Getting started with role-playing games

What is a role-playing game?

Role-playing games (RPGs) or Tabletop RPGs are a kind of “Let’s pretend”—but you don’t need to dress up and run around – you play together with family or friends, using your imaginations to decide where you’ll go, who you’ll meet and what you want to do.

The setting of the game can be familiar, like fantasy or a favourite TV show, or something entirely alien and new. The only limitations are the rules of the imaginary world and the creativity of the people playing it.

Why get your kids involved?

There are a great many reasons to share tabletop role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons with young people. Besides being just the kind of imaginative play that kids naturally engage in, role-playing games develop an array of essential educational skills, including:

• Mathematics skills – rolling dice, thinking about statistics and probabilities. 
• Reading skills – reading narratives to understand worldbuilding, character and story.
• Writing skills – creating stories and characters.
• Cooperation and leadership – working together, playing to each other’s strengths, and supporting weaknesses. 
• Problem-solving & creative thinking – overcoming obstacles, solving puzzles, and negotiating with other characters. 
• Self-expression – capturing their imagination and communicating to others. 

How do you play?

No matter the game, the starting point should always be characters and story—not rules. The less time spent at the outset talking about guidelines and mechanics, the better.

Creating your character

Your first step in playing an adventure is to imagine and create a character of your own.

We’ve supplied you with a basic character sheet as part of the Yorkshire Games Festival Let’s Play leaflet, or you can download the character sheet here. This will get you started and introduce some basic concepts of role-playing games.

Here you can give your character a name, choose a species, pick a few abilities, and draw a picture of your new character. 

Once completed, your character serves as your representative in the game, your avatar in the imaginary world.

Telling the story

Once you have made yourself a character you’re going to need somewhere to go and something to do, this is where the Game Master (GM) or Dungeon Master (DM) comes in. They create the world of the adventure and set the rules of the game. A GM acts as storyteller and referee, gives the players problems to solve and decides how the world reacts to the actions of the players.

Example:

‘You come to a fast-flowing river that blocks your path, you can see no bridge or safe point to cross in the distance. Your enemies are in pursuit. What do you do?’

If the group decides they want to cross the deep river without using a bridge, then the GM may use their imagination to decide how difficult this task may be and what the group needs to achieve to complete it successfully. They will then set a ‘Target Number’ for the players to overcome using their abilities, equipment, and the roll of a dice.

Rolling the dice

Dice are often used as a way for players to accomplish their goals and overcome challenges. A dice roll may be the thing that separates you from a stunning victory or an overwhelming failure. Dice are one of the aspects that turns role-playing from ‘playing make believe’ into a game. 

Dice come in all shapes and sizes, but we’ve given away special 20-sided ones at the Yorkshire Games Festival. Generally, rolling a high number or even a 20 would mean that your character is very successful in what they tried to do, but a low number—or even a dreaded 1—would mean your character fails spectacularly at the action. 

The GM will set a ‘Target Number’ based on the difficulty of any action that players must match or beat – for instance, sneaking past enemies at night while they’re asleep may require rolling a 10 or higher to achieve, whereas sneaking past enemies in broad daylight is extremely difficult and may require a 17 or higher. The GM’s job is to set realistic Targets for the players, which requires a very good imagination. 

To see whether your character succeeds at a task when you roll your dice you can also add the relevant ability bonus (if you’re trying to hide from enemies, you may use ‘Sneaking’ but if you’re trying to trick an enemy, then you’d be using your ‘Talking’ ability) Compare the result to the ‘Target Number’ – if you equal or beat it, you have succeeded. If you have failed to beat it, your action has been unsuccessful.

Example:
If the group decided to cross the deep river without a bridge to escape their enemies, then the GM would decide that this is a very difficult task—but not impossible—and they would each have to roll a 15 or greater to succeed. 

• Player 1 rolls a 17 and crosses the river safely.
• Player 2 rolls a 12 but uses their +3 acrobatics to beat the target and crosses safely. 
• Player 3 rolls a 4 and tries to cross but fails and is swept away down the river. 

Adventure awaits

Role-playing games are all about having fun and telling stories together, in the example above the players who succeeded may decide to chase their friend down the river and save them. Or they may have not decided to cross the river at all and instead turn to face their foes and fight. 

Adventures are full of scenarios like these and can include exploration, combat, puzzle solving, treasure hunting, investigations and negotiations. Often the GM may set a final goal that completes the story such as finding a lost treasure or defeating a villain, or it can be more open ended.

The GM can use premade stories and worlds—called ‘modules’—or invent their own entirely, here’s a few story prompts to give you an idea of the types of incredible adventures you could have:

• An evil sorcerer has taken up residence in an abandoned keep, and the players must defeat him and his minions before he can enact his plans for world domination.
• A young nobleman has been kidnapped, and the players must rescue him from his captors before they can ransom him off to his wealthy family.
• An ancient artifact has been unearthed, and there are rumours that it is cursed. The players must investigate the artifact and determine if the rumours are true.

Resources

Role-playing is a very accessible hobby, as many useful resources and games are available online for cheap or even free. Here’s a list of useful resources for learning more about role playing, especially with younger players:

• Game Informer – Top of The Table: Introducing Kids To RPGs 
• TTRPGKids – Tips and Tricks: Introducing Tabletop RPGs With Interactive Storytime 
• Wired.com – A Starter Guide to Roleplaying With Kids 

And some role-playing games that your kids will love:

• Hero Kids
• No Thank You Evil
• Bubblegumshoe
• Little Wizards

Header image by Themefinland on Deviantart (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)