Playing Pen and Paper: What it is and what you need

by Michaela

Pen and Paper has been around for a long time, but mainly due to the Corona pandemic and new possibilities like Skype, the role-playing game has become more and more popular. You can now play pen and paper with new people everywhere.

How to play Pen and Paper

Pen and Paper is derived from the English words for pen and paper. This already describes the basic tools that you need for a classic pen and paper game.

  • Normally, there are so-called character sheets on which you enter your name and special skills.
  • There is a set of rules for this. This sets out the world, its inhabitants and a rough storyline.
  • For example, there are rulebooks for detective adventures set in 19th century London
  • For such an adventure, there are also ready-made values. These also vary depending on the rulebook. In a detective adventure, for example, you need Stealth, but no Fire spell.
  • Depending on the rulebook, you receive a given number of skill points that you can distribute among your stats. In this way, you individualise your character. For example, if you want to be particularly strong, distribute more points to Strength instead of Speed.
  • If you want, you can also give your character a background story. Make sure that it corresponds to the world in which you are playing.
  • But for all the rules questions, there is still a game master. So in the beginning you should rather play a pen and paper player, because then the leader will explain everything to you.
  • The game leader also tells you what you know, can see and do. Often you will then have to roll on your given values to see, for example, if you are strong enough to prise open a door.

Pen and Paper for Beginners

There are many ways for beginners to get started with pen and paper.

  • First of all, you can ask for beginner-friendly pen and paper rulebooks in any specialised shop. A role-playing game that you can also play in pairs is Splittermond
  • Meanwhile, of course, there are plenty of online offerings for role-playing. Websites like How-to-be-a-Hero offer a simple character sheet to fill out and print out. You can then easily make up the rules to go with it. The website helps you to do this.
  • If you prefer a specific set of rules, there are corresponding forums, apps or websites that can help you specifically. For example, you can easily find a D&D group.
  • But there are also storytelling games as a precursor to the classic pen and paper. These come in book form and are similar to a story, except that you decide where to continue reading. You do not need a character sheet for this. You can find something like this, for example, at the System Matters publishing house.
  • Suspenseful articles and information about pen and paper can be found at dice-scroller.com.

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