Can anyone reccommend any good resources, in print on or the net, for someone who's never role-played to get a good idea of how RPGs "work"? Good starter texts to bring more people into the hobby, that sort of thing.

Well, the best thing is to just do it. RPGs seem to be one of those things that's best learned by doing. It doesn't really work when you describe it. I mean it doesn't sound all that appealing broken down like that. ANd even then you really don't get a sense of it.

I mean, a lot of people ask me "Why do you play role-playing games?" My response is "Why watch a movie?" "Why read a book?" Role-playing games allow you to experience exciting things you might otherwise never get to see or are impossible to see. The difference is, the role-playing game character is not born out of someone else's imagination and you must live viacariously through this fictional person, holding on during the roller-coaster ride of the story as it follows the track. No. You control the game character. What happens during the game is directly influenced by your own decisions and actions. So a better response might be "Why climb a mountain?" "Why swim an ocean?" The adventures you expeince while role playing are your own. Not someone else.

You could also reccomend Sean Patrick Fannon's Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible. It's currently in its second edition. The first section addresses just this question, along with a guide to what one is likely to encounter when wandering into gamerland for the first time. The second section is an anatomy of a typical game and play session. The third is a history fo the roleplaying hobby, and the fourth is a review of SPF's top ten games.

Lon

"Uncle Figgy's guide to roleplaying for non-roleplayers" is a decent enough resource.