The conclusion of this year’s July series, in addition to leaving a lot of controversy, also brought out a term that many viewers are quite unfamiliar with: “running group”.As the work’s biggest selling point, the concise-and-easy blurb reads that “the animation is adapted from RPF” CHAOS Dragon “novel, and the story is a TRPG composed by five well-known script writers (Xubuchi, Naidu Moquegua, Jiao Rebuke, Honey Iuka and Narita Roast).” It’s inevitable that these familiar hands will be in the same room, and that’s where we start talking about TRPGS.
1. What is TRPG?
TRPGS stand for Tabletop Role-playing Games. It is a traditional, face-to-face, verbal description, the earliest role-playing games. The outcome of the various encounters depends on the actor’s attributes and behavior, the host’s world style, and the objective influences represented by the roll of the dice.
In these games, the person who acts as the host of the game — the person who acts as the arbiter and storyteller of the game — describes the setting of the world and the monsters, traps, and other characters encountered during the game. Most of the time the host will design all kinds of interesting elements for the world， The person who plays the role – the actor, need to concentrate on playing their role.
These seemingly lofty combinations of words can actually be briefly described as “a house playing house”. Think of a sweltering afternoon when five people sit around a table, drinking soda and talking about how they’re chopping down monsters. From time to time, “I brandished my long sword and shouted at them, ‘If you want to pass, ask for justice in my hands! ‘” or “I’ll never let you go! I will not let you go! My power is the power of love!” Words full of blood and passion.
Then we just have to run a recorder and a typist around these five people. Very well, that is the contribution of Xubuchi, Naidu Make, Jiao Li Yi, Honey Eye and Narita Roast to this work.
If you think about it, even the hero is an NPC in the anime adaptation of Red Dragon Campaign. What does the story of the anime have to do with the famous hands that come to participate in the TRPG?
2. Why do TRPGS exist in this world?
In fact, the origins of TRPGS are unknown. As early as the 1960s, there were a number of science-fiction tabletop roleplaying games, mostly aimed at children that lacked rules and plots. In today’s light, these “house games” would be hard to justify. (To this day, many TRPG enthusiasts jokingly refer to the running group as “house playing”.)
In 1969, a game based on AT-Capp’s cartoon Lil ‘Abner appeared, Slobbovia (1969). In contrast to the previous games, the game added storytelling features. A year later, in Heisenberg, the Germans showed off a new fantasy strategy game, Armageddon (1970). The game can be played by email or in person, and players are required to inform each other of their actions in the previous round. This language-driven, rule-based interactive game is the ancestor of modern TRPGS.
In the 1980s, thanks to the popularity of the Lord of the Rings, the fantasy TRPGS enjoyed a flowering of flowers. Game companies saw this huge potential market, and many games came into being. It worth mentioning TSR’s Chainmail (1972), a now-obscure forerunner of today’s D&D, Dungeons & Dragons (1973). As the first fantasy type role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons System has attracted a number of loyal fans among young people with its unique world view, rigorous rules and the characteristics of giving full play to imagination. The Expert Dungeons and Dragons System (AD&D, 1978) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1978) is the most popular game system to date.
Most TRPGS are based on novels and adapted from them, and some even buy the rights to the novels directly to make them their own. One of the most successful was Chromium’s Call of Cthulhu (1981), based on the H.P.Lovecraft series. Then came ，Storm bringer (based on Michael Moorcock’s 1981 novel) and Elf quest (based on Elf quest , 1984). It is worth mentioning that such adaptations continue today, from popular novels to anime works, many have been adapted into TRPG games, FATE, ship C have their own TRPG games (play Mesta, demon, and Hazel name cheer! Or all three，) . In other places, you can even see Oriental martial arts themed works.
As The Times changed, running teams were gradually replaced by video games, and the hosts across the table became pieces of integrated circuits. The Roll and Fallout series have replaced Dungeons and Dragons, but like all evolution has failed to stop the occasional atavism, TRPGS still survive like moss. No matter how the style and vehicle of the game evolved, the essence of the running team remained — an incredibly long and complex process that allowed us to pass an entire afternoon without much effort.
3. Why do we run?
As a team runner, I ask myself this question many times. Why would I spend hours, online or offline, with a group of people I barely interact with, impersonating virtual characters who are nothing like me? The answer is obvious: it’s a lot of fun.
Despite the controversy surrounding Red Dragon Campaign, there is no denying that, at one time or another, most of us had a similar fantasy: being a royal orphan with a great destiny and amazing skills, experiencing a much more badass heroic story. Today, we laugh sanctimoniously at middle and secondary diseases and radio-brain, while hiding a sense of shame deep inside. Running groups give players an unfettered freedom of the world, and compared to the future paths that Beesdach and Interactive Entertainment have planned for you, you can create a completely autonomous experience in TRPGS. Break into an evil mage’s castle with your friends, be a good and evil forest hero, or be a commuter by day and a tabloid reporter by night, and you can be the person you most want to be for a few hours.
