TTRPG is an acronym that stands for TableTop RolePlaying Game – interactive, social games in which you create something with your friends in a shared gaming space.
Everyone involved takes part in creating, controlling and playing fictional characters and creatures in a world with different factions. In the course of a couple of hours (a ‘session’) up to a couple of years (with weekly, biweekly or monthly sessions) everyone at the table works together to create an ever evolving story in that world, based on everyone’s ideas, cooperation and the game’s rules.
Usually one person takes on the role of the ‘Game Master’, and becomes the host, referee and mastermind of the game. The GM (Game Master) is responsible for creating and conveying the situations the players encounter, but every TTRPG has its own rules about what the GM oversees, and what the players can influence.
TTRPGs are a unique mix of strategy, cooperative play, luck, acting, storytelling and discovery. Players and GM decide the genre and type of game together, and no two games are the same, even within the same system and the same story module.
From the 70s to today
The first TTRPG is Dungeons&Dragons – known from TV-shows like Stranger Things or Community, or from live play shows like Critical Role or Dimension20. It is a fairly traditional TTRPG with influences from war games, often focused on fighting and strategy.
However, there are a lot of TTRPGs available on the market, from large publications like Call of Cthulhu, to smaller indie games. These can be in any genre you can think of – horror, regency era, age of exploration, anything – and their rule systems can utilise dice, playing cards, Jenga towers, or even Twister mats.
Choosing a game
Tabletop RPGs are SO much fun and with so many different RPGs to choose from (Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulu and thousands more) – there’s bound to be one out there for someone of almost any taste.
Whether you’re into fantasy, sci-fi, horror or realistic medieval fiction – there’s an RPG that’ll suit you.
It can seem daunting to get a foot in the door but over the next few months I hope to guide some of you into the deep of with tabletop roleplaying!