by Jeffrey Ober

Created on: November 12, 2009

In order to play a role-playing game, a person must take on the role of their character. In most cases, this character comes completely from the imagination of the person creating the character. The character, as created from thin air, will have certain characteristics and traits. The character will have a certain look about them, and special features. They may have a special walk, or a way of moving. Yes, the character will also have numerical statistics and characteristics that will be defined by numbers on a piece of paper, but the character also has to have depth.

The character will also, in most cases, have a history. They will have a purpose or meaning in life, or they will be searching for one. They will be able to interact with their environment and the people around them. They will have the ability to make mistakes and to have to pay for those mistakes - from being jailed or killed. They will have emotions and they will have lives of their own.

None of this is possible in any on-line game.

I'm not saying that on-line games aren't fun, just that on-line games are very limited, especially when it comes to the aspect of role-playing. In fact, I would suggest that its not even possible to play a role-playing game on-line because of the limits of the computer gaming systems. When you create a character in on on-line game, you are limited. There are a finite number of possibilities when you create your character. Sure, you can give them a scar, but you can't give them the scar that runs from their shoulder to their neck that they got from falling off a roof when they were climbing after their brother.

You can give them a numerical value for their strength, but you cannot convey the idea that the character has that number for strength because they spent their youth as an assistant in the blacksmith's shop, lugging heavy iron from and to the abusive blacksmith.

And in very few on-line computer games can your character interact wherever they want - instead you are limited by the game designer's predications on your movements. In a tabletop role-playing game, the only limits on your character's movements are the limits on your game master's imagination. If your character doesn't want to explore the dungeon and instead wants to engage in diplomacy and investigating the political machinations at the court, they can when you're playing tabletop, but not if you're on-line.

There are plenty of times when on-line role-playing games are a lot of fun. But for even more fun and entertainment, gather together a group of friends and get your imagination in gear for some real tabletop role-playing games.

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