Do you remember when as children we told their friend "do you want to play pretend to be detectives who are looking for the villain?" Well at that time we were staging a role-playing game. Often the definition of RPG (role-playing), is lost in the vortex of the "neighbor" videogame world, but in itself it is exactly a game in which "pretends to", a game in which physical persons find and interpret fantasy characters. I have specified "physical persons" because with the evolution of technology, at the moment there are many virtual RPGs, but, with all due respect, role-playing games played by "actors" in the flesh, are a whole 'another thing and then are the pure and original RPG.

How does a RPG work? In the most classic case the elements that make up a role-playing game are: a master, the characters, a manual and possibly dice and character cards. The master is the one who tells the story, the engine of the game, the character among you who decides to be "the voice" and starts the dance by telling the atmosphere in every detail. "We are in a distant land, so far from having been forgotten even by God. Around us everything is clouded by thick pallets of fog, the soil is wet and muddy, every step we take causes an annoying -splash- in our ears and we hear the smell of wet earth, like after a storm. We move compact -splash, splash, splash- and we get to what looks like the entrance of a cave ... "Here's how the game would start a master who wants to" catapult "in a fantastic adventure; he is the narrator, the director, but also often interprets the enemies and the supporting characters and the heroes who meet along the way. And the others? The others are the main characters in the story! Each member of the group plays a very specific character, imagining the face, the expression of the eyes, the color of the hair, the clothes and so on. Often the context and characters with their abilities are described in detail in the game manual which also contains the rules. 

Elements that you can find in a table RPG are the character cards and the dice. The character cards are used to describe the one you are interpreting, to list his abilities and actions that are his own. On this sheet you can pin, for example, "the blows inflicted" in a session or "the increase in skills", is a sort of identity card of your character. The dice are used to punctuate actions when the chances of proceeding for arbitrary choices in the game are exhausted for example to determine who between two opponents comes out unscathed from a challenge. So it is enough friends, paper and pen, a manual and a couple of dice to mix strictly to a lot, lots of imagination to give life to a RPG!

But how long does it last? A RPG is divided into sessions, like the chapters of a story, and each session can last several hours, so it often does not end the game on an evening, but leaves itself pending at the end of a chapter from which the vault is taken next. This aspect is very beautiful and captivating because it means that the story "you never get tired", allows you to travel with your imagination even when the game is finished waiting "next episode" and stimulates your creative vein (as well as a good sorry to organize an evening with friends).

But maybe I underestimated you, maybe you are already experts in RPG, maybe you are so expert and passionate to want to create your own. If so, you have all my esteem and approval, let me just give you some advice about it.

First of all you play, you play a lot of different role-playing games with different groups so not only with your group of trusted friends with whom you play every week at D & D! It is important to understand not only what pleases you, but also what prefers the community; on the other hand, if you want to do an RPG and sell it you must take into account the tastes of others. But the main question you have to think about is "why would someone want to buy my game?", Ie what could push a player not to buy D & D, but your creation? You must understand and be able to communicate the strengths that characterize and distinguish your game from the crowd; It will therefore be fundamental for you to blend your creative nature with innovation. A strategic step to take is to inform the community about your intention to start a personal role playing game and update them from time to time about your progress. You do not have to make them a tedious periodic review, they are not your "dear diary", but make the "healthy spoiler" to create already the fans and the curious who will probably buy your game. That said, once the story has been written, it is necessary to transform your notebook in a real script and here you need an Editor, possibly one that of RPG understands it because it is associated with a type of slang that is often unknown to newbies. Not bad is the idea of ​​submitting the writing to a Proofreader that can, as external, give a last correction to the elaborate post-editing; the improvements are never too many and the commas are tiny little things that often get out of sight. 

Finally the last but not least, a graphic because the graphics are essential, good graphics are essential! It often attracts people more than the text itself! Ok suppose your game manual is finally ready, what to do? You sell it? NO! You must ABSOLUTELY have it tested, otherwise who tells you if it "works"? Obviously it should not be tested by friends, they could be used to the maximum to understand if the logic and the mathematics that are at the base work; you have to test it from outside so you can go to the fairs, to the CON or to the Associations near home. Mark everything that is told to you, especially marks the criticism and difficulties that emerge playing so you can try again with friends to check how much you pinned and "adjust the shot" and then propose it to those who have advanced these opinions and see if indeed now it has improved. Well the manual is there, the game works, the positive feedback is many and representative ... convinces you, you seem to have left out anything, you feel and feel ready. You sell it? NO! I'm joking, yes, sell it, but know that it will not be easy here, it is a niche market and sales channels are not easy and often not very cheap, but try not harm and then it is right to try, maybe you discover you have created the game century! The important thing, before thinking of a profit, is to return production costs, after which everything that goes above them is positive! The ways in which you could sell are: E-shop (optimize revenue / costs and is a valuable way to become known as an author), POD (Print on Demand is a system that allows you to reach a large circle of buyers. shipping may be alarming, but there are several ways to get around and also many discounts to use), Warehouse (direct sales.You must print a large number of copies, have a physical place in which to keep them and take care of logistics and shipping. I recommend it if you are a beginner), Fairs and Con (they cost a lot, a lot, but also give a lot of visibility and allow you to "hit" directly the experts in the field.If you can afford them, these undoubtedly represent an investment in the future).

Here I think I told you everything, if you liked this article and it was useful, you could "browse" our blog and go to the search for other interesting news!

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