Role-playing culture
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Practitioners and people who know the tradition well
In Finland, role-playing is practised primarily in small, informal groups in which knowledge is transmitted from more experienced players to new ones, but it is also visible in large events and in organised association-based activities. There are tens of thousands of practitioners, but because of the diversity and nature of the culture, it is impossible to estimate an exact number. The community of practitioners is diverse in terms of background: some have only recently begun, some have continued for decades, and others have returned to a hobby from their childhood or youth later in adulthood. The tradition has also been transmitted to younger generations.
Role-playing games are practised in many ways, the central forms being tabletop role-playing games and live action role-playing games (“larps”). Within the culture there are different orientations and thematic emphases, but they are united by a broader role-playing culture. Role-playing also has points of connection, for example, with cosplay, boffer combat and miniature gaming.
Role-playing strongly involves cooperation and social interaction. Although role-playing games are mainly played face to face, digital platforms such as remote gaming services, websites, social media and streaming platforms have over the years become important tools for the culture.
Many localities have various role-playing groups and communities, ranging from informal groups of a few people to large, registered associations with dozens or hundreds of members. In addition to hobby groups and clubs, there are also many online communities devoted to the topic. Some of these have been established as communication channels for practitioners in a particular area, while others function nationally as organisations supporting the hobby. Practitioners may belong simultaneously to several different groups focused on discussing the hobby or seeking gaming company. In addition to Finnish groups, many practitioners also belong to international communities.
Practising of the tradition
Role-playing games are collaborative acts of imagination in which participants immerse themselves in their characters and jointly develop events in the game world with the support of rules. The games combine storytelling, improvisation, game mechanics and play into a distinct form of activity.
In tabletop role-playing games, play takes place through discussion and description; in live action role-playing games, or larps, it takes place through embodied action; and in text-based role-playing, for example through correspondence between characters or by describing the progression of the story in writing. Regardless of the form of role-playing, the game narrative progresses through shared storytelling. Especially in tabletop role-playing games, one player usually acts as the game master, who creates the plot of the game, describes the game world and its events, and controls the non-player characters of the game world.
Unlike many other games, the purpose in role-playing games is not to defeat the other players. Often this is not even possible. Instead, the games are generally based on cooperation with others. Role-playing games usually use some kind of rule system that includes mechanics related to the characteristics and skills of player characters or to the structure of the story. The rules guide the internal logic of the shared game world, but the players improvise their characters’ actions in an imagined reality, and the rules are applied according to the situation. Especially in tabletop role-playing games, randomness is often used in different situations, for example in combat to determine whether a character’s attacks hit their enemies, in which case dice rolls are used as random variables.
Role-playing games can be played in many ways. Games may be played as one-session stand-alone games, but also as campaigns lasting for years or even decades, in which the story continues from one session to the next. Players may either create their own character and invent a background story for them, or they may receive a pre-generated character created by the game master. During the game, characters may develop, for example by learning new skills, but they may also be injured or even die. The rules of the game define how such situations are handled.
Role-playing games are diverse in content. Settings and themes vary from fantasy to historical or realistic environments, and gameplay may focus, for example, on human relationships and challenges or social issues. Games may stylistically represent adventure, suspense, horror, comedy or drama.
The table culture of role-playing is mostly tacit knowledge on practices of interaction, the dynamics between game master and players, and ways of building a shared imagined world. The culture of play and forms of interaction vary from game to game and from group to group. These practices are often learned through participation from more experienced practitioners. Game masters occupy a central role: they design the events of the game, interpret the rules during play, and guide new players into the hobby.
Role-playing culture also includes its own material culture and the making of such items. Practitioners may, for example, collect different kinds of dice or rulebooks used in role-playing games. In live action role-playing games, costumes and accessories such as clothing, armour or self-made jewellery are used to support immersion in the character and the game world. In relation to the making of costumes and props, role-playing culture has points of contact with cosplay.
Miniature figures and related model landscapes are sometimes used in tabletop role-playing games to model situations. Miniature games themselves are not, however, role-playing games, even though some of them may contain role-playing-like features, such as the development of characters between or during games. The distinguishing feature is the core idea of role-playing games: immersion in an individual character and action in an imagined world through that character.
The background and history of the tradition
Role-playing games in their current form developed in the twentieth century under the influence of war-gaming traditions and literature. Miniature war games and rule-based simulation created the basis for the game structure, and fantasy literature in particular inspired the first role-playing games. The role-playing game ruleset Dungeons & Dragons, published in 1974, established a game form in which one participant acts as the game master and the others immerse themselves in characters in a shared imagined world. Alongside tabletop role-playing games, live action role-playing emerged at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s as a new form of role-playing. In these games, players act physically as their characters. Compared with tabletop role-playing, live action role-plays or larps require much more preparation, for example in terms of spaces and equipment. Live action role-playing is also connected with hobby sword-fighting with padded weapons, known as boffering, which has since grown into its own hobby culture with its own events and tournaments.
The first Finnish role-players had already begun playing in the 1970s. The hobby began to become more common in Finland in 1985, when games started to be commercially imported into the country. Specialist role-playing game shops were established in the largest cities. The Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game was published in Finnish in 1988.
The first Finnish role-playing game, The Secret Treasure of Raguoc in the Acirema Dungeons, was published in 1985 by Risto “Nordic” Hieta. In the 1990s, an active fanzine and self-publishing culture developed among practitioners. In the 2000s, domestic publishing expanded and diversified, and crowdfunding enabled new forms of publication.
Through fanzines and later through online communities, practitioners shared rules and game materials. This culture of self-publishing and small publications laid the foundation for Finnish game design and strengthened the continuity of the tradition as an activity of practitioners themselves. The DIY-tradition continues today, for example in podcasts and streaming content created by practitioners for one another, such as actual play broadcasts, in which the events of role-playing games are published in audio or video form.
Over the decades role-playing culture has grown from a marginal phenomenon into a widely recognised part of Finnish game culture. In Finland, role-playing is strongly connected with association activity, voluntary work and small-group-based culture. As a commercial phenomenon, role-playing is visible in events and in the selections of game shops.
The transmission of the tradition
The role-playing tradition is transmitted primarily informally in small groups, in which more experienced practitioners guide new participants in the practices, rules and shared ways of playing. Alongside informal gaming groups, there are various role-playing groups and communities in different parts of Finland, many of which are also open to new practitioners. In these groups, a beginner can try role-playing but also receive guidance from more experienced practitioners about different aspects of the hobby. Finland also has several local and national registered associations that promote role-playing culture. The first local role-playing association was Kaksi Kuuta ry, founded in Vihti in 1983 and still active. A modern example of an organisation that promotes and transmits the tradition is Suomen roolipeliseura ry, which operates nationwide.
Each year, several different gaming events are organised in Finland that include programme related to role-playing games, such as role-playing itself, lectures on the subject and various workshops. These events provide places to gather, visibility and low-threshold opportunities for new practitioners. Ropecon, the largest volunteer-run role-playing event in Finland and the Nordic countries, has been organised annually since 1994. The event has continued to grow, and in 2025 more than 10,000 visitors attended over the course of the weekend. Other Finnish fan conventions include, among others Hypecon in Hyvinkää and Tracon in Tampere, which also include programme related to role-playing.
Game shops selling role-playing games and related accessories have been established in the largest localities. Some of these shops also offer gaming spaces and opportunities to find players, so that the game shops may become gathering places for practitioners in the area. In addition, some libraries and youth centres run by municipalities and parishes in Finland organise role-playing activities either regularly or occasionally. Role-playing games are suitable for practitioners from children to adults, which makes them useful, for example, in guided youth activities. Role-playing culture also has an active international dimension through various online groups, social media channels and international events.
Documentation of the tradition
Role-playing culture is documented primarily by the actors involved in it themselves. The history of role-playing culture includes a great deal of magazines, online publications and blogs, podcasts and videos published by the practitioner community for itself. Through these role-playing traditions have been documented and have accumulated for later use by practitioners. Through online communities, forums and social media, a large amount of discussion related to the culture has also been preserved in digital environments.
The culture contains a great deal of tacit knowledge held by practitioners and other organisations. This knowledge is transmitted forward both in different gaming situations and at events from more experienced to newer practitioners. In this way, the culture is passed on, while at the same time it continues to develop through new generations of practitioners.
The Finnish Museum of Games (Suomen Pelimuseo) participates in documenting Finnish game culture as a museum connected with the subject. Its collections also include material related to Finnish role-playing culture.
Sustainable development
Role-playing culture is primarily intangible cultural heritage related to social interaction. For this reason, the hobby is rather ecologically sustainable and does not require, for example, a large amount of equipment or material resources.
Through online video conferencing and remote gaming platforms, it is now possible to role-play regardless of distance. This has enabled practitioners living in different localities to participate in shared games without travelling.
Within role-playing culture, there is currently recurring discussion about the use of artificial intelligence in role-playing. Opinions on the matter vary, but most are critical of the use of artificial intelligence. The main reason given is that AI programs use content created by people, such as illustrations and written publications, without permission. Since human creativity and imagination are often seen as important in role-playing content, the use of artificial intelligence is therefore considered problematic.
Role-playing culture has also visibly taken a stand in support of the rights of sexual and gender minorities. Large role-playing events in particular prominently emphasise the principles of a safer space, train harassment contact persons and promote issues relating to gender and sexual diversity.
The future of the tradition
Over the years, role-playing hobby culture has adapted in step with technological development, making use, for example, of remote gaming platforms and the possibilities of social media. This has enabled participation also in geographically dispersed groups. Although digital tools are used in the hobby, face-to-face play remains for many a central opportunity to meet other like-minded practitioners.
In recent years, the hobby has also benefited from the visibility of its best-known games in the media. Films and digital games have been made based on game worlds, and role-playing games have appeared in television series such as The Big Bang Theory and Stranger Things. From 2021 to 2024 the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle produced RopeLive broadcasts, in which tabletop role-playing games were played in live online broadcasts. Many public figures have also spoken about their role-playing hobby.
The range of role-playing games today is diverse. In particular, a large number of English-language games are published each year. In addition to these, Finnish role-playing games are also published by several different creators, both commercially and on a hobby basis.
The continuity of the tradition is based primarily on voluntary work, association activity and self-directed small-group culture. Maintaining the activity requires bringing in new practitioners and securing accessible and safe gaming spaces in different parts of the country.
A large proportion of role-playing practitioners are adults. For the continuity of the hobby, it is important that new and younger practitioners find their way to the tradition. For this reason, for example, promoting different gaming events and youth hobby clubs is particularly important for the future of the hobby.
The future of role-playing in Finland appears strong, provided that its communal and self-directed basic nature is preserved in a changing cultural environment.
The community/communities behind this submission
- Alter Ego ry
- Eru
- Harmaasudet ry
- Heittämättömän Arwan Kilta
- Hepro - Helsingin pöytäroolipelaajat ry
- Hit Point -pelitila
- Hypecon
- Hyvinkään kaupungin nuorisopalvelut
- Kaksi Kuuta ry
- Kalikos - Suomen Glorantha-seura ry
- Keurope
- Oulun yliopiston roolipelikerho CRYO ry
- Ropecon ry
- Suomen pelimuseo
- Suomen roolipeliseura ry
- Todellisuuspakolaiset ry
- Tracon ry
Bibliography and links to external sources of information
Wikipedia-articles related to the topic
- Knuktepunkt
- Live-action role playing game
- Role-playing game
- Ropecon
- Play-by-post role-playing game
- Tabletop role-playing game