Gaming or roleplaying is the act taking a role of another person or thing and giving him or her life through imagination. Roleplaying has collected a huge following around the world, with millions of people roleplaying in hundreds of genres. Roleplaying for me is a stress relief, a way to have fun, a way to meet new people, and get to know yourself.
Roleplaying is the ultimate form of improvosational acting. Characters are given background and a set of rules and then they are expected to react to their environment. It is a true shame that roleplaying is not just as recognized an art as dance, music, or the visual arts. One my goals is to get the mainstream population to recognize roleplaying as an art and treat as so with things like federal funding, scholorships, and national awards.
Below I have listed some of my favorite games and a little description of the game:
Dungeons and Dragons is the oldest popular gaming system out. Started in the 70s by Gary Gygax, it has grown into an industry with millions of players. D & D is based mostly in a medevial fantasy world of Europe. There are many other world D & D can be played out including Fuedal Japan or China, even outer space. TSR's homepage is the official site of Dungoens and Dragons. There are hundreds of personal sights on the web for more information as well. Some good source material for Dungeons and Dragons are Tolkiens The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, all Camalot legends, Braveheart, Shogun, and Ladyhawke. There are also several excellent novels about the characters within the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons itself.
A few years back Dungoens and Dragons was under attack by organized religous groups and an association known as BADD (Bothered about Dungeons and Dragons). Tipper Gore also once made negative remarks about Dungeons and Dragons. Dungeons and Dragons and Other Fantasy Roleplaying Games is very good page giving explanations and scientific studies showing where gaming can actually be a positive activity.
Battlelords of the 23rd Century is a realistic war game based in the far future. The interesting concept of this game is that character sheets are like tax forms, but character casualties are heavy. Therefore you try to play your character smart to avoid him or her getting killed to avoid filling out another tax form like character sheet! The weapon damages, armor tables, and critical hits table are very realistic as well. SSDC Inc. is the official Battlelords page and The Battlelords of the 23rd Century Webring is a good source for Battlelords personal pages. Some good sources for Battlelords genre include the Aliens movies and Starship Troopers, both the book and (sigh) the movie.
The World of Darkness is a gothic punk genre where characters play monsters struggling to come to grip with life in a world where evil is prevelent, the government is corrupt, and the dividing line between wealth and poverty is even more clearly defined. World of Darkness soetimes makes people look deep inside themselves at the monster that is in us all. This is the first gaming system where the primary goal is not money, but simple survival and introspection.
White Wolf Online is White Wolf's official homepage. There are several genres within the World of Darkness:
Vampire: the Masquerade is a system where you roleplay vamipires. All vampires are descendents from Cain and vampirism is a curse that allows vampires to live forever, but they must drink vitea (blood) in order to continue their existance. Sunlight is also deadly to them. Vampires always battle with the Beast within or the evil nature of vampirism. Vampire players get to know themselves as their characters struggle with the conflict between the Beast and their own humanity. Good sources for Vampire: the masquerade include both book and movie Brahm Stroker's Dracula, Vampire in Brooklyn, Near Dark, From Dusk till Dawn, Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestadt, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Armound, and The Lost Boys. All of the classic vampire horror movies also would be good source material.
Werewolf: the Apocolypse is a system where characters rolaplay werewolves. Most werewolves are struggling to preserve the Earth, which they envision as the goddess Gia. Werewolves are constantly fighting against the Wyrm, the forces of evil in the world which include vampires, pollution, and human greed. Good source material for Werewolf: the Apocolypse include Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf and the movie based on the novel, Silver Bullet. Others include American Werewolf in London, (sigh) Teenwolf, The Curse of the Werewolf, and Wolf. All of the classic werewolf horror movies also provide good source material.
Changeling: the Dreaming is about the characters of The Dreaming: Leprechauns, Redcaps, Satyrs and Trolls are allin the Dreaming. Behind this world is a wonderful and dangerous world of faire tails and dreams. Changelings live in our world as well as in this dream world. They struggle to keep dreams, creativity, and wonder alive in a very banal world of Darkness. The best source for Changeling include Labyrinth, the Maxx, and all of the Brothers Grimm storytales.
Mage: the Ascension is about humans that have amazing powers that defy known logic, and bend the rules of reality. As the game says Mages "give a damn enough about something to change reality." Mages have to be careful though, because reality often gets back at them in the form of paradox when they bend the rules to much. There are several good sources for Mage that people never recognize, including movies such as The Blues Brothers and The Blues Brothers 2000, The Matrix, The Green Mile, and Run Lola Run.
The House Steele Alternative Arts Association or the HSA3 is a group of gamers, fans, artists, writers, and web publishers dedicated to to the preservation of of the alternative arts such as: gaming, anime, art, science fiction, and live action roleplaying.
The House Steele Web Site tells all about this organization.
