If you haven't been exposed to a role-playing game (or an RPG, as we veterans call them) before, it can be hard to imagine what one is. Let me start with the basics.

If you've ever played "Cops and Robbers" or "Cowboys and Indians" or hosted a tea party for your dolls as a child, or if you've ever acted out an episode of your favorite TV show, you've done role-playing. You simply take on a role and play it. You play a character in some kind of story.

The problem with role-playing games like "Cops and Robbers" is that they can degenerate into arguments. Usually, the pattern of the argument goes something like this:

Player 1: "Bang! I shot you!"
Player 2: "No, you didn't! You missed."
Player 1: "Did not! I hit you!"
Player 2: "No, you missed me!"
Player 1: "Did not!"
Player 2: "Did too!"
Player 1: "Cheater! I'm telling! Moooom...!"

Why does this happen? Because "Cops and Robbers" as a role-playing game is long on role-playing, but short on game: It doesn't have any rules for determining the outcome of a contested action. In other words, it doesn't give you a way to tell if your character succeeded at what he was attempting to do. Ruleless role-playing games can work fine when all the players are disciplined actors, but that description rarely applies to children.

In fact, it doesn't always apply to adults, either. That's why most modern role-playing games have rules, or "game systems." The game system is the thing that tells you if your character's punch connected with the imaginary bad guy, if your character's leap across the chasm fell short, or if your character was able to disarm the bomb before the timer reached zero. The exact means of determining this success or failure vary from system to system.

Some game systems are written in such a way that they intrinsically emphasize role-playing over the game system. Some systems are at the other end of the spectrum, emphasizing rules and tactics (both of which are aspects of the game system) over role-playing. Many systems fall somewhere in the middle.

For a one-page synopsis of "what is a role-playing game?", the best I've found so far is http://www.epmgames.com/Gaming.html. This is a Web site for what are called play-by-mail games, which is not the most popular type of role-playing game, so the rest of the site may not be relevant for you because it's directed at a specific audience. In contrast, the particular page that I linked to above is a very good high-level description of all role-playing games.

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/afira/roleplaying/handbook/what.html is from a Web site that discusses role-playing in great depth. This specific page contains a decent overview of what a role-playing game is. The authors also touch upon the various types of role-playing games. That's not something you'd need to learn, but it's always comforting when you hear a term and can say to yourself, "Yeah, I recognize that word. Don't know what it means, really, but I've seen it before."

http://members.aol.com/essuncius/cover3.html was written by a person who goes by the Web name of Uncle Figgy. It's the best-written and most comprehensive site I've seen on the topic of role-playing games. The nice thing is that this whole section of his Web site is written specifically for people who aren't gamers. The only downside to the site is that it takes a surprisingly long time to load. I encourage you to be patient while it loads; it'll be worth your while.