Simply put, role-playing is make-believe for grown-ups.
Have you ever had a curse laid upon you by a powerful wizard? Had to fight a horrible monster? Seduced a princess? Tried to steal a dragon's treasure? Uncovered a plot to wipe out an entire race through biological warfare? Been attacked by bandits or hitmen?
Would you want to? Really? Probably not. Sounds like a lot of dangerous and nasty things. But, while you might not want to actually do those things, it can be quite fun to imagine doing them, in the safety and privacy of your own home, in the company of your friends. Doing paperwork or whatever all day every day can get quite boring; maybe you want some adventure in your life. But you probably won't last very long if you go downtown looking for drug dealers to defeat.
That's where role-playing comes in. Together with a small group of other people, you can enter an interactive fictional universe.
To avoid the problems that crop up in some children's make-believe ("I shoot you with my super-duper ray gun so now you're dead!" "No, I'm not, you missed me!" "Did not!" "Did too!"), one person is designated as the "DM" or "GM", ("dungeon master" or "game master") and acts as the narrator and referee for the game. Each of the other people create a fictional "character" whom they will pretend to be during the course of the game. Note that, usually, a player doesn't actually act out the physical actions of their character, they merely describe in words what their character is trying to do. The DM describes the surroundings to the players, who interact with each other and the DM's world and characters.
Done right, role-playing games can be more satisfying than other escapist activities like books, movies, or computer games. Unlike those others, social interaction is an essential part of role-playing. Unlike books or movies, you, as a player, get to decide what your character in the unfolding drama does.
I haven't yet said anything about role-playing "systems". You may have heard of "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" or other systems. (There are many.) Systems are a useful construct. They provide a way of quantitatively describing a character's skills and abilities, and a way of interpreting them, which lets the DM fairly and consistently decide what the results of actions by the characters will be. Sometimes the rules in a system are a bit odd, and don't really match reality, but they aren't necessarily supposed to be realistic. Get your gaming group to pick or create a system they can live with, and live with it.
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