Has this ever happened to you? You're in the final pages of a novel and you start to feel a sort of melancholy fall over you. You've become attached to the world, the characters, the story itself, and you're not ready to let that go. You almost wish you could walk around in the world for yourself.
Well, I've got good news! There is a fix for this (besides, perhaps, reading a sequel or something like that), and it's known as Role Playing. One of the most popular forms of Role Playing nowadays is through video games, but what these offer in visualization and accessibility they can lack in player freedom and general accessibility. Some prefer to get their role playing on in real life, examples of which can range for the renaissance fair to historical re-enactments, but the outfits can be costly to acquire and intensive to upkeep.
But what if I told you there was a third option? One that can take you anywhere and lets you do anything. One that doesn't require any hardware or elaborate costumes, just a book, some friends, and a handful of dice.
Table Top Role-Playing games, or TTRPGs for short, hit the scene in 1974 with the release of Dungeons & Dragons, and have been capturing the hearts and minds of players for the past 50 years. But how exactly do they work?
The first thing you're going to have to do is figure out exactly which game you want to play. If you're looking to dive deeper into the world of a beloved series, you can check if there's a licensed table top version of it. Dune, the Blade Runner and Cosmere all have game books, though there are also gamified versions of more obscure IPs, like 2008's Leverage (which is, unfortunately, out of print). If you've already invested in a Dungeons and Dragons book and don't feel like shelling out any more cash, though, there's still hope. You can build your own custom setting using the book you've already got as a framework.
After you've picked a game, the next step is to learn the rules. These usually detail how encounters are organized and what exactly a player character should be capable of. Initially, learning all the rules can be pretty daunting, but luckily you don't actually have to follow the rules to a tee. Ultimately, this is your role-playing experience, and as Marie Kondo famously suggests: if it doesn't spark joy, get rid of it (though playing with restrictions can provide a more rewarding experience).
Once you've got everything figured about what and how you'll be playing, the only thing left is to figure out who you'll be role playing alongside. A playgroup usually consists of two roles: the Guild Master (or GM), who pulls all the strings of the game world, and the Players. Being a GM requires a pretty exhaustive knowledge of the rules, so for new players it can be better to start as just a player. Once you've assembled a group, all that's left is to play the game... but what exactly does that look like?
While some games come with a game board, most of the time you'll be using your imagination to visualize what's going on. 90% of game play is talking, whether that be through interacting with non-player characters or hatching a plan with your party members. This aspect of the gaming experience can also make it a great avenue for socializing, not just because you are playing alongside other people, but that you're also having to actively engage with what their characters are doing and playing off it yourself. Everyone doesn't have an outlet to "play pretend" with others, and TTRPGs provide an excellent one because you can pretty much do whatever you want and the stakes are quite low (if you keep murdering imaginary townsfolk that might get on your friends' nerves).
Now that we've covered what TTRPGs are, its time to go out and pick one up. As a fledgling roleplayer, I've had a great time with Dungeons & Dragons. It's position as the originator of the genre may lead you to believe it could be outdated, but they update the rules pretty often to keep the game play balanced. In fact, the newest edition just recently released so now is a great time to get in. Bob, Eagle Eye's patron saint of bookselling, recommends Paranoia, a game where you play as a group of clones living in a world controlled by artificial intelligence. As a group you must complete a series of mysterious tasks, though you'll come to find that everything is not as it seems.
