The Player's Experience

A role playing game is basically an interactive story. What makes it more exciting than other interactive stories is that basically anything can happen. So the players in a story are basically the audience, and the Game Master (GM) is the story teller. Naturally, their experiences are very different.

A GM has prepared the story. They have made the setting, placed the characters, planned the events. The players start the game knowing these things have happened. They know that there will be puzzles to solve and they know that danger can lurk behind any corner. So they must venture forth to experience the story, but do so carefully so they can live to see the ending.

As a player, there is a certain amount of guessing we  must do. Much as the audience always wonders what will happen next, we wonder what is up the GM's sleeves. But when we finally know what we are dealing with, we switch gears into problem solving mode. If you ever read a story where you think to yourself, if I had been there, I would have done things completely differently, well now you can.

That leads into how to play a role playing game. And the easiest answer to give is: try to imagine that you actually are your character and you actually are in this setting, then go and interact with the world.

The player's experience comes down to two thoughts: what am I supposed to do, and what can I do? Players who wish to follow the story are trying to figure out what the GM wants the player's to do. Player's who treat the setting as their personal playground (Chaotic Neutral) are finding what they can do and get away with it.

This is the only kind of story where you get to affect in a real way what happens next. Every roll of the dice is like a new page, which is unwritten until you see what number comes up.