A man goes to work and comes back. Daily performs routine business, sometimes resting. One such lifestyle is quite happy. Another seeks an alternative to such an existence and finds it. It is called a role player. This means that he is part of a special community of people united by common interests.
Who are they
The largest groups of this kind exist in big cities. Several thousand participants are in Moscow and St. Petersburg. A role-playing game is a special event for which people gather in a place in a certain territory. Basically, their age ranges from 12 to 45 years. Although you can meet younger children, their parents take them with them. Both men and women participate in the games, and it cannot be said that some gender is tipping the scales in its direction.
Wearing special armor for role-players, people turn into heroes of their favorite computer game, book or movie. The main thing is compliance with a given era and complete immersion in it. In order not to disturb the necessary atmosphere, it is necessary to provide for every little thing in a suit and your behavior. A role player is a person who comes up with a new original name or takes a suitable one from the corresponding work.
How it all began
For many, role-playing is associated with Tolkienists. And this is no accident, because it was the famous book of J. Tolkien that became the incentive for the emergence of a new subculture. The first community was formed in England in 1969, the second was American, whose members have participated in story games since 1970. In our country, role-players, whose subculture beckoned with freedom, which was so lacking, began to appear in the 90s. And the beginning was the appearance of a book by the same author, published in samizdat. The first site was the land near Krasnoyarsk. The Hobbit Games took place there for the first time.
What are they
Events of this kind are attractive in that they clearly outline the opposition between evil and good forces, and there is also the opportunity to try on a favorite image, become at least for a while a magical creature. But there is a separate category of those who like not to participate, but to organize this large-scale action, as well as to make costumes, weapons and other necessary attributes, without which participation becomes impossible and meaningless.
Gradually, a special slang formed, so the conversations of role-players for an uninitiated person may not be clear. But society has its own writers, musicians and poets who not only speak a special dialect, but also compose literary works on it, write suitable music. They, like those who create armor for role players, are respected members of the community.
They can be hooligans
A role player is a member of peaceful communities created for entertainment and self-affirmation. But there are aggressive groups. They set a goal to disrupt the activities of other associations, to interfere with rallies, and some share a love of hallucinogenic mushrooms. They are called so - “Mushroom elves”. But if you do not take into account these negative phenomena, we can say that for the most part role-playing games whose games are not accessible to the general public are ordinary people.
Why do they do it
Some, having tried to take part in the event once, no longer decide to repeat such an experiment. No wonder. After all, a suit, equipment, payment of travel to the place of gathering takes a lot of money, but not everyone can afford it. Others are not satisfied with living conditions, not everyone agrees to live without the amenities that are used to in the city. For some, on the contrary, the opportunity to sit around the campfire amid wildlife is romance and incomparable pleasure.
People who regularly attend games do this for different purposes. Someone is attracted to large-scale battles, someone wants to get away from everyday problems. Fans of the role-playing movement, of course, cheer for everything to happen as close to virtual reality as possible, without deviating from the original.
But for most, such games are just a way to organize their leisure. At present, roleplayers take part in events that are held not only in nature. There are several varieties, for example in large and small rooms, in urban environments. The games differ in duration and purpose for which they are held. Some are only combat battles without outlining the main plot. Be that as it may, the role-player lives a segment of someone else's life.
How the event is organized
The game usually takes place under the leadership of the leader. It is he who possesses knowledge of what the action is dedicated to, in which direction it will develop. We must take into account any little things, even possible atmospheric changes. On his hands is a list of players, a description of their characters and destinies, that is, the result of their life, which they should come to at the end of the game. The leader monitors how everything goes, how the participants maintain conformity with the images, and after all, some have to be in someone else's guise for a long time. We can say that the role-playing game is similar to a lengthy performance in which the actors only improvise. Beginners are loved here and are always ready to give good advice. The main thing is to remember that the elders must be obeyed, otherwise you can suffer and suffer serious losses in the first battle.
A role player is also one who is involved in the reconstruction of grandiose historical events. In this case, the participant may not be a member of the community, but he will also have to make or purchase a costume that matches the theme of the event, prepare weapons, household items. Many specially master specific types of weapons, for example, bow, learn to ride horses in order to be able to participate in special types of battles, for example, in a knightly tournament. But roleplayers differ in that some recreate what really happened in reality, while others realize the author’s fantasies, allowing them to realize what existed only on paper.