Tun Kai Poh
Hero
I wanted to springboard a discussion off this really interesting point made in the "Limits of my Language" thread.
Because of the sprawling diversity of the games that have been called Roguelike, the discussion at the conference produced a list of qualities that were not meant to be an exclusive and definitive list of what was or was not Roguelike. Instead,
Most interestingly, developers have come up with revised lists to account for the newer generations of Roguelikes (and the "Roguelite" genre that includes games like Spelunky and Hades).
So...we could come up with a list of qualities of TTRPGs that the genre shares, but not every game needs to have all of those qualities. I'm not sure of the utility of this, but we do love to make lists and definitions, don't we?
I'm sure there's a way we can come up with a list of qualities that TTRPGs share, in a similar way to how the 2008 International Roguelike Development Conference in Berlin came up with a list of qualities that define a Roguelike computer game.Kind of tangent, but…
I think that the main problem with any kind of TTRPG discussion, theory, and whatnot is the fuzziness of the term itself. If:
…is TTRPGing, then, what isn't? At which point we can say that activity X isn't a TTRPG? Even the “tabletop” part is a questionable criterion — we live in 2E 21 and a lot of games are played online, and even before that, many games don't really have a use for a table.
- Solving tactical and strategic problems in hostile, “fantasy Vietnam” environment…
- Char-op and hacking and slashing…
- Immersing oneself in an imaginary world, speaking in funny voices and all that…
- Experiencing a linear, GM-authored story with an agreement between the participants to not “break” it…
- Collaborative storytelling in a director stance and all that genre emulation jazz…
- Playing a solo game with journaling and random tables to generate prompts…
Of course people butt heads all the ####ing time! Why wouldn't they?
Because of the sprawling diversity of the games that have been called Roguelike, the discussion at the conference produced a list of qualities that were not meant to be an exclusive and definitive list of what was or was not Roguelike. Instead,
If a game had a number of these qualities, we could say that a game is "more Roguelike" or "less Roguelike" than a particular example based on these criteria.Missing some points does not mean the game is not a roguelike. Likewise, possessing some points does not mean the game is a roguelike.
Most interestingly, developers have come up with revised lists to account for the newer generations of Roguelikes (and the "Roguelite" genre that includes games like Spelunky and Hades).
So...we could come up with a list of qualities of TTRPGs that the genre shares, but not every game needs to have all of those qualities. I'm not sure of the utility of this, but we do love to make lists and definitions, don't we?