Table-talk Role Playing Game
lastmod 2014-05-12created 2014-05-122 edits
A term for games in which, like board games, people gather offline around a table, play through conversation, and each act out an assigned role (Role playing). However, given recent trends in how these systems have developed, some argue that the commonly accepted term "game" is not a fitting label as is.
If this is hard to grasp, picture a present-day MMORPG, except that a human facilitator called the "master" takes over the roles of the server, the graphics, and the computer; the players playing the same game on that server are just the few people gathered at the same table; and characters are controlled not with a keyboard or mouse but simply by talking normally. That is roughly what it is like. In short, it is easiest to think of it as what people did in the days before computers: drawing maps on paper, directing characters through conversation, and resolving combat with props such as dice.