Roleplaying game

A roleplaying game (RPG) is a type of game where players assume the roles of fictional characters via role-playing. At its core, an RPG is a form of interactive and collaborative storytelling. Whereas cinema, novels and television shows are passive, RPGs engage the participants actively, allowing them to simultaneously be audience, actor, and author.

In RPGs, participants play the parts of characters in an imaginary world that is organized, adjudicated, and sometimes created by a "gamemaster" or "GM," whose role is twofold: to describe a world and cast of characters for the players to interact with, and to adjudicate how these interactions proceed. He or she may also be responsible for advancing some kind of storyline or plot, albeit one which is subject to the somewhat unpredictable behavior of the players or outcome of the dice rolls.

There have been two producers of licensed Star Wars roleplaying products: West End Games, who produced Star Wars:The Roleplaying Game from 1987 until 1998; and Wizards of the Coast, who produced The Star Wars Roleplaying Game from 1999 until the present. Additionally, several unauthorized adaptations of Star Wars material have been made for other game systems.

The webcomic Darths & Droids is a parody based on the premise that the Star Wars story is an evolving campaign being played by players who have no prior knowledge of the setting, which has been invented by their GM.

Computer roleplaying games
The term roleplaying game is also used for certain video games where the player takes on the role of a character in an imaginary world, and makes choices which advance a story. These games are often based on the "table-top" or "pencil-and-paper" RPGs described above, and describe characters using their rules. However, without the improvisation of a Human gamemaster and other Human players, the storyline tends to be slightly more restricted.

While many Star Wars video and computer games have storylines and elements of roleplaying, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords are the only single-player computer roleplaying games set in the Star Wars galaxy. Both games are based on the mechanics of Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game. However, the creation of 'modifications' has led to an expanded RPG universe where one would not exist. Such an example includes Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy which has various groups implementing RPG modifications to turn a free-for-all into a roleplayable universe.

Another type of computer roleplaying game is the "Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game", or "MMORPG", where numerous players take on characters and interact online. Star Wars: Galaxies is the only Star Wars MMORPG. Its rules are not derived from either of the table-top RPGs.