Editing Role-playing game (section)

==Purpose==
{{main|Role-playing game theory}}
Both authors and major publishers of tabletop role-playing games consider them to be a form of interactive and collaborative [[storytelling]].<ref name="gurpsrp" /><ref>{{Cite book |title=Werewolf: The Apocalypse |title-link=Werewolf: The Apocalypse |publisher=[[White Wolf Publishing]] |year=1994 |isbn=978-1-56504-112-7 |edition=2nd |pages=Chapter 1 |quote=Although Werewolf is a game, it is more concerned with storytelling than it is with winning. Werewolf is a tool enabling you to become involved in tales of passion and glory and to help tell those stories yourself.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Dungeons & Dragons ''Player's Handbook'' |date=6 June 2008 |publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]] |isbn=978-0-7869-4867-3 |edition=4th |pages=Chapter 1 |quote=A roleplaying game is a storytelling game that has elements of the games of make-believe that many of us played as children.}}</ref> Events, characters, and narrative structure give a sense of a narrative experience, and the game need not have a strongly-defined storyline.<ref>(Heliö 2004) "Still, we must note that there is no actual story in the game of the role-playing game, though there are events, characters, and structures of narrativity giving the players the basis for interpreting it as a narrative. We have many partially open structures that we may fulfill with our imagination during the course of the game – within its limitations. We also have the ability to follow different kinds of narrative premises and structures as well as imitate them for ourselves to create more authentic and suitable narrative experiences. We have the 'narrative desire' to make pieces we interpret to relate to each other fit in, to construct the plot from recurring and parallel elements."</ref> Interactivity is the crucial difference between role-playing games and traditional fiction. Whereas a viewer of a television show is a passive observer, a player in a role-playing game makes choices that affect the story.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Waskul |first1=Dennis |last2=Lust |first2=Matt |year=2004 |title=Role-Playing and Playing Roles: The Person, Player, and Persona in Fantasy Role-Playing |url=http://www.colorado.edu/ibs/pb/thornberry/socy5031/pdfs/waskul_lust_role_playing.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Caliber |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=333–356 |doi=10.1525/si.2004.27.3.333 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121204065525/http://www.colorado.edu/ibs/pb/thornberry/socy5031/pdfs/waskul_lust_role_playing.pdf |archive-date=4 December 2012 |access-date=23 December 2008}}</ref> Such role-playing games extend an older tradition of [[storytelling game]]s where a small party of friends collaborate to create a story.

While simple forms of role-playing exist in traditional children's games of [[make believe]], role-playing games add a level of sophistication and persistence to this basic idea with additions such as game facilitators and rules of interaction. Participants in a role-playing game will generate specific characters and an ongoing plot. A consistent system of rules and a more or less realistic [[campaign setting]] in games aids [[suspension of disbelief]]. The level of [[Realism (arts)|realism]] in games ranges from just enough internal consistency to set up a [[narrativist|believable story]] or [[gamist|credible challenge]] up to full-blown [[simulationist|simulations]] of real-world processes.

[[Tabletop role-playing game]]s may also be used in therapy settings to help individuals develop behavioral, social, and even language skills.<ref name="White 2017">{{Cite web |last=White |first=Catriona |date=3 May 2017 |title=Dungeons & Dragons is now being used as therapy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/ab3db202-341f-4dd4-a5e7-f455d924ce22 |access-date=28 May 2020 |website=BBC Three}}</ref> Beneficiaries commonly include young people with neurodevelopmental conditions, such as [[Autism spectrum]] disorders, [[ADHD|attention-deficit hyperactive disorder]] ([[ADHD]]), and [[dyslexia]].<ref name="Berg 2016">{{Cite web |last=Berg |first=Chris |date=25 October 2016 |title=Dungeons of the mind: Tabletop RPGs as social therapy |url=https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/dungeons-mind-tabletop-rpgs-social-therapy/ |access-date=28 May 2020 |website=Kill Screen}}</ref><ref name="Leung 2018">{{Cite web |last=Leung |first=Ethan |date=2 April 2018 |title=Helping dyslexic students with role-playing games |url=https://tnp.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/helping-dyslexic-students-role-playing-games |access-date=28 May 2020 |website=The New Paper}}</ref>