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Role Playing

 Role playing has been around for as long as there have been children and story telling.
 Children emulate adults. In ancient times they would pretend to be hunters after game for the tribe or village. Later they would pretend to be Knights or Men at Arms, Cowboys and Indians, Cops and Robbers, Soldiers on patrol, and so on.
 Story tellers, shamans, wise men/women, village elders, would use stories to teach or pass on tribal lore and history. They would describe settings, creatures, terrain, weather, and other people. They would take on the persona of Legendary heros and rulers, and often act out parts of the story being told.
 Today we have actors and actresses, plays, and movies to tell us stories.

Military Strategists & Tacticicians

 Military leaders planning a battle or campaign try to "out think" their opponents. They use their knowledge of past battles and campaigns and current situations. They incorporate the capabilities and limitations of their available weapons, troops, and intelligence. Using these, they visualize what could go right or wrong and use their imagination to guess how their opponent will react, then develop a battle plan.
 This process evolved into military wargames and then to military enthusiasts recreating past battles and wars. A "what if" element was added. What if this technology was developed sooner? What if this nation created this weapon first? and military or war gaming was born.

What If...?

 Wargamers soon took the "what if" element a step further. What if Excalibur and Merlin were real? What if there was magic? What if there were dragons? What if we had space travel? All aspects of wargaming began to add elements of fantasy or Science Fiction to the games and the "modern" role playing games came into being.

Role Playing Games

  Role playing games (RPGs) are basicaly a group of people who get together and let their imaginations run wild. There is a loose story line with a beginning and tentative end "goal", usually created by the Game Master or refferee, that is then fleshed out by the players as they interact with one another. The GM loosely guides the story by describing a situation, place, setting, person, or creature. The player's use their imagination to visualise what the GM has described, and then describe how their "character" reacts. The GM then describes how the situation has changed due to the "characters" action or non action. This process continues until the original goal is reached.

TSR and Dungeons & Dragons

  The first RPG to gain national awareness is probably the Dungeons and Dragons game. Created by Jeff Perrin and Gary Gygax, it first appeared as "Chainmail", a medieval war game setting. Fantasy elements were added - magic, monsters, and heroic warriors, giving birth to the company TSR and the D&D fantasy game.

RPG

 With the success of TSR, other people began developing their genre of role playing into commercial ventures. There are as many types of RPGs as there are types of books and movies. Historical, secret agent, galaxy spanning federations, war fare, swords & sorcery, and the list goes on. Other fantasy, science fiction, war, adventure, and superhero games went to market. Some succeeded and some failed, but they all led to the RPGs that are available today.