There must be a point at which one stops theorising and moves towards action. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been running games in a manner which has proven more satisfying to me as Game Master and given great enjoyment to the players.

The philosophy of role-play that I am using is assembled from the gathered experience of several other people in the RPG community alongside my own experimentation. This stuff works and can be recommended if you are seeking the experience of play I provide.

The term “FRP” is one that I came across first in 1980 while reading the Basic Role-Playing supplement within the RuneQuest 2^nd Edition boxed set. The term is important and proved formative because it distinguishes the primary goal I have when I play or run these games:

“A fantasy roleplaying game (FRP) game is one wherein the players construct characters who live out their lives in a specially made game-world. The characters need not be anything like the people who play them. Indeed, it is often more rewarding and enjoyable for players to create characters entirely unlike themselves.”

– Basic Role-Playing, page 2.

Thus, the primary focus of FRP is the construction of characters who then “live out their lives in a specially made game-world”. The two are inextricably linked because a character always emerges from their context. Without a game-world there is no character and there exists no place in which to act.

Delving into the RuneQuest book itself we read:

“A role-playing game is a game of character development, simulating the process of personal development commonly called ‘life.’ The player acts a role in a fantasy environment, just as he might act a role as a character in a play.”

– RuneQuest 2nd Edition, Chaosium (1980), page 3

The game is one of “character development”, discovering the growth of the characters as they tackle the challenges which their imaginary “life” throws at them.

“The game world is operated by a referee who sets up the situations which the players confront and who also plays ‘the world’.”

“An FRP game, then, is an interaction between players, who operate (run) characters, and the referee, who runs the world in which the adventures occur.”

– Basic Role-Playing, page 2

For me, the term “fantasy” is not necessarily limited to the genre of the same name. I read it in the broader sense of an imagined or make-believe world and characters. While the game I draw inspiration from was very definitely from the Fantasy genre, this does not limit the applicability of the ideas.

Recovering the terminology of FRP is helpful for me to disambiguate from those approaches to RPGs which emphasise the generation or telling of a particular story. It also helps to separate the approach from the so-called “Wargaming Way” from which the original RPG rules originated.

We are playing to experience the role we have assumed in the game-world. This is about playing as-if we are the character and making choices in-role. The challenge is to immerse oneself into the Otherworld of the game through the senses and perception of the character you inhabit.

Sinking into your characters ways of thinking and being is a special experience that is unique to role-play. Marrying the experience to the grounding of action in the rules of a game generates uncertainty and excitement. The action and activity of play is emergent and happens through the medium of dialogue between the participants.

“Most of the play is verbal exchange. The players tell the referee what they wish or intend to do. The referee then tells them if they can or may do it and, if not, what happens instead.”

– Basic Role-Playing, page 2

Overall, as I set up new games – be they in fantasy, modern, or science-fiction worlds – the methods I seek to employ are grounded in the desire to offer this experiential role-play to the players. Because it’s a game of character development and exploration of the game-world, it’s necessarily a long-form play approach. Development takes time.

All in all, I think the currents in my thinking have led me to the point where play is needed more than talk, theory, and discussion. While my life is filled with work and the attendant distractions of living, time must be parsed out and given over exploring the intent of FRP as I originally encountered it.

Game on!