We see it in pop culture once in a while. An episode of the intensely popular show Community was based on it. The name “Dungeons and Dragons” is one that sticks to us as the ultimate geek experience — one that we envision to be a bunch of people sitting in a basement wearing costumes and immersing themselves in total fantasy.

To be honest, in some cases that's not too far off, and I think those types of players truly embody the beauty of traditional role playing games. Today, we think of Role Playing Games (RPGs) and immediately of the staple titles such as World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, and the Pokémon handheld games. Our idea is sitting in front of a computer grinding away at a character in hopes to make him a force to be reckoned with.

In traditional tabletop games that are played with paper, dice, and sometimes maps or miniatures, the element of building a character and making him deity-like is still there, but these games are not based on competition or individuality. Games like Dungeons and Dragons are all about co-operation, storytelling, and overcoming challenges using means of imagination that are impossible to replicate in video games. In the game, players come forth to challenges set out by the Dungeon Master (DM), who acts as a sort of referee as opposed to a protagonist. The DM role is incredibly important and many folks, including myself, put a lot of thought and effort into building the worlds for our players to explore.

I found my entry into the RPG world very recently with a former roommate of mine after watching the aforementioned Community episode. We headed to LA Mood, a popular game shop downtown, and pitched in some coin to buy the “red box,” which is essentially a starter kit with everything you need to get ready to play Dungeons and Dragons. Over the course of time, I routinely worked at my DM skills and learned the game fairly well. I now run a couple games and participate in some others. As someone who doesn't exactly get into fantasy as a genre, the gameplay of traditional RPGs is one experience that I can never get enough of and its sometimes corny setting is more than humorous. Fantasy still not your thing? There are tons of other settings for postapocalyptic, horror, western, sci-fi, you name it. Want a setting you're familiar with? They have all kinds of other systems: Star Wars, Marvel universe, Fallout, and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Tabletop games are sometimes said to be a dying industry. For traditional RPGs, this is more evident as the current Dungeons and Dragons edition is modelled after video games much to the dismay of older veterans of the game who want to create detailed characters in an immersive world. Currently, Pathfinder is a budding RPG system right now as it takes the elements of previous D&D systems and tweaks it slightly to offer a detailed and well balanced experience. Having said this, I also believe that getting more players into these hobbies might require some sort of similarity to computer games. I believe the RPG market desperately needs revitalization and I also believe that it will happen eventually as programmed games still are unable to beat the power of the imagination.

Video games are great and I enjoy them, but there's something about imagining yourself in fantastical worlds that makes the experience so much different from someone's pre-disposed image. There's something also to be said about the social aspect. It's incredibly fun to play these games with friends you hang around with as they totally open the ability to add humorous situations to which the players respond. These are not the kind of games where you want to kick your friend in the face because he wins every time.

The attitude I always get from a good session is, “That was awesome, guys. I can't wait for next week.” Take the leap and acquire the red box to see for yourself.