RPGs can be played in various formats including tabletop games, video games, or live-action role-playing. Modern video games have introduced many hybrid variants, broadening the genre. Regardless of format, immersive storytelling, interactive world, combat system, and character development are key el...
Dungeons & Dragons is the world’s most popular tabletop roleplaying game. It is a cooperative, storytelling game where you and other players take on the roles of different characters within a story. As you play, your character will make friends and enemies, fight monsters, discover loot, ...
In a traditional tabletop RPG, players each take on the role of a character in a fantasy, modern day, or science fiction setting, and work together to complete a series of quests or missions. The game is usually led by a game manager (GM), who is responsible for creating the world and...
At this same time, tabletop and PC RPGs faced criticism on "moral" grounds for supposedly promoting Satanism. RPGs like Ultima tried to address this criticism by incorporating a positive main quest: to become a better person. Ultima's actions seem to have contributed to the growing popularity ...
NPC stands for “non-playable character” in gaming. It’s a term used in video games and tabletop gaming to distinguish between characters in a game that are controlled by the player and characters controlled entirely by the game (or by “the computer”). NPCs can range from characters tha...
Since this kind of game is played with friends around a table (or in an online chat or something), it’s often called atabletop role-playinggame to distinguish it from a video game. The GM is responsible for the consistency of the story through which the players’ characters (PCs) naviga...
Before MMOs, there were MUDs, or multi-user dungeons. During the 1970s, these primitive, multiplayer, text-based games ran on early internet servers. Most MUDs were role-playing games (RPGs) with mechanics similar to the tabletop gameDungeons & Dragons, so it's no surprise that the first...
And if you're interested in hearing me rant about how random encounters in RPGs are actually good— click away. If you're into pen and paper games, check out our best virtual tabletop software page. (And our DND tips if you need help). In our System of the Stars piece, we meet ...
In tabletoprole-playing games(RPGs), NPCs can be represented by cards that the game master controls. NPCs in Popular Culture When a non-playing character is particularly engaging, humorous, or odd, it can transcend the game itself and enter broader popular culture. Here are a few ways this...
What Is a VTT? As stated earlier, VTT stands for virtual tabletop, and it could simply be defined as a digital platform that simulates a tabletop for (typically dice-based)RPGs. This means that VTTs need some fundamental elements to be successfully described as VTTs: ...