Curlie

Roleplaying

A roleplaying game (RPG) is a structured method of playing "Let's Pretend", in which players create characters to serve as protagonists in a fictional world created by a game master. Although characters and plots are driven largely by the imagination of the participants, game rules are used to resolve the results of dramatic conflicts, providing the games with a necessary element of suspense. Roleplaying began with the creation of the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons in Wisconsin in 1972, but now includes hundreds of commercial systems and homemade RPGs in many languages and genres. This category primarily covers what are often called tabletop roleplaying games (because they are typically played sitting around a table, with books and dice) but also includes its pen-and-paper descendants, live action roleplaying (where players dress up and physically act out their characters' actions) and gamebook roleplaying (system-based interactive fiction).

This category is for English language sites about system-based pen-and-paper roleplaying games: tabletop, live action, and gamebook roleplaying. Please try to find the most specific subcategory as sites are seldom accepted in this category directly.

Please don''t submit any of the following here:

Computer or Video Games
Games played Online (this includes games played via Chat Rooms, AOL, IRC, ICQ, PBEM, Message Boards, etc)

Characters

Many roleplayers develop extensive backgrounds for their characters, creating elaborate histories, game fiction, and even in-character homepages.

Characters specific to one System, Genre, or style of roleplaying other than tabletop (Live Action, Gamebooks, Online, or Video Games) should be submitted to the category of that specific system/genre/style.

Resources for character creation should be submitted to Games: Roleplaying: World Building: Characters

Developers and Publishers

Official homepages of companies producing or publishing Roleplaying Games and support material.

To be listed you need following:

A Product
A Company
A Finished Game
A Tabletop / Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game (no Board, Computer, or Video Game)

Directories

Sites that exist primarily to provide alphabetical or classified lists of resources about roleplaying games.

Directories specific to one Genre or System should go to the appropriate Genre or System category. Also directories about Live Action, Gamebooks, Free Systems, Computer and Video Games Roleplaying, or Online Roleplaying should go to their respective categories.

FAQs, Help, and Tutorials

Focusing on advice for basic or advanced roleplay. At this level, sites should cover roleplaying in general or multiple genres and systems.

Gamebooks

Gamebooks are a form of self-contained interactive fiction; you play the part of the hero and make his/her decisions by turning to different pages and reading different sections of the book. The genre includes Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, Lone Wolf, Fighting Fantasy, and other series.

Gamebooks are not just rule books, hints, cheats or descriptions of game systems; they are the games themselves.

This category is meant for resources or gamebooks itself for offline usage. Online based Gamebooks should be submitted to Games: Online: Roleplaying or to Games: Video Games: Adventure: Browser Based: Choose Your Own Adventure for non roleplaying gamebooks.

Genres

This section contains sub categories for the various Genres, or areas of subject matter, that Roleplaying games seem to have broken themselves into. Each category contains pages that deal with more than one system in the genre and Systems specific to this genre.

Online, chat-based, and freeform games should be submitted to Arts: Animation: Anime: Games: Roleplaying.

Sites for a homemade "free" roleplaying games must be submitted to Games: Roleplaying: Genres: Anime: Free Systems.

Humor

Like any subculture, roleplayers have their own in-jokes; this category is the place to look for parodies, ridiculous rules, gaming stories, comics, and anything else approaching role-playing in a light-hearted spirit.

Live Action

Live action roleplaying (a term often shortened into LARP or LRP) is a form of roleplaying where the participants do not merely verbally describe their actions, but actually carry them out (or pretend to do so). Live action games can be compared to improvisational theatre, where each of the participants is free to act on themselves, guided by their interpretation of the character they are playing. Although costuming and elaborate props are not a necessity, they are often employed to create an authentic atmosphere. Several different forms of live gaming have developed independently of each other, and the games can range from quite physical 'live combat' experiences to elaborate 'free form' plots, where the games consist of discussions, plotting and emotional immersion.

Please submit sites about Murder Mystery or Laser Games to their respective categories as these are not considered Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) by the definition of the Curlie Directory.

News and Media

Discussion and collection of messages on tabletop or pen and pencil roleplaying games.

Online roleplaying is not available in this category (or Games/Roleplaying for that matter). All online roleplaying is located at Games: Online: Roleplaying.

Play Groups

Gaming clubs, societies, and associations whose members meet each other in order to play games face to face.

Submit Video Gaming Groups to Games: Video Games: Roleplaying: Clans and Guilds.

Roleplaying in Society

Roleplayers traditionally view their hobby as one divorced from "the real world", a second life lived in imaginary worlds, with little regard for societal issues outside the game. A few issues, however, have special relevance (and history) within roleplaying, requiring gamers to deal with the issues as gamers. The interaction of the roleplaying hobby and the society around it is more complicated than advocacy and opposition; in many cases, there are differing views among roleplayers themselves. This category collects resources from all sides of an issue, as well as media references about gamer issues.

Software

Helpful Tools for Game Masters and Players. This includes online Java, JavaScript, and CGI programs, and downloadable software for character generation, mapping, dice rolling, and any other computer program specifically intended to aid roleplayers.

This category is about Tools for pen-and-paper roleplaying. Sites about Computer and Video Game roleplaying games or tools for these should should be submitted to Games: Video Games: Roleplaying.

Please including basic information about your software, like what license model it uses (like Commercial, Freeware, Shareware, Open Source) and on what systems it runs (like DOS, Windows, MacOS, Linux/Unix, etc).

Systems

This section contains a list roleplaying games that have more than one web page devoted to them. Look in Games: Roleplaying: Genres/(appropriate_genre)/ for a listing of these systems, divided by genre.

If you want to submit a site for a game that isn''t listed in here, submit it to the appropriate subcategory of Games: Roleplaying: Genres. When a sufficient number of sites dealing with a new game system are submitted (and accepted), the Open Directory editors will create a new category for that game.

World Building

Resources and tools for building worlds suitable to be used in roleplaying games. These include resources such as mapping tools, discussion groups, guides to online world-building projects and invented languages.

World Building resources for Video Game engines (like Neverwinter Nights) should be submitted to the specific category of that Game.