Role-Play Your Way To A Strong Essay, Research Paper

Roleplay Your Way To A Stronger Mind

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is an extremely interesting RPG, or role-playing game, that was built to last for many years. This has allowed it to grant many young minds with an increased vocabulary and an outside perspective on problem solving. One of the most important parts of the game is the conflict. This gives the game its unique ability to force people to use a more expansive vocabulary to role-play a confrontation between two or more people. What could be more fun than role-playing a drunken bar-brawl among two extremely inebriated men and a muscle-bound bar regulator?

The role-playing experience had from AD&D has spawned many of the chat based computer games of today, including games such as Baldur s Gate, Diablo, or even Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game. Computer games such as EverQuest, and Ashyron s Call, also have their roots in AD&D. I am going to show one of the many ways to create a campaign in Advanced Dungeon s and Dragons.

To create a successful campaign in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, a situation must be created. (Player s Handbook 3). One should avoid world-scale problems, but also create a dilemma that relates to enough people to make a difference. This makes the players feel as though they ve achieved something after the adventure is over. An arcing, or continuing, storyline is the best way to go, so player s don t lose interest in their characters. After all, the characters interacting through the story is the story.

In one AD&D session I ran, a player started a bar-fight. This episode lasted for about two minutes. The character had picked a fight with a particularly burly individual who had been drinking, then forced himself onto a lowly serving wench. Being the courageous fellow he was, the frail wizard tapped the brute on the shoulder. Excuse me. fell out of the wizard s mouth onto the floor. The ogre turned around and stood at his full height; nearly two feet taller than the scrawny wizard. Can t you see I m busy? replied the gigantic man in front of him. The huge drunk then proceeded to beat the little wizard to a pulp.

The non-player character depth is as important as the problem itself. NPCs are what give the conflict it s structure (Player s Handbook 57). Several characteristics are given about the bar patron and the wizard. The brute was very large, drunk and probably without morals. The wizard, was scrawny, yet courageous. He wasn t quite as wise as he needed to be though, he should have used what he had against the drunkard: intelligence. Without well rounded non-player characters, the plot loses it s appeal to many players. Every NPC should have his own distinct and unique personality, unless that is part of their personality (such as the drunk patron having his way with the bar s servers.) Interaction with players is the key to well rounded NPCs (Dungeon Master s Guide 115).

Player character creation is the next step. First, it should be decided whether players get to create their own characters or should they be created by the dungeon master, or DM. The DM should only create characters if it is essential to the plot (such as a good versus evil plot). Even then, the DM should re-evaluate the situation: should the DM change the storyline, or should he/she keep the storyline static and change the players as he/she sees fit? Besides role-playing many characters, half the fun of running the game is character creation. Only in AD&D can an entire personality be created and recorded on a sheet of paper.

Cordox was a character I created in my first playing session. Cordox was a beginner in adventuring. He had been an only son, and was tired of taking orders from everyone. He decided to journey. Along his path, he came across a small town of Kale. Here he met his one and only love, Mirrir. He knew that one day, she would be his. To prove his love, he was forced to take part in a town theater event that I had to roleplay. This kept him going through the next few months, before his real adventures would begin.

Cordox, through playing, eventually freed the entire dwarven civilization, and then was cursed to retrieve the Rod of Lordly Might, an artifact that would certainly promise his demise. The character also started a younger group of adventurers to do smaller tasks, such as finding lost caravans, and such trivial matters. Cordox became a world power, and would converse with other wordly people. He eventually had to be retired; he could no longer be played, because of the role he played in world politics. Since the world should be kept at a constant, and only the immediate surroundings changed he had to turn into an NPC controlled by the DM (Dungeon Master s Guide 177).

The final step, which is also the easiest is to start playing out the problem. As you play, characters develop their own personalities and flaws. The DM shouldn t worry about character flaws hurting the group. If the players want to continue playing the characters, they will find a solution themselves. If not, then the player or players have ended their part in the story being told, even though the character may still be an intricate part.

In The Adventurers, an epic written by Thomas Miller, Eric is part of a party of six. He plays with the group for about three weeks, then decides that he doesn t want to play anymore. Thomas Miller, the DM, let the character go through with quitting his campaign. Krog, the half-ogre, waits until the party goes into a dungeon, then shove the door shut behind them. The players were furious, but they realized it would drive the story on. They let their angers fall away, and cooler heads prevailed. Later on in the story, Mongo, a stocky dwarven warrior, crushed Krog s head with a large hammer, and the story continued without Krog..

Even if there are bad things happening, the game should be fun. If that isn t the case, then the campaign should be remade to suit the player s desires (Skills and Powers 87). After all, what is great about playing a game that isn t fun? The game should be fun and interesting, yet force players to think through their actions. This is why AD&D has reshaped the minds of many people into more thorough and calculating thinkers, and earned my respect as one of the greatest games of all time.

Baker, Richard. et al. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Player s Handbook. TSR, Inc. 1995

Baker, Richard. et al. 3rd Edition Player s Handbook. TSR, Inc. 2000

Baker, Richard. et al. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Option: Skills and Powers. TSR, Inc. 1995

Baker, Richard. et al. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Player s Option: Combat and Tactics. TSR, Inc. 1995

Baker, Richard. et al. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master s Guide. TSR, Inc. 1995

Miller, Thomas M. The Adventurers. TSR, Inc. 1996-2001

344