BMK                                                            BMK

                     The Bitmap Kid Presents
                  -----------------------------

                       Becoming the Ultimate
                      -----------------------
                  Part II - RPGs and a bit of D&D

RPGs.
Dungeons and Dragons must be one of the most popular modern
adventure games of all time. Although it takes a very particular
person to play games like D&D a lot HAVE played it over the years
and many more have at least heard of it.

A RPG (Role Playing Game) is a very, very complex thing at the
same time as being quite simple, I think. When you see that quite
often the game rules take into account the possibilities of a
whole world, universe or even planes of existence where EVERYTHING
is TOTALLY freeform, you can understand how immense a game
rulebook could be. Could be. Fortunately the idea of a RPG is not
to read every course of action out of a book, 99.9% of a RPG is
based in the minds of the players - THAT is where a plain of
existence is created, and shows, to me, how powerful the human
brain really is.

No, a rulebook is merely a guide, something to base a game on -
and even the rulebook can be over-ruled if the players decide it!
In large computer games, quite often (and always until recently)
all of a world could be in a computer's memory, but the computer
only processes the possible actions in the direct locality of the
player. The idea is similar with a RPG. The Gamesmaster may have
an overall plan to where the game may take the players, and is
basically a god in controlling them (although is self-restricted
so a decent game can commence), but the actual gameplay is merely
based around the players.

THAT is how a RPG works. In one way, completely free where
anything can happen, in another way self-restricted so a game
doesn't become stupid and keeps some grip on reality. You may now
be able to see the appeal of a paper/mind based RPG, something
that won't be recreated 100% on a computer for a long time to
come.

Dungeons and Dragons is but one of many RPGs now in existence,
there is the smaller version, Tunnels and Trolls, the advanced
version, (Advanced D&D), Traveller, RuneQuest.... the list goes
on. Next SynTax month, I'll go into Dungeons and Dragons with a
fine-tooth comb, see you then.

BMK                                                            BMK