Picture this: you find yourself in a social setting with your coworkers. The alcohol has loosened everyone’s tongues and eventually, the conversation turns to people’s hobbies and past-times. It’s not long before your turn to share comes. At this juncture, three options are laid before you:
A. Smile and nod as you pretend to enjoy yoga, football, climbing, or any other currently in-vogue hobby you deem to be sufficiently “normal”. What are you doing? Haven’t you got the memo? This isn’t the 90s anymore. Geeks are cool now.
B. Proudly proclaim your affection for roleplaying. You are asked to elaborate, and you launch into the same carefully-practiced spiel for the thousandth time: “You see, a roleplaying game is like a collaborative storytelling activity, a shared narrative. One player usually is the ‘game master’ or ‘GM’, who sets the stage, while other players take on the role of different characters…”. After five minutes, you stop to catch your breath. Your coworkers smile politely and are put off roleplaying forever.
C. Run a quick roleplaying scenario for them right then and there. Good idea! But what system to use? You certainly wouldn’t want to free-form it, not for first-time players. At the same time, you’d like for them to create characters, but is there time for that? And where are you going to find dice?
If you go with option C, The Handy RPG is here for you. It features an intuitive way to create characters on the go and a simple rock-paper-scissors resolution mechanic. This means that you can play it anywhere, anytime using just your hands, making it perfect for introducing roleplaying to anyone (including but not limited to coworkers, parents, and assorted non-gamer friends).