by Clyde Starr

Created on: April 15, 2009

The roleplaying game, what is it's appeal, what part of the psyche does it call too?

Roleplaying games are those that allow the player to become someone else for a period of time. There are several varieties of roleplaying games, but they got their start with Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons, or D&D for short is a tabletop roleplaying game started by TSR back in 1974 as an adaptation of their already existing Chainmail rules for tactical figurine battle simulations. It's birth can purhaps lend some incite into why they have such a draw. E. Gary Gygax and David Arneson started TSR together because of their mutual love for strategic battle games that simulated combat in old wars, both real and imaginary. Their Chainmail rules allowed people to simulate massive battles between fantasy armies supported by wizards and dragons and might nights on horse. They decided they wanted to take the game in another direct. Not just to command armies of faceless heroes, but to become the heroes of the story themselves.

That is the appeal they saw in the gaming idea they had come up with. Becoming someone completely different from who you are now. You can be good or evil, generous or selfish, controlled and controlling, or wild and unpredictable, moving and doing things on the slightest of whims. As many psychologists will tell you, escapism is a healthy practice that allows people to fall into a good movie, book, or even daydream to escape the stresses they feel in their day to day living. D&D, and the many games that come after based upon D&D give people a chance to do just that. They can be glamorous, brave, talented, rich, etc... Characters can slay dragons, way-lay caravans, be pirates in the 7 seas, or perhaps hunt down them self-same pirates. They can write themselves into the epic stories of yor. Dance with Galadriel from Middle-Earth, lift a tankard with Bruenor Battlehammer from the Forgotten Realms, or dice in the backallies with Ffafard and the Grey Mouser. Quite literally, they can take a break at being themselves, and become someone else for just a little while. The best thing about this escapism by the way, is that there are no consequences. Since the acts their characters do are done in a fictional world, in the minds of the players, when the character sheets and books are put away, they can resume their normal lives without having the scars on their body from their various battles, and criminal records for the thefts they may have perpetrated

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