Unpopular opinions go here

[Tony Vargas]

This is factually wrong and seems excruciatingly pedantic. Yes, the phrase "tabletop RPG" was coined after the publication of the first D&D books.

I'd say technically correct, and excruciatingly pedantic. You can point further back to other 'first' RPGs, too, if you want, in retrospect...

 

[overgeeked]

If GM-less RPGs are TTRPGs, and they are, then online videogames can and regularly do meet any worthwhile definition of TTRPG.

Eh. Tabletop vs video game. That's torturing the definition more than a bit. A tabletop RPG is designed to be played around the table, even if you end up playing around a virtual tabletop. That's fundamentally different from a video game, which is designed to be played on a computer, hence the common designation of CRPG.

 

[Cadence]

If GM-less RPGs are TTRPGs, and they are, then online videogames can and regularly do meet any worthwhile definition of TTRPG.

So the tt is either completley meaningless or no longer has anything to do with the two t's being table and top? (Which is fine, I'm just struggling to figure out why we use it then).

 

[overgeeked]

I'd say technically correct

You'd still be wrong.

and excruciatingly pedantic.

That's true at least.

You can point further back to other 'first' RPGs, too, if you want, in retrospect...

That's a whole book for Jon Peterson to write.

 

[payn]

So the tt is either completley meaningless or no longer has anything to do with the two t's being table and top? (Which is fine, I'm just struggling to figure out why we use it then).

I mean, its a VTT as in virtual table top. So, its far from meaningless, IMO. If you want to get rid of all categorizations and just call everything TTRPG, that will be very confusing. This is only problematic because of folks trying to say things they dont like are not an RPG at all. YMMV.

 

[Cadence]

I mean, its a VTT as in virtual table top. So, its far from meaningless, IMO. If you want to get rid of all categorizations and just call everything TTRPG, that will be very confusing. This is only problematic because of folks trying to say things they dont like are not an RPG at all. YMMV.

I am super with RPG being a big tent.
I am super with ttRPGs being able to use online character generators or virtuatl table tops or virtual dice rollers or using a computer to simulate some special little device to generate random numbers.
I agree that calling everything a ttRPG would be strange.
I'm just not sure anymore what is in the gap between RPG and ttRPG going by the things above in this thread.

I guess this is the unpopular opinions thread, so here goes:

If a game (the game itself, not your playgroup implmentation of it) requires a computer (or super-phone, tablet, or video-game system) for folks to reasonably play it, then it isn't a ttRPG - even if they sit around a table to do it.

 

[Tony Vargas]

This is only problematic because of folks trying to say things they dont like are not an RPG at all.

I do like 1e AD&D, I would not be terribly put out by a definition of TTRPG that excluded it.

There are numerous games I don't care for, or even starkly dislike - GURPS, Space Opera, DragonQuest, RoleMaster, Mechwarrior, etc - that I see no particular grounds for excluding from such a definition.

Tho, I can think of instances in the edition war of accusations like "you can't RP! there's no blacksmith skill!" that, I guess, could be construed as denying RPG-hood...

If a game (the game itself, not your playgroup implmentation of it) requires a computer (or super-phone, tablet, or video-game system) for folks to reasonably play it, then it isn't a ttRPG - even if they sit around a table to do it.

In 2020, if your locality had a hard lockdown, you could only play D&D via VTT, you needed a computer. Was it briefly not a TTRPG?

Next confounding issue: AI DMs..

 

[Scribe]

I mean, its a VTT as in virtual table top. So, its far from meaningless, IMO. If you want to get rid of all categorizations and just call everything TTRPG, that will be very confusing. This is only problematic because of folks trying to say things they dont like are not an RPG at all. YMMV.

This thread cant even agree what is or is not a game. So...

 

[Cadence]

And now I wonder if I want it to be:

amanvttirfrpRPG

But that feels unwieldy.

 

[Gradine]

So the tt is either completley meaningless or no longer has anything to do with the two t's being table and top? (Which is fine, I'm just struggling to figure out why we use it then).

Payn's mostly got this covered. The "tabletop" in TT is more a designation of the shared, communal nature of the medium, rather than physical space.

Most CRPGs are singular affairs, and even many with multiplayer aren't really approached with the intent of "role-playing" rather than being a mechanical challenge on par with other most co-op games. But I hesitate to find meaningful difference between, say, a VTT playing D&D, a Zoom call playing Vampire, a custom campaign run through Neverwinter Nights, a role-play FFXIV server, or a group of people sitting at a physical table playing Traveller. The medium is different, the rules are managed differently, but the activity is essentially the same.