i've been interested and wondering what tabletop roleplaying is? like, i'm wondering if its self-explanatory but i'm drawing up blanks.

can someone give me a detailed description of what exactly it is?

Thanks,
Shadowy
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Their roleplays like Dungeon and Dragons, where there are usually dice and stats that have an affect on the story. I hope that was good enough description.

Shadowcatcher said
i've been interested and wondering what tabletop roleplaying is? like, i'm wondering if its self-explanatory but i'm drawing up blanks.

can someone give me a detailed description of what exactly it is?

Thanks,
Shadowy
★

Hmm... Tabletop RPing on a forum is a bit of a misnomer, as it's still trapped to PbPRP architecture, but...

A. A literal tabletop is where a group of people, usually between 3-8, sit around a literal table or use an online equivalent like RollD20. They use a rule set like Rolemaster, Pathfinder, and Dungeons & Dragons (3.5 or 4.0 are the standards). The main differences between the two is the live play and dice-based mechanics. Even talking to people is usually divided into four categories: Bluffing, bartering, intimidation, and diplomacy. The fun is in role playing what the dice results give you, and weighing risk-reward. Such as having to role play your character fumbling an easy shot one turn, only to turn right around and pull off a masterful deflection shot that one-hit kills next post.

B. On a forum such as this one, attempts are made to replicate the rule set, but often only the dice-based mechanics manage to translate directly to PbPRP. The live play does not, and it's an integral part of the tabletop environment, so... (PbPRP = Play-By-Post Role Play.)

ooh i see now.

thanks to both of you ^^

Not really "tabletop," but I felt that it's worth adding there are some great multiplayer videogames which allow roleplaying.

Games such as Total War allow you to control a nation in a historical period, with no plot- you are trying to conquer everything... or not- and you and other players can play the campaign in multiplayer, posting your turns in a roleplay fashion. I've seen some great roleplays done like this. It's quite similar to tabletop gaming, but instead of using dice, you are playing an actual game.

I'm actually doing a single player variant in Medieval 2: Total War on a different forum, following the story of the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea during the medieval period. The family trees and characters develop as you want, so it provides you with plenty of opportunities to roleplay the various characters throughout their lives.