Ertuğrul Süngü, Barbaros Bostan Chapter 3 Te Evolution of Role-Playing Game Communities in Turkey and Teir Efects on Creative Industries Te Evolution of Role-Playing Culture in Turkey From Spacewar to the persistent multiplayer worlds of the 21st century, video games have moved from subculture to mainstream industry and various genres also have emerged. Among the genres, role-playing games (RPGs) require spe- cial attention, and readers of this chapter should be familiar with the concept of role-playing. RPGs are interactive worlds where players assume the roles of fctional characters and determine their own actions based on the character they play. Players typically follow a storyline in a fctional world and interact with other player (PCs) or non-player characters (NPCs) to complete missions and achieve various goals. As the player completes quests and overcomes conficts, his/her character advances in levels and becomes stronger. Tabletop fantasy RPGs have parallels to wargames and educational simulations, but they focus more on the role and player choices are virtually unlimited (Fine, 1983). Te key diference between tabletop RPGs (or FRPs) and computer RPGs is that the video game is no longer a collectively produced fantasy and takes place within strictly defned parameters (Apperley, 2006). Tese games were being played in many cities in Turkey, especially in İstanbul in the mid-1990s. To make a more detailed examination of the evolution and the current state of this subculture, an analysis of the late 1990s’ FRP Cafés would be undeniably noteworthy. Sales of FRP materials in İstanbul began in 1995 with the foundation of Büyük Mavi Company. Aforementioned company imported popular 1990s fantastic fc- tion novels and essential rulebooks to play FRP games. ADandD 2nd Edition books, which already had an immense fan base abroad, quickly started to meet with the target audiences in bigger cities like İstanbul and Ankara. Before these imports started to arrive in Turkey, diferent system books were produced and many fantastic fction books were in print and/or hitting the presses. As a result of this, in a short amount of time, a myriad of FRP games were played. Similarly, books that are still being talked about, such as Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s Dragon Lance and R.A. Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms series, were printed in this era and reached audiences in Turkey concurrently.