Uncle Figgy's Guide to Roleplaying for Non-Roleplayers: A Manual for Parents, Friends, and Gamers

From the introduction: You have a friend at school who tells you she can't go out on Saturday because she's "gaming". You ask her if she means Monopoly or poker or something like that and she tells you that no, she's "roleplaying -- it's sort of like Dungeons and Dragons". You've heard stories about kids worshiping the devil or committing suicide because of games like that, so naturally you're concerned. Or maybe you're a parent and your twelve-year-old son has just come home from a weekend at his friend's house raving about a neat new game his friend's older brother introduced him to in which there is no board, no cards and very few rules but lots of strange dice. All the action takes place in your imagination, he tells you, and he was playing a priest of the god Essun or something like that and he used spells to kill evil monsters. You've heard of something like this involved with psychopathic killers so you're genuinely concerned about your child. Or maybe you've been playing roleplaying games (RPGs) for a little while and your parents are asking a lot of questions that you're not prepared to answer. That is what this Uncle Figgy's Guide is for: To allay your fears about your friend's well-being or your child's mental health, or to help you discuss the nature of RPGs with your family and friends.