by Sophia Lyn

Created on: January 24, 2007   Last Updated: March 30, 2007

H. G. Wells. is the grandfather of science fiction, he was also the grandfather of war-games. Which makes him, if you like, the great-grandfather of role-playing games.

War-games have pretty much existed for as long as there have been wars. The idea of simulating battles without the personal hazards can be traced back to ancient Sumer, more than four thousand years ago. Chess and Go, two of the oldest games in the world, arose from war-games. Contemporary war games originated in Prussia, at the turn of the 19th century. The game, Kriegspiel (War Game), introduced the ideas of arranging markers on a "sand table", and using a dice to determine any random elements in the battle. After the Franco-Prussian war, the English came up with their own version, and they began to be used wisely by armed services to train in tactics and predict military outcomes

It was Wells, however, who first opened up the games for the amateur. In 1915, he published a set of amateur war gaming rules in a book entitled Little Wars, now seen as the "war-gamers' bible".

A role-playing game (RPG, often role-playing game) is a type of game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters and collaboratively create or follow stories. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, players can improvise freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games.

A role-playing game rarely has winners or losers. That makes role-playing games fundamentally different from board games, card games, sports and most other types of games. Role-playing games are typically more collaborative and social than competitive.[1] A typical role-playing game unifies its participants into a single team, known as a "party", that plays as a group. Like serials or novel sequences, these episodic games are often played in weekly sessions over a period of months or even years, although some gamers prefer playing one session games.

Role-playing games are a form of interactive and collaborative storytelling. Like novels or films, role-playing games appeal because they engage the imagination. Interactivity is the crucial difference between role-playing games and traditional fiction. Whereas a viewer of a television show is a passive observer, a player at a role-playing game makes choices that propel the action. Such role-playing games extend an older tradition

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