#RPGaDay2021 Day 9: Role

I'm taking the alternate prompt of "Role" today. In the most straight forward way, the "Role" in "Role Playing Game" would appear to refer to the fact you take on the role of a character that is not you, much like an actor might take on a role in a play, movie, television series or radio drama. It doesn't take long before you see other senses of the word working their way into your games. Let's chat about 'em!

Taking on the Role of Playing a Character

This, for me, is still what RPGs are primarily about. Everyone playing an RPG should be playing the role of at least one character (though there are cases where a GM may only play the role of the environment or other elements you might not classify as "characters.") Many RPGs split characters into "Player Characters" and "Non-Player Characters", and I see a bit of the reason for this. A player strongly interested in feeling as immersed in an in-character vibe as possible may not enjoy having to concern themselves with running other characters. A lot of times there is also this... oppositional or pseudo-oppositional stance taken between Players and GMs, a feeling that if someone other than the designated GM is running NPCs, players might choose to play those NPCs in a way not true to the NPCs motivations in order to... make life for PCs easier perhaps? 

Personally, some of my favorite RPG moments have been when the GM hands Players some NPCs (or even asks them to whip up some NPCs on the spot). Sometimes, a Player's tendency to care about the character they are playing can result in some entertainingly ruthless NPCs when played by a Player, vs. a GM that runs so many characters that they aren't always as singularly invested in the NPCs motivations. A lot of how this plays at the table has to do with the expectations of the table and personalities, but with the groups I've played with it's been great. 

Another set-up that feels a bit more common in games I play than in the general RPG population (as far as I can tell) is the troupe style, ala Ars Magica, where perhaps Players have a primary Character, but they have a small or large stable of Characters they generally play when the moment is right. Last Friday when I discussed Flavor, it was about spicing up all sorts of characters. Role playing characters is the main course of RPGing!

Taking on the Role of GM or Player

This is a classic split of roles in RPGs. The GM, they run everything. The Players, they each play their Character, and the GM is the rest of the fictional world's response. Over the years the split in roles has been examined and various games have jumbled up the various responsibilities of the GM/Player roles to see what sorts of games result. 

My personal preferences are way closer to the GM/Player split side of the spectrum than the GM-less, or the role passes around the table side of the spectrum, but not as strictly as some. I think some of this comes down to what people think Players and GMs are responsible for. Everyone is responsible for cooperating in creating an enjoyable game for everyone at the table. More than just being there to play my character, I kinda feel like ideally an RPG group is a bit like a band, and you want to work together to pull the coolest performances possible out of each other. If a GM hands me an NPC, my goal does shift into a split between pursuing that character's motivations in a way that entertains me as much as possible, amping up challenge for the other players, almost like a dare sometimes, and sometimes really trying to ham it up in a way that evokes the genre.

Taking on Roles Outside the Game

Being a social activity, there are other roles that come up in our playing of RPGs that aren't in-game roles. Many times someone is acting as a host of the game. Some people are all about those snacks. Some people really feel responsible for knowing the rules of the new game this week and act as a GM assistant on rules matters, or in helping educate other Players. Other people may have skills they use to contribute to the game, they draw characters, maybe someone wrote a theme song (I did this for a Street Fighter game ages ago, Stage Music for the PCs!) All of these roles and responsibilities folks take on definitely play a role in the enjoyment of this whole RPGing activity and deserve appreciation.

Taking on a Tactical Role

Back in the RPGs now, another kind of role I have seen is the tactical role. If you've ever (or seen anyone ever) all curious about what kinds of characters players are creating (mechanically) so they can create a character "the party needs most", this is the sort of thing I'm talking about. I see this almost entirely in D&D, but I think I've seen it a bit in Cyberpunk & Shadowrun (if my memory serves me). "Do we have a Cleric?" "We already have two Wizards, so I think I should probably take a Druid." 

While, as described earlier during #RPGaDay2021, I really enjoy tactics in RPGing, I've never been super happy with this sort of role concern when players are creating characters. A lot of this I suspect is because I feel the roleplaying is so primary, that prioritizing some kind of mechanical character role seems to be elevating the importance of what I think RPGs do less well than other games (which is "be a game you mechanically win"). I keep going back to this split, but I'd also talked about the tactics of "make-believe" roleplaying vs. the tactics of "manipulating the mechanics of the game or a subsystem in the game skillfully to achieve a win". In RPGs I've most satisfyingly experienced the 2nd style of tactics in... I guess I'd say it's in a 1-on-1 or individual player context? 

While a group of players can collectively be better at working the mechanics as a team in the exercise of the 2nd style of tactics... it feels harder to measure and be satisfied by this when the opposition is a GM whose primary aim is usually not to measure the group's effectiveness in this way. Like, "We crushed 'Keep on the Borderlands!'" I feel like my feelings here are still not fully formed and maybe a little incoherent. I do derive a certain measure of satisfaction from being in a group that is being smart exploring a dungeon in old school D&D during exploration turns... but almost all of my tactical satisfaction I've felt from groups I've been a part of has been... individuals doing smart & unexpected things that flip the script in that "game of make-believe" sense of tactics. Maybe someday someone will develop that team based subsystem that allows for the expression of tactics in a way that totally lights me up though. We haven't reached the end of history when it comes to RPG innovation, I feel.

Anyways, that's me coming in super late on today's prompt, but hopefully my ramblings have sparked off some thoughts of your own regarding all of this. That's what this is all about I think. #RPGaDay2021 may produce things you find interesting, or spark you to have interesting thoughts of your own. 

Enjoy gaming!