S.P.R.A.L.:

What The Heck is it, Anyway?


If there are some important questions that you'd like answered, but that aren't on the FAQ, E-Mail them to me at [email protected].

What is S.P.R.A.L.? S.P.R.A.L. stands for "System Playing Role Action Live". This makes much more sense if you flip it the other way around and read it as "Live Action Role Playing System". Some of you might think, "hey, why didn't you just name the group LARPS?" Well there are a few reasons for that, the only important one being that LARPS has already been used.

Still confused? Hold on, it gets better.

Well, we play role-playing games, more specifically live action role-playing games, and even more specifically we play games by a company called White Wolf Game Studios.

Wait, back up. What is role playing?

Don't worry about it, I get asked this question quite a bit. Role playing games are like a grown up version of make believe. Remember when you were a little girl and you used to pretend that your Barbie doll's vinyl jumpsuit was combat fatigues and that her little pink hair dryer was an AK-47? No? Well, that's okay...everyone played make-believe when they were little. Role playing games help you remember how.

So, imagine getting together with a bunch of your friends (S.P.R.A.L. games have been recorded at in between forty and fifty participants during peak periods) and writing a story. You create a character, and decide what that character does, what she says, and so forth. To add in a random factor, systems of dice throws are written and used, along with attribute ratings and skill categories to help calculate the probability of an action succeeding. That's table top role playing.

What's all this "live action" stuff?

Well, as much fun as sitting around a table rolling dice is on a fine Sunday afternoon, some of us want more. Live action involves no dice. When you live action, you don't say "my character does this," or "my character says this", you just do/say what your character does/says. It's like acting in a play, except there's no script, no audience, you get to choose who you want to play, and...well...all the world's a stage!

The rules we play by here at S.P.R.A.L. can be found in White Wolf's "Mind's Eye Theatre" line of books, including such books as Laws of the Wild, Laws of the Night, and The Shining Host. It's a fine system, and the games, well, each has it's own merits. The games are set in the "World of Darkness", which is pretty much the same as the real world, except a little more twisted, a little darker. For more information, be sure and visit your local game/comic book shop.

So, why do you roleplay?

Because it's fun. Because it is a creative outlet, a chance to get together with friends, and to some extent, be someone else for a few hours every week. You also get to wear alot of black clothing...trenchcoats seem pretty popular.

But I thought rolepaying games were evil...aren't they?

I don't think so. I would've noticed by now. I'm a perfectly nice person, and I roleplay. I think that it's the one or two out of a million gamers that do go crazy and get all the headlines that give roleplaying a bad name. The thing to remember here is that these kids were unstable before they found roleplaying games. they would've snapped at some point regardless, probably in a post office somewhere.

If you are schizophrenic, or for some other reason have an already faulty grip on reality, roleplaying games are probably best avoided. As for concerns over drugs and sexual activity involved in roleplaying games, I would like to say that none of the games I have been in have involved illegal substances or sexual activity that I knew of. Again, it's most likely that people would continue to have sex and do drugs if roleplaying games didn't exist. It's the people, not the games.