Role-Playing Games, or RPGs, are games in which you make-up a character and act it out. They can be as simple as playing House or Cops & Robbers, or as complicated as the Middle-Earth Role-Playing System (set in the Lord of the Rings storyline). They, especially Dungeons & Dragons, got a negative reputation in the 1980’s for two reasons I know:

• The live-action playing of James Dallas Eggbert III and other groups in the steam tunnels of the University of Michigan led a private investigator looking into Eggbert’s disappearance to suspect he had overly identified with his character, which could have led to foul play or suicide. Eggbert was later found to have run away, and was safe and sound.
• Certain monsters based on Christian lore were called demons and devils, which characters (NOT PLAYERS) could use magic to call forth and interact with. This distinction between player and character was lost on the less mentally stable on both sides of the argument. The industry has recovered, largely due to them weeding themselves out and leaving greater understanding.