Role-playing game

:This article is about traditional role-playing games. See computer role-playing games for their digital counterparts.

Game mechanics

Despite this generally non-competitive nature, RPGs usually have rules, or "game mechanics", which enable the players to determine the success or failure of their characters in their endeavors. Normally, this will involve assigning certain abilities to each character (such as exceptional strength, x-ray vision, or magical spells). Frequently, dice are introduced in order to bring in an element of chance, though this is not always the case.

Related Topics:
Magical spells - Dice

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Game mechanics commonly center around the fictional characters represented by the players. An essential step is character creation, where aspects such as the background, abilities, personality and resources of the character are recorded, often onto a character sheet. This usually takes the form of numerical values that represent different physical and mental aspects of the character, such as dexterity or charisma, or the character's skill in some task, such as singing, computer operation, or martial arts. In early role-playing games, the emphasis in character creation was often in the combat prowess of the character. More recently, there have appeared games that emphasize personality and background over combat mechanics.

Related Topics:
Character sheet - Martial arts

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Adherents of a gaming style accentuating character personality, background and story development sometimes use the pun roll-playing to describe the style of gaming more focused on mechanics, combat rules and their resolution using die-rolling.

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