Tabletop RPGs allow players to take the part of adventurers exploring open-ended models of alternative worlds or ‘realities’. Doing so usually involves a group of players working together to use their player characters (PCs) to overcome various challenges, which are set up and mediated by a Gamesmaster (GM).
The skills associated with playing and running tabletop RPGs are often linked to the ‘rules heavy’ ‘battle games’ that take up a significant part of the current market, e.g. AD&D 4e and Pathfinder. These games can paint a picture of guru-like GMs deciphering the wisdom contained in several hardback volumes.
Fortunately, most GMs do not go down the route of rigidly applying the rules and players can expect to be presented with some opportunities to roleplay. ‘Battle games’ can, therefore, be seen as promoting literacy, the ability to understand detailed instructions and valuable social interactions.
However, ‘battle game’ RPG gameplay generally uses fewer ‘higher executive skills’ than ‘rules light’ or ‘medium’ games such as Mouse Guard and Traveller, which place open-ended roleplaying, a shared sense of purpose and collaborative storytelling to the fore. That is not to say that ‘battle games’ cannot include such play, but it often comes on top of time spent on combat.
‘Rules light’ tabletop RPG games, which place less emphasis on rule sets, and more emphasis on open-ended exploration and collaborative decision making, are more likely to involve and reward imaginative play, critical thinking and character development than ‘rules heavy’ systems. They also tend to be easier to learn and more involving or intense, because players’ and GMs’ roles go well beyond that defined by a rule set.
We can get some idea of the value of open-ended tabletop RPGs by returning to our opening description of tabletop RPGs in terms of players and a mediator, “exploring open-ended models of alternative worlds or ‘realities’.”
The following quotes from an article published in the New York Times on 12th January 2009 refer to a mediator who makes, “brief presentations of general principles and engages the [group] as they work out related concepts.” The ‘group’ is involved in exploring theoretical models or ‘realities’ and, “the room buzzes, conferring with tablemates, calling out questions and jumping up,” to offer ideas and solutions, “are all encouraged.”
Despite the obvious similarities the author is not referring to a roleplaying-centred tabletop RPG. The article, entitled, ”At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard,” is about MIT’s latest approach to teaching physics through active learning. Their Technology Enhanced Active Learning programme (TEAL) uses a screen instead of a table as a display and has resulted in better attendance, fewer fails and improved academic outcomes. The benefits reported by TEAL certainly appear to be the result of creating collaborative, independent learners focused on knowledge and understanding.
Roleplaying-centred tabletop RPGs build the same learning skills around similar processes to TEAL, but the imaginative content and flexible options in tabletop RPGs are particularly suited to deliver such skills much earlier and at significantly lower cost than through undergraduate programmes.
We’re going to take a closer look at the kinds of gameplay, skills and entertainment different sorts of tabletop RPGs offer over the next couple of weeks. We’ll start with a ‘rules heavy’ ‘battle game’, then take a look at a ‘rules medium’ storytelling RPG, a ‘rules light’ RPG and an Indie RPG. The boundaries between one type of tabletop RPG and another are not fixed but many games can be seen to fit into the categories we’ll be using.
Different types of RPG offer different skill sets and entertainment. All of them can be of considerable value in terms of both skills and entertainment through appealing to different audiences and offering complementary skill sets. As a result of that, the posts will focus on the skills and entertainment on offer rather than trying to pick a ‘favourite’.
[...] Tabletop RPGs and Skills: Part 1 [...]