What is an RPG?
This game is meant for experienced players and game masters. If you have never played a pen-and-paper RPG before, it is highly recommended that you first become acquainted with an easier one (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, for instance) before you start playing Eternal Worlds. However, I wont stop you if you wish to read on, and Ill even give you a brief introduction.
Role-playing games are very different from any other kind of game. In most other games you only have a certain number of possible courses of action, and you must decide which is the best in order to win. Role-playing works differently: you can try to do anything you want, and there are no winners and losers. So what exactly is role-playing?
First of all you create a character. This is a person with a personality, with abilities, strengths and weaknesses, possessions and everything else a person would have. You play this character. This doesnt mean you have to dress up as the character; it means that in every situation you come across you must decide what your character will do. Suppose for instance that you are a thief running away from the local police force; suddenly, you come across a chasm. What will you do? Will you try to jump across? Will you try to climb down into the chasm? Will you run in another direction? Will you turn around and fight the police? Or maybe you think it is more prudent to stop resisting arrest. It is your choice.
However, you should keep in mind that you must not make these decisions as if you were you, but as if you were your character. Maybe you are playing a very cowardly person? In that case, you might well decide that your character decides to give up running away. Maybe you play a very foolhardy guy who tries to jump across without thinking twice. Ensuring that your character behaves in a consistent way, true to his character, is the most important part of role-playing.
So how does your character become involved in situations? You play an RPG with a number of friends, and one of them is the Game Master, or GM. He (or she, I will use the word he from here on since it is shorter than he/she) creates an environment with which your characters can interact, and decides if what you try to do does or does not work.
Furthermore, there are rules. These are meant to make clear what a character can and cannot do. How do you find out who wins in a fight? What can characters do with magic? What are the strengths and weaknesses of characters? Most of the rest of this book consists of rules that give answers to questions like these.
To make this all a little clearer, lets look at an example. A number of player characters, called a party, have entered a small town. They are Sermos, a human soldier wielding a great sword, played by Bill; Melissa, a priestess of the Goddess of Light, played by John; and Aranami, a small gnome who makes a living by stealing, played by Judith. It is late and they are tired, so they decide to enter a tavern, even though it looks a little seedy.
Bill: We enter the tavern. By the way, what is it called?
Game Master: The signpost is unreadable, you dont know the name of the tavern. When you open the door you see a dark and smoky interior. It is pretty crowded, about 30 men are drinking beer and gambling. In the back is a bar with a bartender.
Melissa: What a horrific atmosphere! Lets ask the bartender if he has a room very quickly; I dont want to be in this common room any longer than necessary.
Judith: Yes, I agree. Sermos, you go first.
Bill: Ok, I go to the barkeep.
GM: (to Judith and John) You follow him?
Judith/John: Yes.
GM: When you are halfway through the room, a man suddenly squeezes Melissas bottom.
John: What?! Do I know who did it?
GM: Yes, its the guy who is grinning lecherously at you right now.
John: I tell him Get your hands off me!
Bill: I turn around to find out what is happening.
GM: The man says to Sermos: I want your woman, how much do you ask for her? He seems to be drunk.
Bill: He is insulting Melissa. I dont like that. I grab him by the throat and tell him to bugger off.
Judith: This doesnt look too good, I sneak away quietly towards the door.
GM: Ok. Sermos grabs the man, but his friends dont seem to like it. One to the left takes a dagger from his belt and moves towards Melissa. Another to the right takes hold of a chair and lifts it in the air, aiming at Sermos. Aranami is creeping back unnoticed.
Bill: I throw the drunk towards his friend with the chair and draw my sword.
John: I take hold of my own dagger and defend myself against the other guy.
Judith: Well, since everybody is probably looking in their direction, Ill try to get my hands on some purses.
A bar fight follows, using the rules given in the rest of this book. What happens depends on the actions the players take and the GMs decisions. Maybe Sermos imposing figure will stop anyone else from attacking him, and the fight doesnt escalate. Or maybe he will have to fight a bloody battle against half the bar.
One thing to bear in mind is that a player, when saying I, can mean either himself or his character. Bill might say I grab my sword. In that case he is talking about his character. If he says I dont think Sermos wants a bar fight I tell Melissa to move along quietly, he is talking about himself in the first case, and about his character in the second. It is (almost) always clear what someone means.
What is the goal of an RPG? Basically, there is no way to win or lose. The goal is to have fun. Of course, your characters have goals; they might want to solve a murder, become very rich, see the world, learn about magic, fight evil, fight good, or anything else. And they can die, or be imprisoned, or meet any number of tragic endings. But you have not won if your character achieves a goal, and you have not lost if he dies. It is more important to role-play well sometimes this might even get your character killed. (From the illustrious list of famous last words comes the example of a character who found himself in a high-tech world. He encountered a grenade: pull pin and throw'. So he pulled out the pin, and threw it the pin that is, the grenade in his hand ending his life a few seconds later. He died, but played his role in a grand way. Thats the spirit!
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Nee serieus, het is niet erg geschikt voor een beginnende roleplayer, maar er staat wel wat info over wat roleplayen eigenlijk is in de inleiding.
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). Ook kennen de meesten wel de stats van de standaard monstertjes (Zombies, Skeletons, Orcs, Kobolds en Goblins) uit hun hoofd. En onze DM staat te zwak in zijn schoenen en is veel te toegeeflijk. Bijvoorbeeld, onze elf ranger (lvl ÉÉN) vraagt: "Mag ik een Mighty Magic Composite Longbow +4, want dat maakt mijn character gaver (en beter)." DM: "Ja hoor, maar dan moet je wel wat dingen weglaten." Dus meneer loop keurig rond met zijn ziekelijk goed boog en heeft zijn zwaardjes thuisgelaten. 
Afgezien van het feit dat 'nuttigheid' wellicht niet het enige is waar je een character op uit zoekt (in mijn geval is het zelfs een nauwelijks ter zaken doende factor), is het ook onzin om te zeggen dat alleen een standaard fighter nuttig is. Kijk, hij is goed in vechten - maar hij is ongetwijfeld ook goed in intimideren en zo, dus waarom zou hij per se moeten vechten? (Het is wel logisch dat je af en toe vecht, want hoe ben je anders ooit een fighter geworden?) Dat van dat goud snap ik overigens echt niet?
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