General News - About Roleplaying

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Jeremy Peel of PCGamesN describes how he learnt to roleplay:

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How I learned to start roleplaying somebody other than myself

A blank page is intimidating. Ask any writer and they will say the same. But, back in the day, that was one of the first things an RPG would present you with. During character creation, Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights - with one eye on their D&D roots - would throw you a 'biography' screen to fill with pertinent details about your new personality. 'Go on,' it seemed to say. 'If you're going to roleplay, then you might as well do it properly'.

I remember making a couple of half-hearted teenage attempts - something something rogue, something something tragic past - before becoming accustomed to leaving BioWare's generic blurb untouched. I know I am not alone in this: our very own Phil has roleplayed every RPG he has ever played as a Caucasian man with brown hair. Named Philip.

Which is to say, a lot of us have never really roleplayed very much in roleplaying games - to the point that the name of the genre has become a slightly silly misnomer. Where on the tabletop you are required to come up with all your own dialogue, CRPGs provide you with framework enough to coast through 100 hours without ever really deciding on who you are.

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