Chess and the Chinese game Go both are very much based on wargaming, but considered lacking by some, because of the lack of unpredictability offered by "true" wargaming with dice and/or cards or other means to add uncertainty as in the "real" world.

H.G. Wells was renowned during the late 19th century and early 20th century as a novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian. Some of his most famous novels include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War Of The Worlds (1898).

In the 1960s, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings hit the literary world, and inspired the minds and hearts of generations, book sales in the USA second only to the bible. Wargamers and many others were inspired by Tolkien's works, and began working on ways to modify wargaming so that statistics, including magic, and individuals of significance, not just whole armies, were included.

Chain Mail provided wargaming rules with extra features such as magic and mythological creatures, it was released in 1968 by Gary Gygax, and would later evolve during the 1970s into the now famous (and infamous) Dungeons & Dragons.

The 1980s were the "Golden Age" years of role playing games. In the 1990s hybrid RPG games using cards started a shift to simpler rules, and that shift to cards was completed with the creation of Magic: The Gathering, a still world-wide popular CCG (Collectible Card Game).

The RPG industry continues to grow and is now a multi-billion dollar market. It has diversified from just "paper and dice" games to now also include hybrid CCGs, computer games, persistent online worlds and MUDs. There are also worldwide LARPS (Live Action Role Playing) groups still going strong.

Innumerable genres, systems, and settings abound. A very brief sumary included:
Fantasy/Medieval:
Dungeons & Dragons
Runequest
Robin Hood
Amber (Based on Roger Zelazny's Amber series, diceless game, uses cards)
Pendragon (King Arthur)
Conan

Science Fiction:
Star Wars
Star Trek
Traveller
Doctor Who
RIFTS (Multiple universes/dimensions of reality)
Babylon 5
Robotech/Battletech
Aliens

Horror/Suspense/Gothica:
HP Lovecraft's Call of Cthulu
Vampie: The Masquerade (inspired tv short tv series, Kindred: The Embraced)

Mystery/Paranormal:
X-Files
Noir (Sam Spade and Mickey Spillane type detective mysteries)

Action/Adventure:
James Bond
Indiana jones

Oriental/Asian:
Bushido (feudal Japan)
Oriental Adventures

Old American West:
Boot Hill
Deadlands

Comic book heroes (Such X-men, Batman, Spiderman, etc.):
Heroes
Champions

Humorous:
Ghostbusters
Paranoia (Scifi and darkly humourous)
Toons

Amazing that an entirely new hobby industry has developed from non-existence to so much in just about 30 years!

There are those who take it even further, mostly adults, participating in reenactments or Live Action Role Playing (LARP). The SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) is not exactly a LARP organization, but they do try more to reenact various time periods (medieval Europe, feudal Japan, Tzarist Russia, etc.) in historically accurate ways, and include combat in armor with various refereed and "on your honor" rules for contact, as well as many rules for correct chivalry, dealing with "class" such as nobility and serfs, etc. Only the fighters generally compete in combat, the majority of members act out other roles, many in costume, of diverse "supporting characters", such as minstrels, servants, courtesans, royalty, merchants, tradesmen, etc. SCA members are frequently used as extras in movies and television shows, and many are used as consultants to make certain that scenes, costumes, dialog, etc. are historically authentic to the periods depicted in various media.

In the early to mid 1980s some individuals began a campaign against role playing gamin and organized a group called BADD (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) to slander and try to ban all forms of role playing games. They kept trying to get the public to believe that participating in rpgs would lead to suicides, murders, occultism, anti-social behavior, and anything else they could come up with. Some schools, churches, and communities fell for the false rhetoric and banned role playing games during this time.

These negative incidents received a disproportionate amount of misguided media and press coverage on and off for a while. They attempted a number of lawsuits, and tried to pressure lawmakers to pass laws, all such legal attempts were quickly thrown out. This persisted sporadically until around the early 1990s when official reports on studies about role playing games, and the accusations of BADD and similar entities proved the group's claims falsified and techniques of coercion for false testimonies, severely suspect. There are still some extremist religious groups and some others obsessed with the idea that role playing gaming is just a means of occultism or other antisocial behavior.

There is no doubt that someone already extremely unstable, can go overboard with a role playing game, just as they can with gambling, extreme sports, overeating, drinking, escaping into reading obsessively and not living life, or doing drugs, or any of a number of other ?escapes?. Gaming is a tool like any other, that can be overused and abused.

RPGs provide an unprecedented range of benefits for a leisure activity, some of these are:
Social: Cooperation with diverse people/cultures/background on common goals
Leadership: Walking in others shoes/experiences
Exposure to other cultures, religions, histories, etc.
Languages/Linguistics
Multicultural mythologies and histories
Learning/following the rules but also "thinking outside of the box when needed:.

Intellectual:
Mathematics
Statistics
Researching
Problem solving (e.g. puzzles, riddles, mazes, etc.)
Reading/writing (technical)
History
Geography
Cartography
Geology
Economics
Government systems
Politics
Ecology
Metallurgy
Meteorology
Astronomy
Physics
Demographics
Warfare tactics and strategies
Technologies past and present
Architecture

Creative:
Theatrics/acting
Improvisation
Reading/writing (creative)
Artwork (drawing, painting lead figures, etc.)
Music
Poetry

How many other single leisure activities in life can provide so rich and fulfilling an experience as in the preceding list?

A very basic and quick example of a role-playing process follows...

The game referee, sometimes known as the Game Master meets with the players in a comfortable setting around a table, or anywhere they find comfortable, and begins with a description:

"You and your friends have just walked into the courtyard of an ancient building. The courtyard is approximately forty feet square. The walls, built of a tan colored stone material apparently indigenous to the area, are built to the points of the compass. They are about thirty feet high. You entered from an opening in the south wall. You see the north wall has some stairs going up, and the east wall on your right has what appears to be a solid metal door hanging open on rusted hinges. The walls are crumbling in places, and much is overgrown with ivy and weeds. In the center is a large fountain about fifteen feet high in what appears to be the form of a series of three flower-like terraces. Surprisingly, the fountain is currently spouting clear and cool looking water. Looking at the water, your more acutely aware of how dry you mouths are after the long day's hike to arrive here, with no water previously in sight.

The wind is picking up as a storm from the south, with lightning and dark clouds gathering, quickly approaches. It is getting colder by the minute,

What do you do?"

At this point, those playing in the game each take turns telling the GM and the other players what actions they take. Some will have mundane results, others could have surprising consequences. Dice are used to simulate the random events that can occur in life, and make it unknown in advance, even to the referee, what exactly will happen next. For example, someone may decide to climb the stairs, there are some loose steps, and depending on how agile the player's made-up "character" is, with a roll of the dice, that character may leap to the top unscathed, or may have a bit of a fall to deal with. Of course, there also could be trouble in the form of "ill-intentioned bandits" lurking within the entrance of the door....

I began RPGing around 1979 at 9 years old, and continued on and off until a few years ago. My sons, 4, 6, & 8 are now learning to game as well. They, of their own volition, and despite my mild protests, have been sucked into the collecting craze of Yu-Gi-Oh and Pok-e-man collectible card games, but after introducing them to rpging, they regularly comment on how much more satisfying role playing gaming is.

Many kids are spending so many relatively anti-social hours on computer games, and failing to develop so many skills other than quick fine motor skill reflexes. RPGing offers a means to engage their ample imaginations with so many other benefits. Such gaming can help develop invaluable social, creative, intellectual, and leadership skills that can benefit them throughout their lives. People of all ages can benefit from using such activities in their leisure time. It encompasses such wide interests, covering fantasy and medieval, to science fiction, horror, gothic, mystery, comic book heroes, cartoons, anime, and any other setting anyone can imagine. Who hasn't wanted to pretend to be some favorite character of a book or movie or television show, or famous historical person or event?

This essay by Hawke.
http://www.hawkes-haven.com

Please feel free to comment on this document on the merp@merp.com mailing list or the merp.com forums.