What are some best practices for implementing a role-playing game system with multiple user accounts in PHP?

Issue: When implementing a role-playing game system with multiple user accounts in PHP, it is important to securely manage user authentication, permissions, and data access to ensure the integrity of the game. One best practice is to use sessions to store user information and roles, and to validate user permissions before allowing access to specific game features.

// Start a session to store user information
session_start();

// Check if the user is logged in
if(isset($_SESSION['user_id'])) {
    // Retrieve user information from database based on user_id
    $user = getUser($_SESSION['user_id']);
    
    // Check user permissions before allowing access to game features
    if($user['role'] == 'admin') {
        // Code to access admin features
    } else {
        // Code to access regular user features
    }
} else {
    // Redirect user to login page if not logged in
    header("Location: login.php");
    exit();
}

// Function to retrieve user information from database
function getUser($user_id) {
    // Database query to retrieve user information based on user_id
    // Return user information as an associative array
}