What is Role Playing?
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Well, what can I say, role playing is a way for you to escape reality. Tired of getting up in the morning, going to work and basically just existing. If your lifestyle bores you, then try roleplaying, it adds an edge and element to your life that nothing else could possibly offer.

After all, say your playing one of the following games :

AD&D

 Where else on the planet can you go running around tossing spells about and beating the monsters up with your sword.

Cyberpunk

 Tthe future that hasn't happened, you get the chance to cruise the streets fully cybered out and blow away the bad guys.

DC Hero's

 You're the hero, just like Superman or Batman. You get to fly around, use energy blasts, save people, planets and possibly the universe.

Star Wars

 You get to weld the Force and use blasters and light sabers like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Be in the movie.
But enough of that, I bet you need to hear more, so I'm gonna extract a bit of info from a source book I have which tells you what Role playing is.

Explanation of RPG from Star Wars RPG 2ed. :

Imagination is Key

 In roleplaying games, the action takes place in the imagination of the players. There is no board to move tokens around. Instead, the gamesmaster must describe each scene and setting to the players, who must then vizualize the scene themselves. Then by imagining how their character would react in these settings, they tell the gamemaster what their character is going to do.

Let's Pretend

 As was said before, this game is like let's pretend, only with rules to help resolve conflicts. One other exciting thing about roleplaying games is that the descions are up to the players. In a roleokaying game, the players can have their characters do what they want - there is no script. Instead the player just has to have a good idea of what his character might do.
Well, thats a rough explanation, which I pulled from a couple of parts from the back of the book. Basically what I'm trying to get across to you is that role playing is like acting. As a player you take on the role of your character, you think how they would think in any given situation. As DM, you create the story to put the players through. The most imnportant thing about role playing is that everyone should have fun. It's not a players vs DM game, as a player don't expect your character to survive if you do something stupid, as a DM allow for the unexpected, and never force your players into a situation that won't be fun. All in all, enjoy it. It's just a game.
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