Roleplaying

Roleplaying refers to the changing of one's behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the Oxford English Dictionary defines roleplaying as "the changing of one's behavior to fulfill a social role", the term is used more loosely in three senses:

• To refer to the playing of roles generally such as in a theater, or educational setting;
• To refer to a wide range of games including computer role-playing games, play-by-mail games and more;
• To refer specifically to role-playing games.

History

The term role playing was originally coined in the 1920s by Jacob L. Moreno, a Viennese psychiatrist who surmised patients gained more from exploring their problems by acting them out than by talking about them. Moreno first tested out his ideas by forming the Theatre of Spontaneity acting company in 1921 and two years later publishing his theories in a book of the same name. When the practice became popular in business and educational institutions twenty years later the problem solving aspect shifted towards the learning of a professional role for later real life assumption.

    "What astronauts do in their practice for missions; what pilots do in learning to navigate in flight simulators; what thousands of soldiers do in the course of military exercises--it's all role playing. Teaching salespersons to deal with customers, teaching doctors to interview patients, teaching teachers to deal with difficult situations, all these require some measure of actual practice and feedback."

After its inception into the realm of business, role playing has steadily flourished for over fifty years expanding into multiple areas of public and private life. Formal examples include: teaching (especially in the development of social skills, communication skills, and interpersonal skills), self-help groups, organizational management, leadership training, professional training, scientific research in the social sciences, and even sports. Less formal examples have also arisen including: role playing games for entertainment. Now in the 21st century, role playing as a form of personal entertainment may be overtaking in numbers the more formal practice of educational roleplay.

Social science

In social science, roleplaying is historically a reference to Psychodrama and Sociodrama, and more recently to Drama Therapy, which were originally created as a methodology for studying role theory by the social sciences. The study of roleplaying was modeled after theater and includes many counterparts. To roleplay one enacts various motives, attitudes, and postures. The protagonists are the participants who improvise their actions within a situation normally simulated about them. It is their life or abilities, their roles, that are being examined or tested. The auxiliary egos are anyone else who performs to place the protagonists within the situation. The audience is any onlooker who may provide feedback. The stage is wherever the practice is performed or perhaps fictionally set. The director is the expert who guides the exercise.

Training

Roleplaying may also refer to role training where persons rehearse situations in preparation for a future performance and to improve their abilities within a role. The most common examples are occupational training role plays, educational role play exercises, and certain military wargames.

Simulation

One of the first uses of computers was to simulate reality around its' participants in order to roleplay the flying of aircraft. As early as the 1940s, flight simulators used computers to solve the equations of flight and train future pilots. After World War II the army began full time roleplaying simulations with soldiers using computers both within full scale training exercises and for training in numerous specific tasks under wartime conditions. Examples include weapon firing, vehicle simulators, and control station mock ups.

Roleplay simulation

Roleplay simulation is a learning method that depends on roleplaying. Learners take on the role profiles of specific characters or organisations in a contrived setting. Roleplay is designed primarily to build first person experience in a safe and supportive environment. Roleplay is widely acknowledged as a powerful teaching technique in face to face teaching and role play online is also powerful, with some added benefits.

When we are young, we learn by mimicking, playing, and experimentation. As our language skills develop and formal schooling kicks in, these strategies are replaced by language-based learning, which can dampen our curiosity and motivation to learn. Roleplay simulation aims to revive the ease and joy of experiential learning.

Roleplay simulation models human interactions (allowing the players to roleplay) in a constructed environment by

   1. creating an artificial social structure (or simulating some known social structure)
   2. enforcing the social structure;
   3. providing plausible scenarios for players to respond, react and enrole to.

Entertainment

Historical re-enactment has been practiced by adults for millennia. The ancient Romans, Han Chinese, and medieval Europeans all enjoyed occasionally organizing events in which everyone pretended to be from an earlier age, and entertainment appears to have been the primary purpose of these activities. Within the 20th century historical reenactment has often been pursued as a hobby.

Improvisational theatre dates back to the Commedia dell'Arte tradition of 16th century. Modern improvisational theatre began in the classroom with the "theatre games" of Viola Spolin and Keith Johnstone in the 1950s. Viola Spolin, who was one of the founder the famous comedy troupe Second City, insisted that her exercises were games, and that they involved role-playing as early as 1946. She accurately judged role playing in the theatre as rehearsal and actor training, or the playing of the role of actor versus theatre roles, but many now use her games for fun in their own right.

Role-playing game

A role-playing game (RPG; often roleplaying game) is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.

Most role-playing games are conducted like radio drama: only the spoken component is acted. In most games, one specially designated player, the game master (GM), creates a setting in which each player plays the role of a single character. The GM describes the game world and its inhabitants; the other players describe the intended actions of their characters, and the GM describes the outcomes. Some outcomes are determined by the game system, and some are chosen by the GM. There is a variety of role-playing game in which players do perform their characters' physical actions, known as live action role-playing games.

A genre of video game is also referred to as role-playing games. Although these games do not involve the playing of roles, they take their name from the settings and game mechanics which they inherit from early role-playing games. Due to the popularity of video games, the terms "role-playing game" and "RPG" have both to some degree been co-opted by the video gaming industry; as a result, games in which players play the roles of characters are sometimes referred to as "pen and paper" or "tabletop" role-playing games, though neither pen and paper nor a table are strictly necessary.