Pen and paper

The game is conducted through speech in a small social gathering. The GM describes the game world and its inhabitants. The other players describe the intended actions of their characters, and the GM describes the outcomes.^[15] Some outcomes are determined by the game system, and some are chosen by the GM.^[16]
This is the format in which role-playing games were first popularized. The first commercially available RPG, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), was inspired by fantasy literature and the wargaming hobby and was published in 1974.^[17] The popularity of D&D led to the birth of the pen-and-paper role-playing game industry, which publishes games with a wide variety of themes, rules, and styles of play.^[18]
This format is often referred to simply as a role-playing game. To distinguish this form of RPG from other formats, the retronyms pen and paper role-playing game or tabletop role-playing game are sometimes used, though neither pen and paper nor a table are strictly necessary.^[4]