every game needs them – a pickup football game doesn't need one. Monopoly doesn't need one. A role-playing game, however, needs one. On the bright side, the Ref doesn't have to be odd, he doesn't need a whistle, and zebra shirts are optional. He doesn't even have to be a "he". Vive la différence.

This is when paths diverge. While the rest of the players go on to explore character creation, the Ref familiarizes himself with the rest of the systems and gets a handle on the scenario his buddies are about to face.

For players creating a character, the Ref may want to give them a clue to the background of the scenario. The Speculation possibilities are as wide as the world itself, but the focus is to simulate dramatic adventures. That said, there's still plenty of wiggle room: is this Indiana Jones-style exploration? Heavy Special Operations counterterrorist action? FBI vs. mafia crime fighting? MI6 intrigue in Hong Kong? Check the scenario for a quick overview. Once the players have an idea of what they're up against, they can build character appropriate to the challenge.

Terminology
Tabletop Exercises (TTX) and Role-playing games (RPG) both have their own vocabulary, but some of the concepts cross over. At its most fundamental, one real-life person is representative of another entity, and then makes virtual decisions in a scenario that may or may not have multiple potential outcomes.

The RPGs tend to be more chaotic and randomized, with more granular detail in the action. The TTXs tend to be larger scale with real-life player-characters. In a simulation, the vocabulary blends between the two. Following is the glossary for folk who are new to one or both of these concepts.

Campaign

 * This is a set of scenarios – a "world" if you will – that players will explore through a series of adventures. Not all the scenarios have to be set (or even conceived) when the first one is played, but it's an assumption that successive scenarios in a single campaign are affected by what happened in the last scenario, whether the effects are world-wide or just specific to characters that survived the last adventure.

Character

 * This is the alter-ego of the player. A fictional person, just like a character in a book, that will become an actor in a story that unfolds according to your actions.

d10

 * This is a shorthand way of saying "roll a 10-sided die." Most 10-sided dice will have numbers 0-9 listed, but unless otherwise specified, the roll is considered to reach from 1 to 10 (the "0" counting as a "10").

d% (or d100)

 * This is a shorthand way of saying "Roll Percentile dice." Similar to rolling d10, while it would appear to go from 00 to 99, the numeric range is actually considered to span from 01 to 100 (the "00" counting as "100").

Degree of Difficulty (DoD)

 * The DoD for a task is the value given to the complexity of the task plus the level of particular elements required to complete the task. The DoD assumes the full attention of the player under normal circumstances.
 * There are a number of ways a DoD can be approached. The simpler tasks would have lower numbers, while more complex, multi-step tasks would have higher, more challenging numbers.
 * Which approach is used depends on the pace of the gameplay at that moment. The "broader the brushstroke" – the higher the players are above the nitty-gritty action – the more complex the tasks.

Facilitator

 * This is the HSEEP technical term for someone who leads a discussion-based exercise.

Game

 * The game itself is simply a set of rules that govern how things unfold. They are the mechanics of what's possible and how to figure if it can be done.
 * For a more technical treatment, here's the HSEEP definition...
 * A game is a simulation of operations that often involves two or more teams, usually in a competitive environment, using rules, data, and procedures designed to depict an actual or hypothetical situation. Games explore the consequences of player decisions and actions. They are useful tools for validating plans and procedures or evaluating resource requirements.
 * During game play, decision-making may be either slow and deliberate or rapid and more stressful, depending on the exercise design and objectives. The open, decision-based format of a game can incorporate “what if” questions that expand exercise benefits. Depending on the game’s design, the consequences of player actions can be either pre-scripted or decided dynamically. Identifying critical decision-making points is a major factor in the success of evaluating a game.

Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP)

 * This is a set of guiding principles for exercises – practice – as defined by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The principles are utilized across professional first responder disciplines, and were in turn influenced by military, law enforcement, fire and Emergency Management best practices and lessons learned. Learn more here [PDF].

Incident Command System (ICS)

 * A management system designed to enable effective and efficient domestic incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure. Learn more here.

Luck

 * Granted, this isn't a game of chance, but there is an ever-present randomizing factor, a physical manifestation of mathematical chaos. If you are objective-logic retentive, consider it to be all the hidden variables that haven't been accounted for.

Modifiers (Mods)

 * Mods use observation to alter the base value of the DoD. The observations include such things as stress and environment to account for potential complications. By and large, most of the regular factors of the Fog of War are accounted for in the mods.
 * The list of potentially applicable mods is long. Most hurt, some help. After the mods have been applied, it's like adding up a bill for the subtotal. This intermediate value is usually referred to as the mDoD (pr: em-DoD).

Nonplayer Character (NPC)

 * All the rest of the characters, from antagonists to bit part players that are mentioned or portrayed by the ref are referred to by the "NPC" acronym.

Player

 * This is everybody at the table that isn't a Referee. They're the ones that immerse themselves in the story the Ref unfolds, and the it's the decisions of the player that drive the direction and outcome of the story. The player is the soul and consciousness of the characters in the story.


 * Advanced Role Play Tips
 * In most situations, a player will only pilot a single character. Advanced players may sometimes operate more characters with the agreement of the ref. This is uncommon but not impossible.
 * One of the dangers of operating multiple characters is "situational honesty" – being true to what a character knows and playing them as such. Characters won't be able to read each other's mind unless you've got a really tight unit or a couple of psychics!
 * Further, some scenarios assume characters are part of a specific group. If the characters are created independently, it could be a whole mini-adventure bringing them together under the aegis of "consultants" or "security contractors" – terms that are often euphamisms for "mercenaries". Additionally, there are corporate and industrial security teams that specialize in personnel protection (body guards) or insuring against "political risk." Perhaps the most dramatic risk is K&R (Kidnap and Ransom) situations, where a company would have to insure that the ransom gets to the right place and in right hands – or attempts their own hostage rescue.
 * For real-world analogies, look at companies such as "Blackwater USA" or "Custer Battles" to see how they're utilized. 
 * Some scenarios, though, may be built for a flag-specific team – Special Operations or intelligence agents specific to one nationality. In such a case, it's handy to keep this in mind when building characters. The characters will need at least some shared background before the game scenario begins, more if it's a military team that has built unit cohesion.

Player-Character (PC)

 * Just like it sounds, this is the combined unit of the player-character. There are many characters in a game, and the ones that are driven by players are categorized by the "PC" acronym.

Referee (Ref)

 * This is the person that plays devils advocate, watches the clock and tracks what happens behind the scenes. They describe the world to the players, acting much as narrators to the story (of which players add the occasional voice).


 * Advanced Role Play Tips
 * The Ref is the glue that holds the game together, so the Ref needs a solid grip on both the rules and the scenario itself. A player can muddle through just by making reactive decisions, but the ref has to track a dynamic timeline, play the badguy, the victim and the bystander (sometimes in the same breath), and otherwise keep the pace moving so the game doesn't bog down. After all, "fun" is the name of the game, right?
 * Usually, people become Referees by watching other Refs in action. They get familiar with the rules, how to arbitrate dispute and how to role-play multiple characters. When they finally take the big step to be a Ref, it's something of ceremony.
 * If you happen to be completely fresh to RPGs – and you're about to be a Ref – don't panic. If you're new to gaming, probably everybody else in your group is too. Do your best to familiarize yourself with the rules. You don't have to know the rules off the top of your head, but it would be handy to know where to look.
 * If something isn't critical to the game, fake it. Games are like movies, if the pace flags, so does attention and so does fun.

Scenario
On a roll? Click here for Page 2 of the Introduction...
 * A scenario is a specific situation the characters must resolve (or survive). This is the specific story that the players will interact with.